Milk ale - help with recipe?

[Durandal]

So I'm probably way off in some areas here. Apparently a 'milk ale' just isn't really done and I am not sure why. Milk stout, all the time. Cream ale is a misnomer. Here's the ideas so far:

5 gal recipe

15lbs 2 row
1 lb carmel 60 just for roundness

90 min mash, 90 min boil.
1-2 oz bittering hops at 20 min
8 oz lactose same time
1-2 oz aroma hops with 5-10 min left on the boil

Ferment until ferm lock stops bubbling, then rack to secondary.
Add 1 oz dry hop
Add frozen/thawed blackberries. Just enough to give a berry flavor, nobody wants to drink blackberry jam beer.

Ferment another week or so, bottle.

The inspiration here is from the end of Peter Rabbit.

Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper.
Calling it Cottontail Ale if it can be done well.

Guidance appreciated.

 

[swsmith50]

Most milk stout recipes use about 8% lactose (you're a bit low) and I don't see a reason why a "milk ale" would be any different. My only concern would be creating an overly sweet beer. Milk Stout works because of the bitterness of black, chocolate and roasted malts. Here you're piling sweet (2row) on sweet (crystal), on sweet (berries) and I think your concerns of creating a berry jam beer are valid. Maybe a bit more hops to balance the beer and perhaps a more "bready" malt like Maris Otter as a base malt instead of the American 2row or go halves there?


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[BigEd]

Apparently a 'milk ale' just isn't really done and I am not sure why. Milk stout, all the time.

Maybe because there's no logical reason to do it. Lactose in milk stouts is there to offset the bitter/roasty/smoky flavors from dark malts. I suspect those flavors were even more pronounced long ago when manufacturing techniques were less refined. No need to do that with a pale beer.

Cream ale is a misnomer.

No more than milk stout is. Cream ale probably developed in the 19th century as a way for ale breweries to make a product to compete with the onslaught of light lagers. It is essentially an American light lager fermented with ale yeast and the term "cream" was perhaps meant to imply a lightness, smoothness and less hoppy drink than typical pale ales.

 

[Durandal]

Thanks. I expect that over sweetness would be the main challenge. Though a Peter Rabbit beer should be a shade sweeter than average.

The main reason for 2 row over maris otter is because I can't find maris otter organic, which I do prefer.

So we've got roughly 3% lactose at 8oz. Probably need to double that to bring it closer to standard, but like you said, we're already on the sweet side. Thinkin' I'll leave that one where it is.

I would have thought the berry sugar would ferment completely. Incorrect? Recommendations on how much blackberry to use?

 

[pdxal]

How much blackberries did you use? Fruit does tend to ferment out, fructose is very fermentable. Flavor may ferment out, if added to fermentor too early or boiled off.
The recipe you posted is bound to be very sweet. Bittering hops at 20 minutes won't impart much bitterness, nor will aroma hops with "5-10 minutes left on the boil".

 

[DogStar]

The lactose in milk stout gives a smoother mouthfeel as well as perceived extra body and slight added sweetness. It was mostly a marketing ploy and milk stouts were sold as nutritional and a healthy way to get more calories. The British government banned the names milk or cream stout shortly after WWII as it implied they contained cream or milk.

I don't think that adding jactose to pale ale would taste good. If you try it please let us know how it turns out.

 

[Durandal]

Sounds like the best route for this one is to cut the lactose entirely. How much sweetness is imparted by the corn generally used in a cream ale for instance? Recommend a quantity?