Lactose for mouthfeel

Good morning guys, been experimenting with an American Pale Ale style beer that has most of the hop addition in the last ten minute, it's is then dry hopped once primary fermentation is near completion. The malt bill is pretty much just Maris Otter, nothing else and the problem is mouth feel, it's pretty light bodied and little head retention. Been thinking how best to improve this, one way I have found is the addition of lactose and this makes a big difference to the mouthfeel.

Just wondered how many others use lactose on a regular basis for beers other than stouts and what were peoples thought on this ingredient. Or should I be looking more at the malts and grain additions instead such as flaked barley and crystal malt. 

Or your mash temp.  Look at "Full body" as a possibility.

There are a lot of options for adding body.

Wort Production:

• Dextrine malts like Carapils, light crystal adds density, viscosity.
• Wheat, flaked or malted adds protein creaminess, chewiness.
• Use 6-Row as your base malt.
• Higher mash temp, as suggested, but also shorter mash rests add dextrines.
• Lower IBU levels 30 to 50% will accent residual sweetness.

Post fermentation, you still have options:

• Lower the CO2 level. This one is overlooked, a lot.
• Add high gravity wort from extract. Try wheat extract for improved head retention.
• Add dextrine powder.
• Certain spices, like vanilla, add the perception of body.

In all of these, good brewing procedures is assumed. You can't improve a beer above your least sanitary practice.

My favorites of those listed by brewfun are dextrine malts and a higher mash temp (153).

Thanks for the feedback guys, some interesting points about malt additions. I will certainly look in to these plus increasing mash temperature. Brewfun our water here is pretty hard with a ph of 7.1 so this I usually treated first by boiling and adding phosphoric acid, then allowed to rest. This gives me a mash PH of around 5.6 when adding treated water at to around 1.4 quarts per pound of grain getting the temperature to 148F for 75 minutes. As suggested I will increase the temperature to 155, would it also be an idea to reduce the mash time to 60 minutes, is this what you mean by a shorter mash rest?

I will play around with these ideas and of course Dextrin, would be curious as to how this behaves vs lactose.

TangoMan said:

Brewfun our water here is pretty hard with a ph of 7.1 so this I usually treated first by boiling and adding phosphoric acid, then allowed to rest.

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Water right out of the tap will have a different pH than if it's left standing for a half hour. As a reference, distilled water will move to 5.5 pH as it absorbs oxygen from the air. So, untreated water pH is an indicator of what's in it, but not important to how it'll buffer the mash. In fact, the Bru'n Water spreadsheet has a place for water profile pH, but it's not used in the calculations for mash pH.

The hardness of the water isn't nearly as important as the residual alkalinity (RA). Have you sent a sample to Ward Labs? When you're boiling, you're reducing calcium carbonate. Sulfate and magnesium will still remain. Treating with phosphoric after boiling further reduces calcium.

This gives me a mash PH of around 5.6 when adding treated water at to around 1.4 quarts per pound of grain getting the temperature to 148F for 75 minutes.

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Are you reading the pH at room temperature? If so, that's an excellent pH.  That temperature and length of rest ensures a very highly fermentable wort. This might be why you're finding a lack of body.

As suggested I will increase the temperature to 155, would it also be an idea to reduce the mash time to 60 minutes, is this what you mean by a shorter mash rest?

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Yes, that's exactly what I meant. However, just do one or the other at first. This way you know what the impact is on the body of your beer. Make two changes and you might overshoot and end up with too much body.

I use a little phosphoric to knock down the RA. I would hazard to say my water probably harder than yours. My water is very close to the Dortmund profile in BeerSmith, so my flagship beer is a Dortmund Export style.

Unfortunately I am in the UK so our options for equipment and testing for the home brewer are a little behind. The mash PH is at room temperature, I have been refining this over time although this pretty much relies on the same grain bill. recently got hold of a copy of the local water report so I will be studying that and trying to get a little more understanding of that. Seems a good way to go seeing as it constitutes roughly 92% of the ingredients.
Yes worked on getting a good mash and fermentation efficiency without considering the effect, the last brew had an apparent attenuation of 83% which is usually what I am for. Looking back I use to use crystal malts and crushed oats a lot more and was not getting near this result.
Only every attempted a lager once with little success, seems a lot more long winded to get a result and the lagering process I am too impatient for. Beer does not last long in our household. I will need to do some research into the water profile and what it best suits for here.
Thanks, Lee.