why lactose in beer?

First, let’s consider the chemical nature of lactose. At the end of the day, lactose is a sugar. (That’s why you’ll see some brewers labeling their cans as containing “milk sugar.” Same thing!) But lactose is a unique sugar: As VinePair’s Adam Teeter points out, while most sugar is converted to alcohol during brewing, lactose is not. “As an unfermentable sugar, lactose will remain in the finished beer, and depending on how severe your allergy is, it may not make you feel that great,” Teeter writes in a 2021 article.

Long story short: If you’re lactose intolerant, beers that contain lactose may provoke a digestive reaction. With that in mind, look out for these frequently milky beer styles:

Andrew Zach, Director of Brewery Operations for Resurgence Brewing Co., explains that lactose frequently pops up in the ever-popular fruited sour (not to be confused with the mysterious smoothie beer.) “We use lactose in fruited sours for a variety of reasons, but the main is to help balance that tartness of the sour with a touch of sweetness and creaminess,” Zach tells me over email. “It is also more acceptable from an industry standard to add lactose to these beers. People generally think of fruit as being sweet, but we do not always receive product that way.”

Think of the difference between two blueberries from the same container. One could be sweet, one could be tart; lactose brings out the sweetness and creates balance.

If a beer reminds you of an old-fashioned soda shop, it probably contains lactose. Milkshake beers, creamsicle beers, and every dessert-inspired beer in between are often packing hefty amounts of vanilla bean and lactose to achieve their signature creaminess. How hefty? This homebrewing website recommends a full pound of lactose per five gallons of beer. That’s hefty.

Zach tells me that lactose intolerant folks are generally safe drinking “hazy” beers—full-flavored beers with a cloudy, almost milky appearance. “Honestly, most hazy IPAs do not contain lactose,” he says. “We do not put lactose in any of our hazy/New England-style IPAs. The whole reason that brewers use lactose in IPA is to build body, create a creaminess to the beer, and add a little sweetness. But we do that with other ingredients—dextrin malt, oats, and dextrin sugar.”

Jimmy Mauric, the head brewmaster for Shiner Beer, agrees. “One of the great things about the hazy IPA style is that there are almost endless ways to build a recipe,” Mauric tells me. “Many breweries will use lactose to give the beer a fuller body, but there are several other ways to achieve this. Shiner never uses lactose and instead opts for ingredients like oats, wheat, and specialty yeast to deliver a full-bodied, hazy IPA.”

The speed and rate at which the craft beer industry is evolving is purely remarkable, and we love it! One thing is for sure, brewing companies are not scared to test the waters with some 'out of the box' ideas. An example of a fairly newer trend is the use of lactose in craft beer.

Historically speaking, lactose was only used in milk stouts, which typically have a lower ABV and obtain their sweetness from the added milk sugar (lactose).

But as of lately, we are noticing a major shift in the use of lactose. You can now find lactose in beer styles that you would never have imagined.

Before we get into why you can now find lactose in your craft beer, we believe it's important to understand what lactose is.

But to keep a long story short, lactose is milk sugar that is derived from milk, and in your beer's case, unfermentable. (No pun intended, maybe.)

During the brewing process, most sugars turn into alcohol, but not good ole' lactose. When brewing with this fella you can expect a creamier and sweeter product.

There's nothing stopping it, lactose goes really well with stouts, and one notable brewery that has made a pretty tasty milk stout is Lefthand Brewing.

Recently, the idea of dessert-like beers has become extremely popular. Though lactose is usually the only added ingredient to sweeten a stout, other ingredients like syrup, brown sugar, caramel, and cinnamon are now being used to boost up the sweetness.

But it's 2019, we have little robots named Alexa that talk to us in our house, kids scooting around on hoverboards, and country rap songs; so lactose doesn't end with dark beers anymore. Brewers are experimenting with sours ales, IPA's, and lagers.

A style that is really sitting well the craft beer community is the Milkshake IPA. I mean, who doesn't like a good milkshake? Especially if beer is involved.

