Sweetner.........Lactose?

[Tadge]

Gday Guys,


Just bottled up a ginger beer kit, it tastes pretty good but I like it sweet. I have read on another post here that adding lactose at the secondary will do it.

Does Lactose hold its sweetness? Does it fully ferment?

Cheers
Tadge

[rwh]

Lactose is unfermentable.

[Chris]

And it can be added any time.

[Tadge]

Cheers Guys, Ill try it on my next brew.

Tadge

[dragonphoenix73]

which ginger beer kit did you use (if any)?

[Tadge]

Gday Dragon,

I used a local brew shop blend. Its basically about 0.5kg of malt and a ginger booster (Basically GB cordial). I added another 100ml of booster and 1kg of sugars, It does not specify what sugars, but I suspect a mix of Dex and lactose. It tasted pretty good on bottling, I'll give it a few weeks to condition and see how it goes. Im chasing that Bundy GB sweetness, If you can do that.

Cheers
Tadge

[Tadge]

Does anyone know just how much lactose to sweeten? Hard question not having tasted it but is 1kg an overkill?

And for the record the kit I used comes out at 3.5%.

Tadge

[dragonphoenix73]

I've been told that 250gm is enough for 23litres..... but I have no experience in this regards!

[KEG]

i put 1kg of lactose in a home-made GB and it wasn't nearly enough for my taste.. i like the sweetness of bundy GB, but want the alcohol kick

tried a Stones' Alcoholic Ginger Beer on the weekend.. delicious!

[Chris]

Add lactose to taste is my advice.

My first lemonade (from lemons- not kit) I ended up adding like 3kg of the stuff, and it was still dry! A few too many lemons from memory. It aged beautifully though.

I just kept adding it, then stirring until it tasted right.

[Oliver]

You could also add some light malt extract, which leaves residual sweetness.

But bear that in your calculations when adding lactose, as a lot of lactose + the residual sweetness of the LME might be too much.

Cheers,

Oliver