Lactose in an IPA?

[sremed60]

I have a 1/2 pound of lactose left over from a milk stout I brewed a few months back. I'm planning to do an IPA this week and was contemplating throwing it in at 5 min. Has anyone tried this and how did it turn out?

 

[Beezer94]

I would recommend no on both the lactose and step mash.

Lactose adds body and sweetness, things that generally detract from hops in IPA's; Amarillo hops in particular come across as sweet so this would probably result in too much.

Not really much of a reason to do a step mash in most beers, so that's just an extra step.

 

[hanuswalrus]

I have seen a couple commercial IPAs that used Lactose, the only one I've actually tried is Apocalypse Cow from Three Floyds. It's a really good beer, but it is quite sweet for a DIPA. I guess it comes down to your preference in how you like your IPAs. I prefer my IPAs to be as dry as possible. This is just my opinion, so if you like a little sweetness in your IPA and you're feeling a little experimental, I'd say go for it. It's nothing that hasn't been done before. If it were my brew, I'd probably save that lactose for a milk stout or something like that.

 

[m00ps]

lactose goes against everything you generally want in an IPA
- leaves a lot of residual sweetness, this clashes with the hop character and muddles it
- large contribution to body, you generally want a dry crisp beer to help the hops shine

 

[undefined]

I've had some IPAs with lactose added, mainly from Omnipollo and in combination with various fruits and/or berries, and it worked much better than I would ever imagine.

They also have a collab with Tired Hands named Milkshake IPA which also includes lactose, but I haven't tried that out yet.

 

[sremed60]

Thanks guys.