motorneuron
Well-Known Member
So I brewed a Belgian dark strong two weeks ago, and I just took a gravity sample. With an OG of 1.080 and an FG of 1.012, I've got the alcohol I wanted, but I overshot my FG, and the beer is a bit drier than I would have liked. It's good, and probably would fit some more Spartan/traditional/austere/Trappist/whatever ideas of the style. But I would like to add a bit of final sweetness; I had something more like Chimay blue cap in mind, which is noticeably sweet. (I find this situation funny because I've had more trouble lately with underattenuation than with overattenuation. But the streak of 90 degree days in NYC probably drove the Belgian yeast wild.)
I was thinking of doing this by adding lactose at bottling, in addition to the priming sugar. Do you guys think this makes sense? Since it's not fermentable, it will add a bit of body (which is fine in this style, though I don't really need to add body at this point) and a bit of sweetness. I don't think it would really be out of place even though I have not really heard of that being done, either. I wouldn't go nuts here; I'm looking to add enough to get my FG up to maybe 1.016-18. From what I can tell, that would require adding a little less than one pound of lactose.
I can't really think of any other way to add a little sweetness, but I'm open to other ideas, too.
I was thinking of doing this by adding lactose at bottling, in addition to the priming sugar. Do you guys think this makes sense? Since it's not fermentable, it will add a bit of body (which is fine in this style, though I don't really need to add body at this point) and a bit of sweetness. I don't think it would really be out of place even though I have not really heard of that being done, either. I wouldn't go nuts here; I'm looking to add enough to get my FG up to maybe 1.016-18. From what I can tell, that would require adding a little less than one pound of lactose.
I can't really think of any other way to add a little sweetness, but I'm open to other ideas, too.
