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An Oregon creamery making vodka from milk

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21–30 of 119 posts

Re: An Oregon creamery making vodka from milk

#21
This is such a classic Oregon thing.

#1 Oregon loves micro-breweries and micro-distilleries are popping up everywhere.

#2 They are upcycling/ reclaiming a by-product.

#3 It's an innovation that favors smaller local businesses versus big business.

#4 OSU has an "Assistant Professor of Distilled Spirits"

Re: An Oregon creamery making vodka from milk

#22
Hah, I never thought of making alcohol from milk. I own a still so I'm tempted to make my own. Probably makes the most sense to use evaporated milk since the sugars are more concentrated. In fact, I wonder if a specific yeast strain is needed.

Converting waste to alcohol should probably be more common. Grocery stores toss out old fruit all the time, but yeast don't care whether the fruit is bad. Even if it wasn't sold for drinking, surely it would have some industrial purpose.

Re: An Oregon creamery making vodka from milk

#23
post #3

Black Cow vodka in the UK have been doing this for a while as well. It's got a fuller texture than some other vodkas but is generally really tasty. https://www.blackcow.co.uk/

Wild Beer Co also in the UK make a beer from whey. https://www.wildbeerco.com/item/512/Beers/No-Water.html

There's also a Scottish drink made from whey - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaand

Re: An Oregon creamery making vodka from milk

#25

Hah, I never thought of making alcohol from milk. I own a still so I'm tempted to make my own. Probably makes the most sense to use evaporated milk since the sugars are more concentrated. In fact, I wonder if a specific yeast strain is needed. Converting waste to alcohol should probably be more common. Grocery stores toss out old fruit all the time, but yeast don't care whether the fruit is bad. Even if it wasn't sol…

Yup, you need a specific yeast strain, saccharomyces cerevisiae typically used for fermenting ales, won't ferment lactose.

Re: An Oregon creamery making vodka from milk

#27
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not quite accurate. Planet Money recently did a special on this. The difference is indeed in the “tails”: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/23/588346329/epis... https://www.npr.org/transcripts/588345420 The short version is there are certain chemical compounds that some individuals can taste or have an allergic reaction to that might be present in those tails and there are measurable differences betw…

Ya I've listened to that. However you left out the portion of that where they dive into the route origins of high end vodka. And the part at the end where they compare high end to other vodkas. My ultimate point is in marketability, no vodka markets it self as "the one that gives you less of a hangover" nor do they even report the compound composition to inform of consumer choice.

And there part where they rate the makeup of the high-end vodka as inferior to at least on of the other samples.

Re: An Oregon creamery making vodka from milk

#29
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, in that case, carry on. (I've often wondered what to do with whey leftover from yogurt or ricotta making at home.)

You can try making Norwegian brown cheese ( https://cheese.com/geitost/ ) , which is essentially browned whey.

Having made this, a word of warning... it's a lot of work. It's been a number of years ago now, but I recall it being hours of constant stiring under low heat so that the cheese doesn't scorch but you reach the expected consistency.

Re: An Oregon creamery making vodka from milk

#30

Hah, I never thought of making alcohol from milk. I own a still so I'm tempted to make my own. Probably makes the most sense to use evaporated milk since the sugars are more concentrated. In fact, I wonder if a specific yeast strain is needed. Converting waste to alcohol should probably be more common. Grocery stores toss out old fruit all the time, but yeast don't care whether the fruit is bad. Even if it wasn't sol…

Yup, you need a specific yeast strain, saccharomyces cerevisiae typically used for fermenting ales, won't ferment lactose.

Strangely enough, I can't find much information on the subject, but you're right that saccharomyces don't ferment lactose.

Brettanomyces, or wild yeast, might be able to ferment it, but there are only a few species that do it(anomalus and claussemii, according to a table from Gilliland 1961). I'd either have to special order it or just make a wild yeast starter and just see what happens.

EDIT: Saccharomyces can ferment galactose, which I think means lactase can be used to convert the lactose in milk into something that conventional yeast can eat. :D

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