Lactose vs milk

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killer_mpg

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I was wondering what the difference was... wouldn't powdered milk be very similar to lactose. How could the yeast tell the difference they don't eat it anyway.
 
Lactose is a sugar derived from milk, but it is not the ONLY thing in milk. For one, there is a lot of fat in milk, and you wouldn't want that in your brew, just in case you were thinking of using milk instead of lactose powder in a stout or something. :D
 
Your beer won't like fat. It will end up tasting bad and it will have no head.

You could try it, if you really wanted to, though. I could be wrong....

Just be sure to report back with your findings! ;)
 
Well, you could try milk solids or powdered milk. But if it ruins your batch, that would be expensive too! :)

Seriously, you won't need much lactose. Just be glad you weren't brewing a big double IPA and you needed to buy a whole bunch of fresh hops. Now THAT is getting expensive.

Cheers :mug:
 
I good bit of what powdered milk consists of is the protein caesin. I remember years ago when I lived in CA, walking through the Tied House brewpub in Mountain View and seeing bags of Casein and wondered what they used it for. I just did a quick search and found this.

http://www.craftbrewing.org.uk/technical/doc/technical-39.htm

Scroll down and it says casein can be used post fermentation to help eliminate chill haze. I've always been a bit curious to try powdered milk in a stout. HOWEVER, if one wants to try this, I'd buy some heat stable dry milk powder that is used in sausage making (I have some for this purpose), otherwise most of the protein would coagulate in the boil pot and would be left in the trub. That might not be a bad thing though.
 
killer_mpg said:
I like fat. It makes anything taste better so why not use powdered milk?

You like your beers to have head retention? Or, any head at all?

You don't need much lactose. If you're trying to brew on the cheap, Cheese's recipe is probably the single worst one you could pick. It's been widely reported that using imitation extract (which I'm guessing you're going to do, too) is another way of wasting a lot of time, effort, and money; this beer's not my thing, but from the dozens and dozens of accounts I have read of people who have made it, you've got to drop the coin for the right ingredients.
 
pjj2ba said:
I good bit of what powdered milk consists of is the protein caesin. I remember years ago when I lived in CA, walking through the Tied House brewpub in Mountain View and seeing bags of Casein and wondered what they used it for. I just did a quick search and found this.

http://www.craftbrewing.org.uk/technical/doc/technical-39.htm

Scroll down and it says casein can be used post fermentation to help eliminate chill haze. I've always been a bit curious to try powdered milk in a stout. HOWEVER, if one wants to try this, I'd buy some heat stable dry milk powder that is used in sausage making (I have some for this purpose), otherwise most of the protein would coagulate in the boil pot and would be left in the trub. That might not be a bad thing though.

That's flippin' interesting.
 
killer_mpg said:
I like fat. It makes anything taste better so why not use powdered milk?

Well, I hope you like rotten fat, because that's what will happen. It will spoil. Ever leave a cup of milk sitting out for a while? That's what will happen to your beer.
 
You know, I had a client call me fat the other day. Not even one of MY clients, one of the boss' clients that I work with on occassion. Met him up front, he looked at me and said "You're putting on some weight, aren't you?" He's not a guy that I'm "chummy" with at all - haven't even seen him in a year and a half. Kinda threw me for a loop. He's a realtor, so I decided on the spot, when it's time to buy the next house - I ain't going through him!
 
I have been wondering this for a while, so I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I made chai latte ale with skim milk. I added the milk when I transfered the beer to secondary. I didn't want milk fat in my beer because I think it would ruin the head. I was a little concerned at first that maybe the protein in the milk would spoil, but the results are a delicious clear and creamy chai ale. Obviously their is a history to using milk in beer. I don't think they used lactose when milk stout was invented.
 

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