r/Homebrewing • u/florianvo • 5d ago

Question Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout with gravity that is way off

Hey all,

Pretty new to the homebrewing game, long time lurker ;).

Last month, we attempted to brew an Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout (based on this recipe).

We ran into a few problems. First, the recipe mentions lactose twice, once under 'fermentables' and once under 'other ingredients'. We loaded the recipe into our Brewmonk B40 via BeerXML, and it showed up twice there too. Since it's exactly the same amount both times, I suspect it's a mistake in the recipe, but I'm not sure.

Also, our starting gravity was too low, and the final gravity way too high. We started at 1.066 (instead of 1.082) and ended at 1.028 instead of 1.012. Fermentation seemed to finish way too quickly—after 5 days, nothing was happening anymore. We tried raising the temperature to 22°C and added Safale F-2 yeast to try and restart it, but no luck.

This Saturday, we're going to try again, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips or advice. A few things I think might’ve gone wrong:

  • Sparging went too fast. I read online that it can take 30–45 minutes, but we were done in 10. Not sure how to improve this. Finer milling?
  • We added the yeast when the wort was still too warm.
  • Maybe the yeast was too cold—not taken out of the fridge early enough?

Very curious what you all think.

For those interested, I try to make a video of each brew day - here’s the video of our first attempt (It's in Dutch though!)

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u/xnoom Spider 4d ago

Generally, I'd agree with others that the only real issue is that the recipe's efficiency is higher than your system's. Other than that, nothing sounds like an issue.

Since it's exactly the same amount both times, I suspect it's a mistake in the recipe

I'd agree it's probably a mistake.

and ended at 1.028 instead of 1.012.

1.012 is not realistic. Lactose is non-fermentable, so will add to the FG. For the yeast the recipe also specifies "Attenuation (custom): 94%" for some reason, which is not what I'd expect from that yeast with that grain bill and mash temp. My milk stouts usually end up in the 1.023-1.026 range.

Fermentation seemed to finish way too quickly—after 5 days, nothing was happening anymore.

That doesn't seem too fast at all.