Quick question guys I am having a complex or at least getting a complex. my last 2 brews I have had to add energizer. The last brew it worked great , took my Ipa to a 08 or something but my new brew is a different story. I brewed a sweet stout and added 2 lbs lactose with ten minutes left in the boil. Hit my numbers exactly a 1060 . Now my question ..the fermentation has pretty much ceased at 28 or so ( put brew belt on it w/ little success) , so is the remaining pot. sugar fermentable or representing lactose in the brew, would really like it to go to a 15 or at least a 20. Thanks for looking
Lactose????
- Thread starter isac777
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northernlad
Well-Known Member
Next time you want to get to 1.015 I recommend using a lot less Lactose (non fermentable)
Isac, that's twice the lactose I put in my cream stout, which usually ends up around 1.020. Also, the amount of lactose you add will have no impact on your abv - it will affect your og and fg, but not abv, because it's non-fermentable.
bgough
Well-Known Member
umm...changing the FG DOES effect abv. If he had brewed a 1.060 stout that had no lactose, the extra fermentables would raise the abv.
JonK331
Well-Known Member
I even think a full pound of lactose is too much. I wouldn't use more than a half pound.
@bgough - Pappers is right, lactose will raise both the OG and FG equally. Hypothetically speaking, let's say you make a beer with an OG of 1.040 that finishes with an FG of 1.010 (abv 3.93%). If you make that same beer and add enough lactose to boost the OG to 1.050, since lactose is unfermentable, the beer will finish at 1.020 and keep the same abv of 3.93%. THe sugar that lactose adds does NOT get eaten by the yeast so it has no effect on ABV. Conversely, if you added corn sugar to boost the OG to 1.050, it would still finish right at 1.010 because it is 100% fermentable. In that case the ABV would increase due to the fact that the OG is affected but not the FG. In short, increasing the distance between OG and FG increases ABV, increasing both the OG and FG equally has no effect on ABV.
@bgough - Pappers is right, lactose will raise both the OG and FG equally. Hypothetically speaking, let's say you make a beer with an OG of 1.040 that finishes with an FG of 1.010 (abv 3.93%). If you make that same beer and add enough lactose to boost the OG to 1.050, since lactose is unfermentable, the beer will finish at 1.020 and keep the same abv of 3.93%. THe sugar that lactose adds does NOT get eaten by the yeast so it has no effect on ABV. Conversely, if you added corn sugar to boost the OG to 1.050, it would still finish right at 1.010 because it is 100% fermentable. In that case the ABV would increase due to the fact that the OG is affected but not the FG. In short, increasing the distance between OG and FG increases ABV, increasing both the OG and FG equally has no effect on ABV.
bgough
Well-Known Member
Right, but if you design a beer that is 100% malt and sub out a portion of the fermentables for lactose it does effect abv.
For example, if he had a stout recipe on beer smith, and deleted some of his base malt/extract and added lactose to reach his OG, then less fermentables = lower abv.
For example, if he had a stout recipe on beer smith, and deleted some of his base malt/extract and added lactose to reach his OG, then less fermentables = lower abv.
Adding lactose doesn't affect abv. Decreasing or increasing malt does.
It would be odd/unusual to replace malt with lactose in a recipe. Why would you decrease malt if you added lactose?
SwampassJ
Well-Known Member
Yes but if he added 1lb of lactose to his 1.060 stout he would have a higher OG and a higher FG from the Lactose but since the lactose will not ferment out with beer yeast he will still have the same abv.
Brewing calculators are horrible with lactose, beersmith keeps telling me that the lactose addition will raise my OG 6 points but will raise the FG 1 point. The milk sugar isn't going to go anywhere, whatever you add in is going to stay there.
SwampassJ
Well-Known Member
Next time you try to brew it use enough malt to hit the OG you want then add some lactose in 1/2lb increments. I just did one last Sunday where I only added 1/2lb into the boil because I don't want it to ferment out with a FG in the mid 20s. If I get lucky and it hits 1.020 I'll be happy. If it hits lower I'll just add in the last 1/2lb when I boil the bottling sugar.
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