Lactose goes bad?

[bluebrew17]

Has anyone had lactose go bad? I moved and had lactose in storage in (Probably) too much heat. I made a milk stout and it was really sour/bitter on yeast pitch. I thought it was possibly the hops being a little high in AA. Turns out it was disastrous. Has anyone had this happen? I'm guessing it was the lactose, never had a problem like this before.

Also, when I added it to the kettle, it really foamed alot. So much so that it took an entire hour to add.

 

[Revvy]

Nope, never noticed it. I've had Lactose sitting around for years that never changed. It's sugar after all. Sugar doesn't go bad.

 

[bluebrew17]

So it was definitely bad lactose. Don't know if anyone will ever read this, but I made another batch with fresh lactose, no foaming problems whatsoever. Side by side it was clear. The old lactose stored at 120-150F in storage in the Phoenix summer had crystallized or something. It was sandy and different. Fresh stuff is powdery.

 

[passedpawn]

Very strange and unexpected. Maybe it contained some bacteria that didn't get killed before you added it?

 

[bluebrew17]

Yeah it was weird. I've attached a pic. It's possible it got up to 120-130-140 F in storage. The right one is the nice new powdery lactose, the left one seems granulated. Maybe it got wet too? Dunno. Use was radically different. The old bad stuff foamed massively. So much so that 8 oz of lactose took 1 hr to add. Wort was really bitter on yeast pitch. New stuff went in in 2 mins, no foaming. No problems with wort.