Sweet stout help

My father has really been interested and has encouraged me to learn to brew, but he doesn't like the taste of beer, so has not really shared with me. He does enjoy sweet wines and did like one brown I brewed with brown sugar. I've looked through several recipes here and haven't really found one that worked for me. I want to do a very simple recipe that is sweet, but something I will still enjoy drinking with him (as I am not a super sweet guy). I was thinking:
6# light dme
1# chocolate malt
1/2# caramel 80 (thinking may try 120 though)
1/2# lactose
1oz fuggles for 60 min
Irish ale yeast

Sound ok? My concern is the lactose as I have never used it before and have seen several recipes from 1/2# to 1# added. Also, when is the best time to add it to the boil?

I recently brewed BM's Black Pearl Porter, which calls for lactose at 15 minutes to the end of the boil. Since the lactose is fermented out, you could always add some during boil, then after its fermented, taste and see if you/your father want more sweetness. Also, as I look at this recipe, it looks more like a sweet porter. I am pretty sure a stout requires roasted barley

oops forgot that line, 1/2# roasted barley too

I add it to my milkstout in the last 15 min. start with a 1/2 lb. I find that PLENTY sweet.

I've used 120 lvb instead of 80lvb crystal in mine once... I liked it.

Sounds like a good basic milk stout. I think it should be great!

Think also about a cream ale style or Kolsch style. I've really gotten into these this past summer. Even some BMC only neighbors like these!

Ive tried lighter styles but he just doesnt dig it. But, just gotta keep plugging away on him

I was never a big fan of the really light stuff until this summer!, brewed some really good ones. The Milk Stout you posted looks like a good one!

brettwasbtd said:

I recently brewed BM's Black Pearl Porter, which calls for lactose at 15 minutes to the end of the boil. Since the lactose is fermented out, you could always add some during boil, then after its fermented, taste and see if you/your father want more sweetness. Also, as I look at this recipe, it looks more like a sweet porter. I am pretty sure a stout requires roasted barley

Click to expand...

Lactose is not fermentable. I made a milk stout last year around this time and used 1lb of lactose. It was way too sweet. I think you are much better off with a 1/2 lb.

It depends on personal tastes. A lot of recipes call for 1lb lactose for 5 gallon batch. For me, that is WAAAAAY to sweet. I find that even 0.5lbs is borderline for me, so I try keep it under 0.5lb for a 5gal batch.

All up to you!

I love ipa's and sweet is hard for me to enjoy in a beer. My father loves dessert wines or just dessert in general so for him, the sweeter the better. But, as i am going to drink with him, a middle road half pound seems more balanced for both of us

I'm with you Eskimo. I've ranged between a 1/4lb and a 1/2 lb.

1/2 pound was sweet enough for me, and I couldn't see me going any higher... But a 1/4 lb left me wanting more sweetness and more body.

try this one as is for a starter. But if not sweet enough for dad, brew again and split batch in 2 at bottling add more lactose to 2nd half (maybe just another 1/8lb or so boiled for 15min in a bout 12 oz of water and stir well into second half of bottling bucket) for dads sweet tooth. sweet & sweeter milk stout. You each get a half a batch!

Update: grains showed and only half pound of choc malt showed and as the stars and moons lined up with wife and kids so im going with it. I dropped roasted barley to 4oz and added 4oz of cocoa to boil with lactose. Oh well, worse thing that could happen is ill still make beer