I bottled yesterday and had a couple complications. The biggest being the nearly 1 gallon of trub! I'm guessing it was related to the 4 oz. of chocolate powder. I wasn't expecting that much, and my siphon kept dropping down into it even though it was at my normal level. The end result was an overprimed batch with lots of sediment. It was so bad that it clogged up the bottling wand at one point. I ended up with 41 bottles instead of my normal 50/51.
The other issue was the extra lactose. I'd probably have been better off adding just a 1/4 lb. instead of the full 1/2 lb. since it was borderline cloying. I added it with the priming sugar mixture, so I didn't get a chance to add a little at a time. Hopefully the flavors all blend together and it ends up a little less sweet.
I'm going to let this one carb cool and slow. I'll probably end up with gushers, which will do a great job of bringing all the extra sediment back into solution.
A couple of good lessons learned, even going back to the brew.
1. Double check the AA% of the hops I have against the recipe.
2. Chocolate powder makes lots of trub.
3. Transfer everything to bottling bucket before making the priming solution. Next time I'll siphon first, then make the priming solution after verifying the volume, and sanitize bottles while it cools.
4. Add lactose in small increments to have better control over the sweetness. I should have known better on this one.
I'll proably let them sit in the basement til around New Year's and give them at least a week in the fridge. I'll report back.