wannabwright
Active Member
When can I add? I realize best time is at end of boil. Let's say that it's time to bottle and it's not quite where I want. Can I add some in w my bottling sugar?thanks!
Lactose question...
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Yup, add it with your priming solution and boil them both together.
End of boil. That way you can accurately measure your OG and FG.
Adding with priming sugar would work fine, but then neither of those numbers will be accurate. I'm a numbers guy.
Adding with priming sugar would work fine, but then neither of those numbers will be accurate. I'm a numbers guy.
nigel31
Well-Known Member
Bottling's when I've been doing it when I want to sweeten up a beer that generally doesn't contain lactose (like a milk/sweet/cream stout).
Mojotele from the board (big ups, man) here gave me this information a little while back:
"Lactose will sweeten things up a little. You can experiment with that. Pull a cup or two of your beer and add lactose to it bit by bit until you reach the desired sweetness. Then just do the math to figure out how much you'd have to add to the whole batch. The only problem here is getting the lactose to dissolve. You may have to heat up a small volume of water, add the lactose to the water, cool it, then add the water to the beer bit by bit. Then do the math and add a water/lactose solution to your beer when you bottle/keg.
For example:
I have 5 gallons and 2 cups of beer in the fermenter (I know, it just makes the math easier)
I pull 2 cups of beer out
I heat 3 tablespoons of water in the microwave and dissolve 1 tablespoon of lactose in it
I add 1 tablespoon of water to the beer, not sweet enough
I add another tablespoon of water to the beer, just right
So, I added 2 teaspoons (2/3 of a tablespoon) of lactose to 2 cups of beer to get the desired sweetness, or 1 teaspoon per cup of beer
There are 80 cups in 5 gallons of beer, therefore I need to add 80 teaspoons of lactose or 26 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (it would probably be easier to weigh your lactose)
I totally made up those numbers, but you'd want to use as little water as possible to avoid watering down the beer as you are trying to sweeten it."
It works. Takes some calculating, but it's fun. I use one cup of beer from the carboy for my sample. For weight, I weighed two full tablespoons of lactose as 0.8 ounces. So, one tablespoon would be 0.4 oz. (four-tenths of an ounce). If you use two-thirds (2 tablespoons of the lactose/water mixture), that's 0.264 (or 0.27) ounces.
So...640 oz. (5 gallons) divided by 8 (ounces in a cup) = 80 cups in a 5-gallon batch. Using the two-thirds/tablespoon amount, that's .27 ounces x 80 = 21.6 ounces, or roughly 1-1/3 pounds of lactose, with some extra water (maybe a cup) stirred into the priming solution and boiled for a bit to sanitize, stirring to mix completely.
Hope this helps.
Mojotele from the board (big ups, man) here gave me this information a little while back:
"Lactose will sweeten things up a little. You can experiment with that. Pull a cup or two of your beer and add lactose to it bit by bit until you reach the desired sweetness. Then just do the math to figure out how much you'd have to add to the whole batch. The only problem here is getting the lactose to dissolve. You may have to heat up a small volume of water, add the lactose to the water, cool it, then add the water to the beer bit by bit. Then do the math and add a water/lactose solution to your beer when you bottle/keg.
For example:
I have 5 gallons and 2 cups of beer in the fermenter (I know, it just makes the math easier)
I pull 2 cups of beer out
I heat 3 tablespoons of water in the microwave and dissolve 1 tablespoon of lactose in it
I add 1 tablespoon of water to the beer, not sweet enough
I add another tablespoon of water to the beer, just right
So, I added 2 teaspoons (2/3 of a tablespoon) of lactose to 2 cups of beer to get the desired sweetness, or 1 teaspoon per cup of beer
There are 80 cups in 5 gallons of beer, therefore I need to add 80 teaspoons of lactose or 26 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (it would probably be easier to weigh your lactose)
I totally made up those numbers, but you'd want to use as little water as possible to avoid watering down the beer as you are trying to sweeten it."
It works. Takes some calculating, but it's fun. I use one cup of beer from the carboy for my sample. For weight, I weighed two full tablespoons of lactose as 0.8 ounces. So, one tablespoon would be 0.4 oz. (four-tenths of an ounce). If you use two-thirds (2 tablespoons of the lactose/water mixture), that's 0.264 (or 0.27) ounces.
So...640 oz. (5 gallons) divided by 8 (ounces in a cup) = 80 cups in a 5-gallon batch. Using the two-thirds/tablespoon amount, that's .27 ounces x 80 = 21.6 ounces, or roughly 1-1/3 pounds of lactose, with some extra water (maybe a cup) stirred into the priming solution and boiled for a bit to sanitize, stirring to mix completely.
Hope this helps.
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