Ugh. Some how I managed to add 0.75 lbs acid malt, not 0.75 oz. What is this going to do to my milk stout

[Bramling Cross]

It is amazing after all of the flak they have received it is still on the market...

Or that shops continue to stock it and willingly swindle new brewers.

Sorry, this product's existence has been pissing me off for decades. Everyone in a position of accountability knows that it's a scam, yet it still continues to be sold and we've certainly lost a few beginning AG brewers because of the lousy results it delivers.

 

[day_trippr]

To quote Martin 'Bru'n Water' Brungard: "Works great for brewers that don't check mash pH. Doesn't work at all for brewers that do check mash pH."

Cheers!

 

[An Ankoù]

I haven't used acid malt before and some how I managed to read 0.75 oz as 0.75 lbs. Needless to say, I messed up my milk stout. What is this going to do to my beer? It dropped my pH to 4.72 according to brewfather. I also put it in with the base malt for apx 55 min (but before steeping grains). I have read that it will provide a sour, slightly nutty flavour but I can't imagine that much sour is going to be very good. I made a 2.5 gal batch

5 lbs English Pale Ale
0.38 lbs Crystal 60
0.5 lbs Brown
0.135 Chocolate (i think its 350)
0.75 lbs acid malt (which puts it ~10.7% of bill)

4.2 oz powdered oat milk (I can't eat milk products)

US Golding 0.75 oz
S-04

This was intended to be a Peanut Butter Stout and I was planning on adding PB2 and real peanut butter ( in secondary as I want to compare to the beer without PB).

My pH is usually a little high even with my mineral additions (gypsum and calcium chloride). My chocolate porter, according to the calculator, was around 5.74.

Is this even going to be drinkable? I can't find a lot of information online. Should I add some DME when it cools down? It's currently in knock out with my oat milk powder. Thanks a lot

It's a bit late, but the maltsters say can use up to 10% in a mash to get a "sourish" beer. Think Guinness; they're said to add soured beer back to the wort and this contributes to it's unique flavour. Also, the sweetener (I don't know how sweet oat milk is) will help balance the sourness. (I guess you can't use lactose).
The trouble is that acidulated malt is sour because of lactic acid. I that going to be an issue for you? Must confess I know very little about milk product intolerance.

 

[VikeMan]

The trouble is that acidulated malt is sour because of lactic acid. I that going to be an issue for you? Must confess I know very little about milk product intolerance.

Lactose intolerance is a problem for some people. Milk protein allergy is a problem for others. But I've never heard of lactic acid being an issue for anyone, beyond not liking the taste at high enough concentrations.

 

[Christoff]

Are you hitting your target gravity numbers? It’ll be interesting to how the yeast performs. Read on as to why.

I accidentally over acidified my mash water with phos acid. I’d calculated my acid addition based on 10% acid but forgot a buddy from my brew club borrowed my 10% bottle and later refilled with 85% phos acid. Whoops. I hit my OG end of mash and end of boil. The much lower mash pH caused less fermentable sugars coming out of mash even though I hit the OG. My yeast started strong but ran out of fermentables very quickly and stopped fermentation after about 12 hours. This was to have been a 5% ABV beer. It ended up around 2%. I was planning to run with it as a new approach to low alcohol brewing however I forgot to pull my blow off tube out of my bucket of Star San when I cold crashed. Ended up sucking about a pint of Star San into my 2.5 gallon batch. At that point I had to dump it :-(.

I am close, just depends on the equipment I used. This one was a little low.

 

[Christoff]

Have you sampled your beer and tested for the actual pH?
also, 5-Star makes a pH stabilizer, so you can hit those numbers. I haven't tried it, but seems like a good idea if you want to be certain.

I have tested the pH before yeast, never after. I am kind of a lazy brewer in some ways.

 

[Christoff]

Gotta be an update on this... I'm curious because it's probably pretty lactic-acid-sour.

It was not great. Definitely a dumper but could have been worse. I am letting it age to see if it gets any better but I doubt it. You can definitely taste the sour aspect from the malt. I would not recommend it for a peanut butter stout. I am planning on having another go at it when the weather warms up a bit.

 

[Christoff]

For some reason I didn't get any notices there were responses on this thread. Thanks everyone who responded. The beer isn't the worst thing I have tasted but not worth drinking unfortunately. I wasted a lot of peanut butter on it. I am going to attempt it again next month and am wondering if I can use oats to mimic the creaminess and just scrap the oat milk powder. That stuff was half the problem. Or maybe even brew with soy milk and reduce water. Given I don't eat dairy not sure how to get the milk sweetness part of it without lactose. I was thinking of waiting for the yeast to do its thing and then add a liquid sugar. Thoughts? if the yeast is tired will it ferment out all the sugar?

 

[mac_1103]

Given I don't eat dairy not sure how to get the milk sweetness part of it without lactose.

Eleven non-fermentable sugars - ten of them aren't lactose.

 

[Christoff]

Eleven non-fermentable sugars - ten of them aren't lactose.

Thanks. Unfortunately, I am trying to avoid the artificial sweeteners. Monk fruit is the only one I haven't tried because I haven't been able to find it. I am a bit of a health nut so I try to stick to whole foods where I can. Beer is my one vice.

