Bumping Up a Chocolate Milk Stout

you?? did i miss this fact for years?

 

I'm Pleading the Fifth.

 

Great article, anyway, Mick :-)

 

Does lactose add much perceivable sweetness? I seem to remember reading that the perceived sweetness of lactose is something like 1/10th (from memory take that with a pound of salt) of table sugar so a pound of lactose would add about the same amount of perceived sweetness as about 2 ounces (again the ratio may be off) of table sugar.

 

If you have to try 2 lbs of honey or dime to get more abv. Then buy a kit that has the abv you want.

 

It's closer to 1/6th.

 

Perceived sweetness of lactose and table sugar, before and after fermentation, are two completely different things.

 

Yeah, but we're talking about unfermented sweetness. Table sugar ferments 100%. Lactose ferments 0%

 

I know you probably understand all aspects of sweetness in regards to fermented and unfermented lactose and table sugar. But it seemed to me that @redmaw was curious about the perceived sweetness of lactose compared to table sugar in a finished beer. If table sugar ferments 100%, perceived sweetness=0.

 

I am also aware that table sugar will not add any sweetness to the finished beer, but putting the sweetness in terms of table sugar is something that most people can understand because they have experience adding table sugar to things. Telling someone to add a pound of sugar sounds like a massive load of sweetness, realizing that would be equivalent to adding a couple of ounces of sugar to 5 gallons of beer gives a different understanding of the situation.

That said if I had known this thread was on the front page I probably wouldn't have brought it up.

 

I recently brewed a 10% ABV RIS and used Wyeast 1098 British Ale in a 2L starter and 1 pack of rehydrated US04. Turned out great, got me from 1.100 to 1.023. I had no simple sugars in the grain bill. Gave it 2 minutes of pure O2, don't have a flow meter.
It is incredibly smooth, no hot alcohol notes.

 

You're right, I over looked the possibility of simply comparing sweetness of those sugars for an idea of how much to add to a beer. I wasn't thinking in those terms, but i can see where it may help someone determine how much lactose they would like to add in a beer.