Backsweetening a beer with lactose....

[Phunhog]

So I made a Dubbel a few months ago and it finished a little too dry for my tastes. I was expecting 1.012-1.014 and it finished at 1.009. It tastes too thin and dry for the style. So I was thinking about experimenting with adding some lactose into the keg. My thoughts are that it would obviously be non fermentable so the FG would rise a few points. My hope is that it would also beef up the body to a degree and create a little more sweetness. Right now it is almost like a dark Saison...but with the wrong yeast. Not undrinkable but also not really what I wanted either. I figure I will boil 8 oz of lactose in my flask, cool, and add to the keg. Any thoughts on this?

 

[pvault98]

That is a bit too much...maybe. Start with less, maybe 2-3 oz and taste and decide whether to add more. You can always add more but not take it away.

I recently brewed an American Hefe and it fermented too dry and the hop bitterness was too pronounced as a result. I added 2 oz of lactose and gave it a couple of days and it helped a lot, but needed more so I added 2 more oz and it did the trick.

 

[pdxal]

Another option to add body but no sweetness would be maltodextrin.