The Milkshake IPA tends to have a heavy body (probably from consuming too many shakes) and sweet flavor.

If you're looking to try some out, we recommend going with Tired Hands Brewing Company for a first impression. They have 15+ flavors of Milkshake IPA's such as:

And the list goes on and on, and on, and on.

Other styles that brewers are dabbling in adding lactose and completely crushing it are Berliner Weisse and Gose sour beers.

To balance between sweetness and tartness, brewers add fruit with the lactose while whipping up this phenomenal concoction.

Look, we like to try to be, but we aren't psychics. The way the craft beer industry is heading, there is no way for us to know if this is only a trend or here to stay.

What was once a "WTF" in the beer industry is now accepted. Craft beer enthusiasts like all of us are down to try out some sweeter beers, and the funky new flavors are bringing some new faces to the craft beer community.

What is lactose? Why is it used in beer and what does it do? What makes it so popular these days?

The use of lactose (milk sugar) in beer provides a couple desired outcomes:

But why haven’t we seen lactose being used before and why is it all the rage now?

Lactose was primarily first used in stouts. The stouts that used lactose were lower in

ABV, and contained a different flavor profile. These stouts are mostly referred to as ‘Milk Stouts.’ The milk stout contains milk sugar (lactose) and offers up a much sweeter profile than, say, a Russian imperial stout.

As we see the rise of many new beer styles over the more recent years, there are a few that make great use of lactose. This includes the IPA and its newest variant: the Hazy IPA, the Milkshake IPA or New England style IPA.

The hazy IPA is a fuller India Pale ale that offers a beautiful blend of citrus hop taste and aroma. A new name in the craft beer world, mostly thanks to John Kimmich at The Alchemist Brewing in Vermont, NEIPAs are a wonderful ‘new’ beer.

That being said, to partner with the NEIPAs’ already full body, lactose is often added to these styles of beer to provide a fuller body and sweeter taste to pair with the citrus already present from the hop varieties often found in these beers: Citra, Centennial, Mosaic, and many more.

A particularly tasty NEIPA in Broward County would have to be Albertus from Dangerous Minds Brewing. Albertus has a 7.6% ABV and is brewed with Citra, Mosaic, and Azzaca hops. It’s bursting with hop notes of citrus and passionfruit.

At our brewery we have our Hop Bombs which is an award winning beer! Our Hop Bomb is a Milkshake IPA clocking in at 8% ABV. We used a perfect blend of citra, iadho-7, bru-1, hallertau blanc hops and added some lactose with a hint of vanilla to round out this Milkshake IPA.

The use of lactose has risen in popularity as other beer styles rise. Sours are another beer style that brewers love to use lactose with. The sour, so delicate and versatile, can be taken a step further with lactose. By using milk sugar in a sour, the beer takes on a sort of ‘smoothie’ characteristic as it’s made thicker and sweeter.

Since sours can take on so many forms and flavors, they’re often experimented with quite a bit, and so it might be difficult to find one you really like that stays around for a long time.

A tasty smoothie sour out right now in Broward County, Florida is Sour Scoop from 3 Sons Brewing. One of Broward County’s finest sours, this pastry sour is made with chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla to create a deliciously sweet pastry sour.

NEED MORE INFORMATION?

Now that you’ve learned why Lactose is used in beer, you might need more information. Maybe you’re wondering, “What other beer styles use Lactose?” or you want to learn about the beers we produce that contain lactose.

If this is the case, you should look no further than Yeasty Brews. We have a lot to offer, including artisanal beers, savory bites, jam packed events, and all around great vibes.

To learn more about what we offer, check out our menu now.

Brewers use lactose to add sweetness and a thicker mouthfeel to beers because it's a sugar that brewing yeast can't ferment. Lactose is primarily used in stouts, where the sweeter flavor profile can complement the malt and chocolate notes, but in the last several years it's been added to other styles of beer too.