Hi all! I was thinking about adding lactose to my RIS to add some roundness to the body and a touch of sweetness but didn’t want to overdo it. The beer itself has been aging on bourbon and oak cubes for the past 6 months and I’m getting ready to bottle soon but feel it’s a little on the dry end. I know it’s all relative to people’s perception of sweet but I guess I’m just looking for a good rule of thumb or suggestions when making additions. Thanks!!
0.5 to 0.75 lb lactose per 5 gallons will help round things out. Do not use any more than that or your beer will be sickly sweet. Cheers!
What was your OG, FG, and IBUs? I don’t think I’d add lactose to it, but it’s your beer. Keep in mind though, you are drinking it warm and flat, it will taste different cold and carbonated. I would pull a sample to chill and carb before doing anything.
Also, I don’t agree that more lactose will make it sickly sweet, to me even pure lactose isn’t sickly sweet. I regularly use ~1 lb / 5 gallons in my sweet stout and that is not sickly sweet either.
Maybe different tastes buds - I do not like milk stouts. To me they are too “sickly sweet”! Macsons XX? Blech! Hate that stuff! I’ve had a few I found tolerable but not any that I have really enjoyed.
Wether or not you need to add it to your RIS may be a different story if you feel it is too dry. What was the FG?
The million dollar question! 
I’m with Tom on this issue. If the RIS was properly done, it shouldnt need an accessory like lactose. If anything, it should be needing some more attenuation. If it needs more sweetness, add malt!
Man, I wouldn’t think a beer as big as RIS would need it, disregarding flavor altogether. Getting a low enough (drinkable enough) FG is usually the key with a big beer, not adding more body. I wouldn’t want that many more unfermentables in mine.
I caught myself thinking about what the guidelines call for… I’m not certain he wants it to be in style though. Lets assume he wants to add lactose, for whatever reason, post fermentation. I’d be very curious how to do that without oxidizing the beer or getting clumps of lactose. Would you dissolve it like bottling sugar and gently stir in?
Personally I would be fairly happy with a dryish RIS, but I don’t think that is the point. Lets say for example it was a Sweet Stout that was too dry. How would you add lactose downstream?
Well, the yeast can’t ferment it regardless of when it’s added, but just for convenience I’ve added it at the end of the boil.
The OP’s beer is already fermented and ready to bottle or keg. You add the lactose just like priming sugar, and you can boil it WITH the priming sugar if bottling – boil it up in a couple of cups of water, cool, and add it in.
I wouldn’t discourage the OP from adding lactose if he wants to – it’s HIS beer! Let him do what makes him happy! (Or her, as the case might be in about 0.1% of cases. 
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That crossed my mind, but based on the avatar I assumed boy. But I should be more open minded probably
Wow thanks for all the responses! To answer the big question, my OG was 1.089, FG came in at 1.030, and IBU’s were a little short at 36 . This is only my second attempt on this recipe (which was wayyyyy better than the first attempt!) but was still missing a little something. The beer is definitely tasty as is but I personally like a touch of sweetness to big stouts (which this batch was still missing a bit) so i thought about experimenting with the lactose. My end goal with this recipe is to not have to use it but for now I think it’s as good a time as any to give something different a try. Think I’ll give it a whirl with 0.5 lbs and see what happens. Thanks again everyone!
You’ve got about 65% AA and you think it is too dry? That’s unusual.
Did you have a large portion of dark malts that might be making it taste drier than the FG would indicate? Is it astringency? Did you use a LOT of bourbon with the oak cubes, or a lot of cubes? Maybe it’s oak tannin?
I still wouldn’t add lactose, if it is from the bourbon or oak it will age out.
I honestly can’t believe this beer is too dry with that low apparent attenuation. You should go ahead and bottle or keg it without the lactose.
If there is “something missing” you might want to post the recipe so we can look at it. But 1.030 finishing gravity for a RIS is certainly not too dry. You should have plenty of body and perceived “ssweetness” at that FG.
Perhaps the final gravity is high and the perception is dry because he used an uncorrected reading from a refractometer?
It seems to be a common mistake with new users.
Like some, I wonder about pH astringency. Dark beers can be tricky, and if pH got too low from the dark malts (which is common), there could be an acrid, astringent dryness. With that FG the beer should be sweet, if anything.
You know after giving it another taste last night, I think it may be the oak that’s giving it the “dry” perception! There was a lot of oakie, barrel char taste that I was getting up front which I think was overpowering the sweeter tastes of the malts. Looking back over my notes, I had soaked 1.5oz of med toast French Oak cubes in my bourbon which turned the bourbon jet black. I added everything to secondary when it was time to age and I am assuming that a lot of that char flavor came off the newly toasted cubes. This is only my second attempt at “oak aging” a beer so I know I still have a ton more to learn with that art form! I think for now I may take a gallon and and still experiment with a little lactose just to see what happens. Thanks again for all the suggestions!
the oak tannins will definitely give the perception of being drier.
I agree. Oak tannins can be really astringent lending a percievable dry sensation in the mouth. This may be causing your perception o “lack of sweetness”. You can try taking a sample of the beer and dosing it with a couple drops of lactose at a time until you are satisfied, then scale up from that point.
however, remember that with ageing a lot of those oak tannins will drop out of the beer. if you sweeten now it may be too sweet later.