 

[mac_1103]

I am trying to avoid the artificial sweeteners

Only the last three sweeteners on the list are artificial. The sugar alcohols are all perfectly natural.

 

[madscientist451]

This was intended to be a Peanut Butter Stout and I was planning on adding PB2 and real peanut butter ( in secondary as I want to compare to the beer without PB).

The only time I tried PB2, I put it secondary and got an infection. Using regular peanut butter isn’t usually done since the peanut oil kills foam/head retention. Sorry, not sure what’s going to happen with the extra acid malt in there, but it might be ok.

 

[Christoff]

The only time I tried PB2, I put it secondary and got an infection. Using regular peanut butter isn’t usually done since the peanut oil kills foam/head retention. Sorry, not sure what’s going to happen with the extra acid malt in there, but it might be ok.

I figured I would sacrifice head retention for flavour. It was experimental and the peanut butter aspect is great. Definitely lost most of the foam but it doesn't break the beer in my opinion as mouthfeel is still there. I was hoping to save on the PB2 but combining the peanut butter was a pain and probably won't do that again. I just boiled some wort when the fermentation had slowed down a lot and added the peanut butter to sanitize it, then threw it back in the fermenter. I definitely needed more liquid for it to be an easier process.

The acid malt made it a sour stout, which is weird. It's drinkable, but not enjoyable.

 

[G_robertus]

For some reason I didn't get any notices there were responses on this thread. Thanks everyone who responded. The beer isn't the worst thing I have tasted but not worth drinking unfortunately. I wasted a lot of peanut butter on it. I am going to attempt it again next month and am wondering if I can use oats to mimic the creaminess and just scrap the oat milk powder. That stuff was half the problem. Or maybe even brew with soy milk and reduce water. Given I don't eat dairy not sure how to get the milk sweetness part of it without lactose. I was thinking of waiting for the yeast to do its thing and then add a liquid sugar. Thoughts? if the yeast is tired will it ferment out all the sugar?

Mash warm, increase your OG to compensate for the higher FG and maybe add some maltodextrin and oats for mouthfeel. Sweetness you can add with something like medium or dark crystal malt. The right (or maybe I should say wrong) balance in crystal malt can even give butterscotch/diacetyl impressions, which you could call milky.
Higher FG, maltodextrin and caramel malt-sweetness give a better flavour in my opinion than lactose ever will. If I even use lactose, I will only use a small amount and do the rest with the techniques described above.

FWIW I like sour stout, but I wouldn't make it a PB stout. Rather something like cherries or raspberries if you want to make it more interesting.

 

[Christoff]

Mash warm, increase your OG to compensate for the higher FG and maybe add some maltodextrin and oats for mouthfeel. Sweetness you can add with something like medium or dark crystal malt. The right (or maybe I should say wrong) balance in crystal malt can even give butterscotch/diacetyl impressions, which you could call milky.
Higher FG, maltodextrin and caramel malt-sweetness give a better flavour in my opinion than lactose ever will. If I even use lactose, I will only use a small amount and do the rest with the techniques described above.

FWIW I like sour stout, but I wouldn't make it a PB stout. Rather something like cherries or raspberries if you want to make it more interesting.

Thanks. I really appreciate the info. Do you think I would need to mash higher than 158? I just ask because my spike solo is challenging to keep at specific temperatures and 158 keeps me from jumping up to mid 160's

I can see the sour working with a fruit stout.

 

[G_robertus]

Thanks. I really appreciate the info. Do you think I would need to mash higher than 158? I just ask because my spike solo is challenging to keep at specific temperatures and 158 keeps me from jumping up to mid 160's

I can see the sour working with a fruit stout.

No I generally keep to 69°C/156.5°F, but I think 70/158 would probably work as well. I have yet to try anything higher, but I've seen those around as well. I think as a starting point that's a nice place to begin and you can always choose to go lower next time. Higher could be a bit challenging for you, but I wouldn't try that anyway unless going full vegan pastry (Imperial) stout I think. I did once though, great beer but very sweet. Needs a lot of time to condition and I can't even finish a 25 cL bottle on my own. Do also remember to adjust your IBUs and/or roast somewhat in any case if you're making a sweeter beer. That will help keep it from getting too cloying.

 

[Christoff]

No I generally keep to 69°C/156.5°F, but I think 70/158 would probably work as well. I have yet to try anything higher, but I've seen those around as well. I think as a starting point that's a nice place to begin and you can always choose to go lower next time. Higher could be a bit challenging for you, but I wouldn't try that anyway unless going full vegan pastry (Imperial) stout I think. I did once though, great beer but very sweet. Needs a lot of time to condition and I can't even finish a 25 cL bottle on my own. Do also remember to adjust your IBUs and/or roast somewhat in any case if you're making a sweeter beer. That will help keep it from getting too cloying.

Thanks. I would have likely forgotten about IBU's. I brew a porter/stout hybrid at 158 on occassion and it works out nicely, but sometimes the temp gets too high (my spike system on 120V is really inconsistent, particularly during the winter in the uninsulated shop). I botched a batch not that long ago.