Left Hand Milk Stout Clone?

Hey Guys,

Brand new to homebrewing, have only done 3 batches so far and loving the hobby. I found this recipe online and want to make sure it makes since and goes together. The liquid extract seemed a little lower than I am used to so I am unsure. Here it is

Golden Light Male Extract 5.5 lbs

Grains
Roasted Barley 1 lb
Munich Type II .75 lb
2 row caramel 60 .75 lb
Chocolate Malt .75 lb
Flaked Barley .5 lb
Flaked Oats .5 lbs
Lactose 1 lb
Hops
Magnum .5 oz @60 min
Kent Goldings 1 oz @ 10 mn

Yeast
SAFALE US-05 American Ale

Any input would be helpful - thanks!

I have never had the beer. It works out to 5.4% ABV as written because only 56% of the fermentable are coming from the extract.

A lot of LME is sold in 3.3lb cans, so 5.5lbs of it seems weird and its not the the other 1.1lb is going to keep fresh. I'd either convert it to an equivalent amount of DME or use both cans. That bumps it to 6% ABV.

A pound of lactose seems like a lot. 8oz for 5 gallons is more typical. Maybe add 8oz at the end of the boil and ferment the beer. If it doesn't seem like enough to you at bottling time, boil the rest on the stove in a quart or two of water and gently stir it in.

A pound (10%) roasted barley also seems like a lot. I I have seen a recipe with 1.5lbs before. It's going to have a lot of coffee/espresso flavor.

Thank you for the help. I will definetly cut back on the lactose and roasted barley. Do you recommend increasing the LME to 7 lbs or is that to much with all the grains in there?

If your going for the exact clone and found this on a reputable site I would stick to the recipe pretty close.

Have you ever had the beer OP?? Don't expect it to pour like there "nitro" bottled version.
Also after having this beer a bunch of times, the 1pd of lactose seems about right on the silky mouthfeel and light sweetness.
Lactose is not as "sweet" as cane/corn sugar. Its there to help body and provide a touch of unfermentables.

I suppose my advice is:

1. If you want to keep the same ABV, use 4.3lbs of DME instead of 5.5lbs of LME. If you want to use LME, I'd use two cans, which is 6.6lbs.

The reason: Extra DME stores well as long as you keep moisture away from it (I.e. double bagged in a freezer). Extra LME doesn't store at all after its opened.

A rough rule of thumb is 0.8lbs DME = 1lbs LME.

2. Try 8oz of lactose at first. You can always add more later in the process if you want to. Just boil it on the stove and mix it in gently.

3. Try the full pound of roasted barley. You can't add more later. If its too much, cut it back the next time you brew it.

I've made that beer I used 2 full cans of lme and the full pound of lactose. It was very good beer and the biggest comment I got was " I don't like dark beers but this one is really good". Of I make it again I will do it the same.

I looked at the recipe I used and it was different than yours so nevermind my last post here is what I used.
Fermentables

% lb oz fermentable ppg L usage

40% 3 5 Light Liquid Malt Extract 36 8° Extract
30% 2 8 Extra Light Dry Malt Extract 44 3° Extract
10% 0 14 Crystal 60 36 60° Steep
6% 0 8 Munich Malt 37 9° Steep
5% 0 7 Roasted Barley 25 300° Steep
3% 0 4 Flaked Oats 37 1° Steep
3% 0 4 Flaked Barley 32 2° Steep
3% 0 4 Rice Hulls 4 0° Steep

8 lbs 6 oz

Hops

oz variety type usage time AA

0.50 Magnum Pellet Boil 60 minutes 13.5
0.25 Goldings Pellet Boil 15 minutes 5

0.75 oz

Yeast
name attenuation
Wyeast London Ale 1028 75%

Other Stuff
amount unit name usage
16 Ounce Dextrose Boil
1 Tsp Irish Moss Boil
OG 1.058
FG 1.014
Color 20.5° SRM
Bitterness 29.5 IBU
BG:GU 0.51
Boil 6.5 gal @ 60 min


Alcohol 5.6% ABV / 4.4% ABW

Grifbucs said:

Golden Light Male Extract 5.5 lbs

Click to expand...

Male Extract? Sounds pretty gross. What kind of site did you say you got this from???

Thanks for the help everyone,

Im gonna stick with the lb of roasted barley (like that roasty flavor) and go with half the lactose and maybe add the other half after if needed. I may have to change the male extract to malt extract though

SO I stuck with the recipe exactly and used the full lb of lactose. It turned out great - I love the flavor. THe roasted barley did give it a bit of a coffee flavor and the lactose balanced it out perfectly. For me its the ideal taste for a milk stout.

Thanks for the help everyone, this was the best beer I have made so far.

I would have used S-04 instead of US-05. S-04 seems like a better match for a Stout.

You could have also used 6LB of LME. That is a standard volume sold by online retailers and probably because of that also the standard starting point for most normal ABV extract kits.

I've had both of left hands stouts. the milk stout & nitro stout. Their milk stout tastes like iced coffee to me with that classic stout roastiness on the back. Their nitro stout adds that bit of choco9latey thing to the milk stout flavor to me. So the recipe may be pretty close. I'd like to find a partial mash version myself.