Question about adding lactose to fruit in beer

[Rascal]

Do you boil the lactose in water like you do sugar before bottling or do you just add it to the secondary along with the fruit. I've never used it before.

 

[dbhokie]

Others will know more, but FWIW in my limited experience and with my limited knowledge, I can tell you that lactose is mostly a non-fermentable sugar, if you add it at the end of the boil or at fire out, or hell even in the middle or the beginning you will be fine, it will dissolve and mix in well, and only a small portion will ferment, the rest will stay nice and intact and provide you with that "milky" sweetness.

I don't suppose it would matter if you didn't add it until secondary, same result I would think. Your biggest issue would be getting it mixed in well without oxygenating the beer. In which case you would want to warm some water with it until it dissolved in good, and not much..then cool it down to the temperature of the beer coming out of primary. This should at least suspend the lactose well in the water, then I would pour it into the secondary first and rack the beer on top of it to try and mix it in well.

The two times I have used lactose, I added to the boil at the end to get it mixed in well.

 

[Rascal]

Thanks for the info.

 

[mpenn35]

I boiled water and added lactose, cooled it, and racked onto it along with the fruit. Then at bottling, I sampled it to decide if I needed to add more lactose. You can add it in secondary with the fruit or only at bottling. I've added it both ways and haven't seen a difference.

 

[Revvy]

If you're not adding it in the boil, then like ANY sugar thing you should boil it in a little water. For one thing it makes sure to kill anything off, and also helps it to dissolve and mix with the beer better.

 

[revolutioned]

Take some beer and boil it and add the lactos to the beer. Use lactos at end of fermentation to improve body. I add it to my keg after carbonation to so I can see how much I need. If you do this close it fast cause it will bubble a lot.