Thoughts on mash temp with lactose for an oatmeal stout

[olotti]

Im re brewing an oatmeal stout that turned out a little thin on the body for my taste so I'm rebrewing it with a small bump in flaked oats but now I'm adding lactose and .5lbs of flaked barley. My question is I don't want this to be too sweet of a stout just a little thicker viscous body, I'm adding choc and coffee also for flavor, so I'm thinking of just adding .5lbs of lactose instead of a whole lb. my OG is 1.065 with FG of 1.017 . Will this FG be more on the sweet side if I mash at 154 using us-05 or will the barley and bump in oats balance it out. Or should I mash lower and lower the FG a little bit. Original recipe mash temp was 155.

9.5lbs 2 row
1.5lbs flaked oats
1.5lbs victory
.75lbs choc malt
.56lbs c40
.56lbs c120
.56lbs roasted barley
.56lbs flaked barley

 

[fuzzy2133]

If you post the whole recipe the group can give you better input.
If you want less sweetness might need to leave the lactose out (with out seeing your recipe). Lactose is generally not ferment able for 90% of the brewers yeast. Mashing 154-156 will help to increase body.

 

[Silentdrinker]

I do the all grain left hand milk stout clone and it's fan flipping tastic. I'll be brewing up 10 gallons here soon.

I use 1lb and finish a little dryer than target around .018. I feel it's got the body, and perfect sweetness to balance the roasted barley and chocolate. Damn good beer.

I'd check it out for reference.

 

[Natdavis777]

For my milk stout I like to mash a little lower since I'm adding 1#lactose to 10 gal. I use 1098 as well so it attenuates a little less than 05. Usually get an FG around 1.020 for a 6.5% beer

 

[olotti]

I'll prob just keep it at 154deg for mash in and use 1/2lb of lactose for the first try and see what happens.

 

[masonsjax]

Lactose is a good plan. It's not very sweet, but will add plenty of body. You could go as high as 2# flaked oats too. Mash a little higher if you do want a touch more sweetness along with body. I've mashed as high as 162 with good results. Lagunitas mashes everything at 160 I heard.

 

[olotti]

Lactose is a good plan. It's not very sweet, but will add plenty of body. You could go as high as 2# flaked oats too. Mash a little higher if you do want a touch more sweetness along with body. I've mashed as high as 162 with good results. Lagunitas mashes everything at 160 I heard.

I just want balance. My first attempt at this beer was good but was thin in body then I had a coffee cream stout that made me think hmm maybe lactose would add a little extra body and mouthfeel. Now I steeped 2 oz of coffee grounds in a bag for 5 min at the end of the boil that may have added the astringency people talk of and I also had an issue with head retention due to using bakers choc bar in the boil so now I'm gonna try upping the oats adding barley and a touch of lactose and using cocoa powder in the boil, adding the cocoa nib/ vodka into primary then cold steeping coffee and adding at bottling. I was going to secondary on espresso beans but that's got a lot of mixed reviews and seems cold steeping is the way to get that coffee flavor. We'll see. Does the rest look good.

 

[Wolfbayte]

Two words: maltodextrin. It will add mouthfeel without the sweetness of lactose. Neither are fermentable. Add to boil or with priming sugar at bottling.

+1 to bumping up oats
+1 to bumping up mash temp to 154