Our homebrew club recently held a quarterly competition for oatmeal stouts. Mine was good, scored well and took 3rd place, only negative comment was around body. I mashed high(158) and used 2 lbs of Oats, suppose I could have upped the Oats. I did cold steep the dark grains and wonder of the added water thinned things out a little. I have calibrated my thermometers at boiling and ice water, but they aren't exactly top of the line equipment so I'm wondering if at least the probe thermometer I was using may be off in the mash range. Next up for purchase will be something from Thermoworks to ensure I'm mashing where I think I am. I just added 6 ounces of matrodextrin to the keg and the mouth feel is approaching milkshake. For those who have used maltodextrin more than I have, what is your standard operating procedure? I've read everything from 2 to 8 oz for a 5 gallon batch this was already carbed so I was worried about creating an exploding keg, but post fermentation/ pre bottling or kegging you could probably add a little at a time to find the sweet spot.
Every milk stout that i have made to date, I have always used 1 lb. with 10-15 minutes left in the boil. The sugar is unfermentable so you don't have you worry about having bottle bombs or exploding kegs. I have never added it any later to a batch rather than at the end of the boil, but I don't see any reason at all as to why you wouldn't be able to. Just make sure you boil it down in a little bit of water to get the nasties out of it prior to adding it to whatever stage your beer is at. As for amounts go, I would start at 8 oz and go up from there. But I believe 1 lb. per 5 gallons is perfect. It just depends on how much you want. Cheers!
Thanks, I failed to mention because it seemed obvious but I boiled in non chlorinated water for 20 minutes and cooled prior to adding to the keg. I was worried I used way too much with 6 ounces in just shy of 5 gallons.
Just to make sure you two are both talking about the same ingredient... @CADETS3 you use a pound of Maltodextrin in every milk stout? Or do you use Lactose? I ask because you mentioned "the sugar" and because lactose is typical in a milk stout.
I tried that once on a beer that thinned out in the barrel. After adding 1 lb maltodextrin to a 5 gallon batch, the beer was borderline solid It did have this weird thing happen where it initially tasted sweet after adding the maltodextrin then about a week later the sweetness was gone. Probably some production impurities that then fermented out.
Do you define 'solid' as pretty damn good, or did you mean that you needed to cut it with a knife and fork?
Knife and fork. Also tasted good, like a bourbon barrel aged milk shake, but was hard to drink more than 5-8 oz as it was chewy.
I had a sample tonight and did notice that the sweetness and percieved body were back to more normal levels. In hindsight 6oz might have been just right.
The most I've used was 8oz. in the boil. The beer had a very full body. Not quite enough to say beershake, tho. Never tried adding it post fermentation. I like to use it for brett beers. Brett will slowly obliterate 4-8oz. of maltodextrin in 6 months.
If it was only one negative comment amongst several judges, and assuming that you don't have an issue, then I wouldnt worry about it. That one person may just prefer (or have a predisposed notion) that stouts should all be thick and heavy. If it was a common comment amongst several judges, then I'd take a look at what could be contributing to the problem. You can use maltodextrin to help overcome a lack of body, but I'd personally try to achieve it without first. If I can ask, what were your OG / FG stats?
