Rerack off settled lactose?

I added a pound of lactose to a chocolate stout when I racked it to a keg a few days back. I pulled a sample yesterday just to taste, and it had a huge amount of lactose in the bottom. I'm wondering if I need to rack it again to try and exclude the bottom layer that didn't dissolve, but I really don't want to since it's already partially carbed.

Is this similar to the first pint or two containing some yeast, with no worries for the rest of the keg? Or will I continue to have undissolved sugars in the bottom of each glass if I don't rerack?

Next time add the lactose in the boil.

As for now, you could wait til bottling day as whatever you siphon up "should" dissolve into solution.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Next time add the lactose in the boil.

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I'll definitely do that next time. That would have been much easier than having to heat it to sanitize, then cool, etc.

GilaMinumBeer said:

As for now, you could wait til bottling day as whatever you siphon up "should" dissolve into solution.

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I'm not sure I understand. It's already in it's serving keg, so there isn't going to be a bottling day. If there was, what would make the settled sugar dissolve?

Oops. Missed the kegged bit. that's different.

If you were bottling you'd have the opprtunity to mix it up by racking into a bottling bucket by siphoning off the bottom.

But, since it's kegged (and assumably carbed) just give the keg a shake and let it set to settle the yeast.

You could set the keg out in room temp for a day then give it a good shake to see if the warmer temp. will make more of the sugar dissolve into solution?

well i know this is considered a no no in keging. but shake the keg a little. turn it up side down a few times. this should get the lactose off the bottom of the keg and hopefully mix with your beer. also try warming it up some. sugars dissolve more in warm liquids than cold ones.

right off hand i would say if this does not work then the lactose sediment would be much like the yeast sediment that is only in the first few pints.

rhoadsrage said:

You could set the keg out in room temp for a day then give it a good shake to see if the warmer temp. will make more of the sugar dissolve into solution?

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I'll take another sample tonight or tomorrow and if there's not a significant reduction, I'll take it out of the fridge and get it back to fermentation temps for a while longer... maybe shake it every day for a week or so, then chill again. Surely this would get the rest to dissolve. I like this route better than re-racking.

how much lactose did you add? typically its 1 pound per 5 gallons.

TipsyDragon said:

how much lactose did you add? typically its 1 pound per 5 gallons.

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You guessed it. 1 pound in a 5 gallon batch. I debated on whether to add that much since my attenuation sucked. I don't know how much FG comes in to play as far as how much will dissolve, but I went for the full pound anyway.

So what did the OP do? I am having this exact same problem now with a fruit beer that I made. Thanks.

TipsyDragon said:

well i know this is considered a no no in keging. but shake the keg a little. turn it up side down a few times. this should get the lactose off the bottom of the keg and hopefully mix with your beer. also try warming it up some. sugars dissolve more in warm liquids than cold ones.

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How is shaking the keg a "No, No"?

Quite the opposite actually, it's common practice for speed force carbing. (although, IMO, not very effective for stable carbonation).

dale1038 said:

So what did the OP do? I am having this exact same problem now with a fruit beer that I made. Thanks.

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I gave it a shake a couple of times, but once it settled, it still had a bunch falling out of solution when I'd pour a glass. Each pint had less and less in it, but I wasted quite a bit of beer before it seemed to stop. I probably should have just tried to rack off of it, but I didn't want to since it was already carbonated. If I had a cut dip tube I would have dropped it in and probably had better results.

Good luck. Hope yours turns out well.

It is not lactose. The solubility of lactose in water is 1 gm per 5 ml of water at room temp. I don't think it will be that different for beer.

1 gal = 3785 ml so that's 757 gms per gallon or 1.66 lbs per gallon for a saturated solution. You are well below that saturation limit.

Maybe the lactose was mislabeled? Perhaps Calcium Carbonate? Polyclar?

What's not lactose? I'm pretty sure the stuff that was boiling in 2 cups of water and smelled and tasted exactly like milk sugar was lactose. I mean, even when you pull a pint it just looks and tasted like undissolved sugar. I'm glad you are good at math though.

I'm assuming the 1 pound bag I bought from my LHBS that said lactose on it contained... lactose.

As for it's solubility, I admit that it was chilled when I tried to dissolve it, and the gravity of the beer was a bit high, so... into the boil next time round.

I checked this again tonight and it has dissolved completely. Took about a week or so.

Having this same issue as well, apologies for the zombie thread. Brewed up the BCS Sweet Stout about 7 weeks ago. Bottled 3 weeks ago, first test bottle was opened and poored. Its still a little green, but my main concern is the heavy layer of lactose sludge on the bottom of the bottle and a lack of taste/mouthfeel associated with a milk stout. Lactose was added at the 60 minute mark of the boil, and was definitely mixed well at bottling...thoughts?

Taypo said:

Having this same issue as well, apologies for the zombie thread. Brewed up the BCS Sweet Stout about 7 weeks ago. Bottled 3 weeks ago, first test bottle was opened and poored. Its still a little green, but my main concern is the heavy layer of lactose sludge on the bottom of the bottle and a lack of taste/mouthfeel associated with a milk stout. Lactose was added at the 60 minute mark of the boil, and was definitely mixed well at bottling...thoughts?

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I've only used lactose once since my original post, and I used half the amount in the boil w/o any settling problems. Since you're dealing with bottles, you aren't going to be able to hope for a reduction in sediment with each pour from a tap. I'd say, try turning the bottles upside down a few times at ferm temps over a period of time. Then when you pour from them, make sure they've chilled for a good while and just try and leave as much in the bottle with the yeast as you can. I know this may not help much, but I feel your pain if that's any consolation

Thanks Carrot, I think something went wrong in the process but for the life of me, no clue what. Its only been 3 weeks, we're going to try warming the bottles up a little and giving them a swirl to see what happens. The sediment wouldnt be a big deal, but it feels like the lactose is what crashed out. The stout is pretty good, but its not carrying the "milk" part as well as I'd have hoped.