Thin stout

[Brewnation]

I brewed 10 gallon stout a couple months ago. A couple weeks ago I kegged 5 gallons and its pretty thin. It attenuated down to 1.010 which is not what I was going for. At this point is there anything I can do to thicken up the 5 gallons of stout still in the carboy?

 

[McKnuckle]

Add lactose and make it a milk stout. Lactose is non-fermentable and will raise gravity along with mouthfeel and some sweetness.

 

[Brewnation]

About how much do I add to 5 gallons?

 

[RM-MN]

Maltodextrine might be what you are looking for if you don't want to use lactose. It might also gain apparent body with more time at room temp. I know that at least one porter I made was thin and watery until it had been bottled for 3 months.

 

[mattdee1]

About how much do I add to 5 gallons?

I think the sweet spot (no pun intended) is somewhere between a half pound and a pound for 5 gallons of beer.

In my experience, the effect of lactose is "sweet-ish" but you don't need to worry that its effect will be like dumping a pound of table sugar into coffee, for example (yuck). If not overused, it has more of an effect of rounding off the roasty flavors and it definitely helps create some pleasant body.

 

[bobeer]

What was the recipe? Was this an all grain recipe? If so, you can control how fermentable the wort is by the mash temp. usually the grains are mashed between 148-158 degrees F or so. The higher the temp the more complex sugars you'll create and the harder time the yeast will have to break down those complex sugars. The lower the mash is the more fermentable your wort will be thus giving you a drier, thinner beer. A dry beer would be good for an IPA per say while a thicker beer would be good for you brewed; a stout.

Adding lactose would add the thicker, more silky, mouth feel but be careful because if you don't have the IBU's to back it up your beer will be much too sweet. If it were me I'd let the stout age a little bit to mellow out the alcohol and not add anything to it. Brew it again soon and if this an all grain beer try adjusting your mash temp.

 

[alexnova]

Aside from adding oatmeal, lactose or maltodextrin will definitely help.