Rescuing a scratch ginger beer -lactose in the bottle?

[handbuilt]

I'm fermenting a scratch ginger beer based on this recipe:
http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... .php?t=332
I've made it with a champagne yeast, and I think the whole thing's only a couple of days away from bottling.

The ginger has plenty of kick, but I have a couple of problems. The major one is that there's almost no sweetness in the brew. Any suggestions about how to get a little sweetness into it at this late stage? Can I sucessfully add some lactose when bottling?

The other problem is that the brew has a slightly soapy flavour, can anyone suggest what might be causing this?

Cheers

[Cat]

If you could rack onto lactose that might be better so you would have universal sweetness throughout your entire brew.

[Chris]

You can add it at bottling, but Cat is right about it being better to rack your brew onto it. Dissolve it in a little water first.

As for the soapy taste, it could be the yeast you use, a flavour issue to do with the recipe, or maybe an infection.

In any of these cases, you can't do anything but bottle, and see how it tastes down the track. The taste may resolve itself- it does on sooo many ocassions.

[handbuilt]

Cheers, racking sounds like the best option, but I only have one fermenter, so I'm going to try dosing the bottles with a liquid mix.

I'm not especially worried about the odd flavour, but I thought there might be some yeast/temperature related explanation.

[SUBREW]

You could disolve, boil add the Lactose to the fermentor (once cooled!) and give a very gentle stir (sanitise the spoon!) to circulate the lactose without disturbing the yeast cake too much. Then wait a day for it to settle again and bottle... there is a minimal risk opening up the fermentor to add stuff, but I would say this risk can be minised if you do the above and be quick about sealing up agian... and probably just as much risk as racking!

Some others might have other advice though!

Cheers

Subrew.