Transitioning from Irish Stout to Milk Stout

[choadson]

Hey guys,

So I recently purchased an Irish Stout homebrew kit. My question - can I simply add lactose to turn it into a Milk Stout? If so, when do I add the lactose?


Follow up question: I'd like to flavor it with coffee and chocolate. Do I literally just blend up coffee beans/chocolate bars and dump them into the mash?


Thanks!

signed - a n00b.

 

[Kent88]

Can you please provide a link to the kit you bought?

 

[choadson]

Yea, here you go:

https://craftabrew.com/products/starter-kit-bone-dry-irish-stout

 

[Kent88]

Huh, not a lot of info to go on here (or at least, not that I can find, maybe someone else would have better luck). But if you already have the kit, I suppose I'll just ask. (edit: website was not helpful, not a problem with you. that was ambiguous, sorry)

Is this a one-gallon kit? All grain? Extract and steeping grain? All extract? Can you be specific about the ingredients? Does it have a recipe sheet with the expected Original Gravity specified?

Adding lactose should pretty much do the job of turning it into a milk stout, but just to be sure I'd like to see the recipe.

As far as chocolate and coffee, I'd recommend about 1.25oz to 1.5oz of cocoa nibs per gallon of stout in secondary. I'm not to sure about coffee. I've heard of people just grinding the coffee right as the boil starts and adding it in, and I've heard of people just making coffee, putting it in the fermenter, and siphoning on it. I've never added coffee before.

 

[choadson]

Yes, it's a 1 gallon kit. I found this regarding the recipe...not sure if it helps.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0...ewGuideToCraftBrewing.pdf?1576633026139628164


ps - I really appreciate the help. Thanks a bunch.

 

[Kent88]

Ok so likely extract and steeping grains. They aren't going to be very specific on the ingredients, I think. You might be able to get away with adding about 4oz of lactose 10 minutes before the boil ends. If the recipe is supposed to finish at 1.007, that should bump it up to about 1.017.

I know you said you want to make it chocolately and add some coffee, but it might be best to start with just adding the lactose. If that turns out ok, then I'd try tweaking it.

But that's just me, you do you.

Here is a video where one guy eventually talks about adding coffee to a stout: http://chopandbrew.com/episodes/chop-brew-episode-24-basement-stout-fest/

 

[choadson]

Ok cool. Thanks a bunch for the help!

 

[Leezer]

In addition to the cocoa nibs, you could try adding Hershey’s Unsweetened Natural Cocoa powder at 10 minutes left in the boil. I have used 4oz in a 2.5G batch of chocolate stout. Adds flavor but not sweetness.

 

[D-roz]

I defer to others with recipe building abilities/experience. With that said, her is a 2 Bean Milk Stout I recently brewed. This started as a Lancaster Milk stout recipe on Beer Smith. I added 4 cups of cold brew coffee (easy to do in my French Press) and 2 vanilla beans sliced then soaked in Crown Reserve for a day into the primary fermentation. This beer is now on Nitro and 2 weeks old. It has a very smooth coffee flavor that finishes with slight note of vanilla. Several people have said they would pay for this beer. A great drinker at 5.5 ABV.