Struggles with (milk) Stouts.. carbonation issues.

[Javaslinger]

Carbonating Stouts (in bottles)... The struggle is real.

So we brew a lot of stouts - milk stouts in particular - and they all carbonate VERY slowly and sometimes not enough. These are NOT huge high alcohol stouts. Generally around 7%. Usually I'm going for about 2.0 volumes CO2 and I use a calculator to determine the amount of corn sugar. I do cold crash so I'm bottling at about 40F which means there is a considerable amount of dissolved CO2 already. Anyway, they carbonate some - enough to hear the hiss when I pop the cap - and they don't taste completely flat - but there is virtually no head.

I know high alcohol stouts take quite a bit longer, but these are not high alcohol... Is it perhaps the lactose that's causing an issue? Possibly something in the grain bill inhibiting any head formation?

Any thoughts, advice, suggestions?

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

IDK. maybe it’s because most stouts have higher amounts of less-fermentable sugars. The yeast is used to the less-fermentable sugar so it gets lazy and doesn’t want to attack the more complex sugars.
Basically they have to learn what to do. And it takes longer.

Think of it like... you are a “B-“ student trying to learn calculus. But you’re used to basic +& -
You have to learn what to do with the more complex stuff. I mean... that’s a pretty thick book to read through.
But once you learn, the process begins to move along.

This is the same concept as...
do t make a starter with simple table sugar. The yeast get lazy and can’t digest the Maltose.in a normal fermentation.

With bottle conditioning, the yeast are used to maltose. Then they only have thick unfermenta les to deal with and get tired and fall out of solution.
Then you give them dextrose and they go... “Whaaaa? I’m tired.”
And it takes a while to convince them to study for that test again.

 

[Jtk78]

How long are you cold crashing? I think when I bottled after a cold crash, I would use the fermentation temperature. I just ran the numbers on 5 gallons at 2.0vol and 68F vs 40F on brewersfriend.com priming calculator. There was a huge difference in priming sugar recommended. I would do a little more research in this area, but I seem to remember my research telling me ignore cold crash temp.

Could always run it both ways and take the average of the two on the next batch.

 

[ncbrewer]

How long are you cold crashing? I think when I bottled after a cold crash, I would use the fermentation temperature. I just ran the numbers on 5 gallons at 2.0vol and 68F vs 40F on brewersfriend.com priming calculator. There was a huge difference in priming sugar recommended.

Yes - temperature to use is the highest since fermentation stopped.

Another thought. 2.0 volumes is really low - maybe you just don't like it that way.

 

[BigCrazyAl]

I just made one before Thanksgiving. It's was carbed well within a week. It took longer to settle some other the taste characteristics though. Here it is after a few weeks. This is several minutes after pouring.

Edit: I forgot to say it's at 2.3 volumes

 

[jheinikel]

Shoot for 2.2 vol next time. While 2 is by the carb charts, it typically seems pretty low. If you think it’s a yeast problem, you can start pitching a little CBC-1.