Lactose in an IPA?

[JDC]

Hi all, I'm planning a brew this weekend and want to get a bit experimental.  Looking to use up a few ingredients and end up with a hazy, juicy, sweet IPA (somewhere in between a milkshake IPA and a NEIPA – but no fruit will being used).  Had a search on here, but can't find much reference to the use of Lactose in IPA's.  Has anyone done it, and if so, were you happy with the results?

Going to conjure up something out of the following:

Pale
Wheat
Pilsner
Wheat Flakes
Malted Flaked Oats
Lactose
Citra
Mosaic
Simcoe

I have other malts and hops available, but think there is the makings of a good beer from the above.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Your list looks like an ingredients list on the side of a Whiplash Can so I reckon you are in the right region ingredients wise anyway.

[JDC]

Your list looks like an ingredients list on the side of a Whiplash Can so I reckon you are in the right region ingredients wise anyway.

:laugh: Now that you mention it.  I suppose that similar to what I'm going for here.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

What did you go with in the end recipe-wise?

[mick02]

Hi all, I'm planning a brew this weekend and want to get a bit experimental.  Looking to use up a few ingredients and end up with a hazy, juicy, sweet IPA (somewhere in between a milkshake IPA and a NEIPA – but no fruit will being used).  Had a search on here, but can't find much reference to the use of Lactose in IPA's.  Has anyone done it, and if so, were you happy with the results?

Going to conjure up something out of the following:

Pale
Wheat
Pilsner
Wheat Flakes
Malted Flaked Oats
Lactose
Citra
Mosaic
Simcoe

I have other malts and hops available, but think there is the makings of a good beer from the above.

Hey Jonathan,

Just saw this post. I've used lactose in an IPA a few times. I usually add it with 10/15 minutes left in the boil. Personally I was very happy with the results and truth be told I would probably add more than I did. The ingredients that you've listed in this post have the makings of a very fine beer ... one that I wouldn't mind getting a hold of myself!!!

Will be interested to hear how it turned out.

[CH]

Lots of folks are lactose intolerant and don't even know it.
So I tend not to bother in case it gives somebody the shits.

[JDC]

What did you go with in the end recipe-wise?

Well, I won't give the exact recipe yet as I have no idea if it'll be any good, but 30% of the malt bill was wheat flakes and flaked oats. I also had to do a U-turn on the hops as I miscalculated how much I had in stock, so ended up with a small bit of Magnum for bittering and a combination of Citra, El Dorado and Cascade, so we'll see how that turns out.

[JDC]

Hi all, I'm planning a brew this weekend and want to get a bit experimental.  Looking to use up a few ingredients and end up with a hazy, juicy, sweet IPA (somewhere in between a milkshake IPA and a NEIPA – but no fruit will being used).  Had a search on here, but can't find much reference to the use of Lactose in IPA's.  Has anyone done it, and if so, were you happy with the results?

Going to conjure up something out of the following:

Pale
Wheat
Pilsner
Wheat Flakes
Malted Flaked Oats
Lactose
Citra
Mosaic
Simcoe

I have other malts and hops available, but think there is the makings of a good beer from the above.

Hey Jonathan,

Just saw this post. I've used lactose in an IPA a few times. I usually add it with 10/15 minutes left in the boil. Personally I was very happy with the results and truth be told I would probably add more than I did. The ingredients that you've listed in this post have the makings of a very fine beer ... one that I wouldn't mind getting a hold of myself!!!

Will be interested to hear how it turned out.

Cheers Mick,
I went with a generous 600g lactose for the final 10 minutes of the boil, so be interested to see how it turns out. Will report back.

[JDC]

Just realised that I never reported back on this, but overall the experiment was a success.  The beer was definitely juicy, sweet and tropical. Milkshake IPA is not something that I would be overly familiar with as a style, but it seems like a good way to describe this one - full bodied, sweet, smooth, juicy and incredibly moreish.

Despite an OG of 1.056, it finished up at 1.024, so was a very sessionable 4.2%.  I used Mangrove Jacks US West Coast M44 for this one.  I wonder did the lactose have an effect there?

I won't say that I got it bang on what I wanted, but it was a good enough effort that I reckon I can tweak and improve on greatly.  Tempted to do version 2, or possibly 3, for the Nationals.

[DEMPSEY]

would brewing it as a light body beer bring down so.e of the final gravity points as a way of getting the sweetness down.

[molc]

That would kinda defeat the point of the lactose though no?

Sent from my ANE-LX1 using Tapatalk

[eanna]

Despite an OG of 1.056, it finished up at 1.024, so was a very sessionable 4.2%.  I used Mangrove Jacks US West Coast M44 for this one.  I wonder did the lactose have an effect there?

56% attenuation. With a bit of fiddling in beersmith or similar you could see what the attenuation would have been if you hadn't added the lactose, to determine if anything weird happened to the yeast. In my experience MJ yeasts often finish high. Low cell count has been mentioned as the reason before.

Anyway, lactose is only 1/3 to 1/2 as sweet as maltose so 1.024 could be spot on. US-05 is pretty bulletproof if you're doing another version for comparison.

[JDC]

Despite an OG of 1.056, it finished up at 1.024, so was a very sessionable 4.2%.  I used Mangrove Jacks US West Coast M44 for this one.  I wonder did the lactose have an effect there?

56% attenuation. With a bit of fiddling in beersmith or similar you could see what the attenuation would have been if you hadn't added the lactose, to determine if anything weird happened to the yeast. In my experience MJ yeasts often finish high. Low cell count has been mentioned as the reason before.

Anyway, lactose is only 1/3 to 1/2 as sweet as maltose so 1.024 could be spot on. US-05 is pretty bulletproof if you're doing another version for comparison.

Cheers eanna. Was actually going with US-05 for this one and spotted the MJ M44 at the last minute and changed my mind. Will go with US-05 for version 2 for comparison.

[Pheeel]

Your experience may be different but I found M44 to not be great yeast. Tried it a couple of times and didn't like it. Also its  massively under in terms of yeast cells compared to us-05. Notty is the king!

[JDC]

Thanks Pheeel.  I was all set to go with US-05 on this one, and saw that I had the MJ M44 which seemed to match what I was aiming for here, so a last minute decision was made.  First time using it myself, so will go with US-05 (or Notty as you say) for version 2.