So, I goofed and forgot to add the lactose

am I just peeing in the wind if I just let ferment and ride it out? Help!!

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Windsor
Yeast Starter: None
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: None
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.052
Final Gravity: 1.024
IBU: ~17
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: ~35 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 11 @ 70
Tasting Notes: Nearly opaque with a creamy tan head. Subtly sweet, toasted malts come through, crisp

M.O. Stout (Milk Oatmeal Stout)

Light Dry Malt Extract – 4.5 lbs
Black Patent – 8 oz
Chocolate Malt – 12 oz
CARAPILS – 8 oz
Lactose – 1 lb
Oats, Flaked – 1 lb
Fuggle Pellet Hops – 1 oz (60 min)
Fuggle Pellet Hops - 1 oz (5 min)
Windsor Yeast
Irish Moss - 1 tsp

Steep oats for 15 minutes at 115 F.
Bring temp up to 155.
Steep grains and oats for 45 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Add malt extract.
Bring to boil.
Add bittering hops with 60 minutes remaining.
Add 1 tsp Irish Moss and 1 lb lactose at with 15 min remaining.
Add aroma hops with 5 minutes remaining.

You could boil up some water, dissolve the lactose, let it cool, and then add it to the fermenter.

Or, you could let it go without it and have a nice oatmeal stout instead of a milk oatmeal stout. Your recipe seems a bit heavy on the roasted malts, but you should still have a good beer without the lactose.

EDIT: just noticed that you steeped the flaked oats - not sure that this will do you any good since oats need to be mashed

JLem said:

You could boil up some water, dissolve the lactose, let it cool, and then add it to the fermenter.

Or, you could let it go without it and have a nice oatmeal stout instead of a milk oatmeal stout. Your recipe seems a bit heavy on the roasted malts, but you should still have a good beer without the lactose.

EDIT: just noticed that you steeped the flaked oats - not sure that this will do you any good since oats need to be mashed

Click to expand...

So will I just end up with a regular stout? Weird thing is my OG landed spot on to recipe

Something wrong with your measurement or volume if you got 1.052 without the lactose. I make it 1.046 at best for 5 gallons. Sometimes extract brew do not mix well.

That's going to be incredibly sweet. You can add the lactose at any time, even at bottling since it is unfermentable, but I would advise against it. Windsor is going to give you a sweet beer anyway.

Maybe use half the lactose; bottle half without it and half with it. See what it does to the beer.

Yeah, steeping the oats won't give you any fermentables, but you should still get some of the proteins which will give you that nice, smooth texture and creamy head. If you decide to add the lactose at bottling, you can always taste the beer first and decide how much lactose you want to add. With the roasted malts you've got I'm betting the lactose will be nice to balance that out with some sweetness, but that's all gonna depend on your preference. Either way, I bet it turns out tasty!

The fermentables are the other grains and extracts in the recipe. Oats get their full effeciency with all grain/mini-mashes...but they still give some body with extract brewing. As for the main topic at hand....yeah, I'd say 1lb of lactose for this recipe is fairly sweet. But then again, it's different for everyone. It might be best to add .5 lb of lactose on the batch and then see if it's good for you. If it's still too roasty, then you can add more lactose: it's better to start off small and then add....you can't subtract when it comes to brewing.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I think I'll split the batch in half and bottle half with lactose and the other half without. Live and learn I suppose