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An Oregon creamery making vodka from milk
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y agoMilk vodka is quite common in Mongolia, and if you didn't know you probably wouldn't even suspect the dairy origins. There are plenty of other funky fermented milk drinks too: https://www.mongolia-trips.com/5-most-consumed-traditional-drinks-mongolia/ https://www.mongolia-trips.com/5-most-consumed-traditional-d...
- astrosi 7y agoBlack 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/ https://www.blackcow.co.uk/
- julian55 7y agoWild Beer Co also in the UK make a beer from whey. https://www.wildbeerco.com/item/512/Beers/No-Water.html https://www.wildbeerco.com/item/512/Beers/No-Water.html
- anfractuosity 7y agoThere's also a Scottish drink made from whey - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaand
- cillian64 7y agoI actually have a bottle of this on the shelf next to me. It's by far my favourite vodka out of what I've tried, but it's hard to tell how much of that is placebo because I know it's also the most expensive.
- gunshai 7y agoI've been telling my friends for years, if you can successfully sell Vodka in today's market you can probably market any product. While there are "differences", they all basically have to be the same by law and you probably can't reliably identify a difference in a double blinded application. "(1) “Vodka” is neutral spirits so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color." https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/27/5.22 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/27/5.22 The differences are defined by a sliding scale of three elements, the "heads,hearts, and tails". https://www.diffordsguide.com/encyclopedia/198/bws/distillation-the-science-of-distillation https://www.diffordsguide.com/encyclopedia/198/bws/distillat...
- fenwick67 7y agoAnecdotal but, I feel like I can tell good vodka from cheap vodka easier than good wine from cheap wine.
- tw04 7y agoI'm sorry but if you can take a shot of Karkov vodka and a shot of Stoli and not tell the difference there is something very broken with your taste buds - regardless of what the law says. That's ignoring the headache you're going to have after a night of drinking Karkov. Source: I was poor in college and had the misfortune of dancing with Karkov on more than one occasion. For those of you who have never had the misfortune (it only comes in plastic bottles): https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/karkov+vodka+usa https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/karkov+vodka+usa
- jerrysievert 7y ago> That's ignoring the headache you're going to have after a night of drinking Karkov. typically from cutting the heads too shallow. ethanol's boiling point is 173ºF, where the alcohol that is giving you your headache is lower. cutting the heads (or lower evaporating alcohol) too shallow gives you more of that alcohol. now, as to taste, I disagree a little bit with the gp post in that enough complex sugars also make it out in that slurry if you're using a pot still (even triple distilling), or even using a reflux still, that there can be a marked taste difference between "neutral" spirits. source: I've made quite a lot of vodka (most of which has been turned into gin)
- Pfhreak 7y agoWhy would you use milk rather than the grains used to feed the cattle? It seems like a loss in efficiency for a spirit that's neutral.
- wiredfool 7y agoIt's using the whey that's a by product of the cheesemaking process. It's currently disposed of, either on fields as fertilizer or in landfills.
- Pfhreak 7y agoAh, in that case, carry on. (I've often wondered what to do with whey leftover from yogurt or ricotta making at home.)
- wiredfool 7y agoYou can try making Norwegian brown cheese (https://cheese.com/geitost/ https://cheese.com/geitost/) , which is essentially browned whey.
- poulsbohemian 7y agoHaving 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.
- zwieback 7y agoMaybe a good use for a slow cooker? Probably can delay the stirring to he very end. Or use an automatic pot stirrer.
- RussianCow 7y agoYou'd probably have the same issue with a slow cooker, as the walls still get pretty hot, but an immersion circulator should do the trick.
- loydb 7y agoI initially read the headline as 'crematorium' and was intrigued...
- ogre_codes 7y agoThis 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"
- jayd16 7y ago"We can pickle that!"
- waynecochran 7y agoI wonder if the phrase "Cowcohol" was used in his dissertation.
- ravenstine 7y agoHah, 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.
- anfractuosity 7y agoYup, you need a specific yeast strain, saccharomyces cerevisiae typically used for fermenting ales, won't ferment lactose.
- ravenstine 7y agoStrangely 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
- anfractuosity 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kluyveromyces_marxianus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kluyveromyces_marxianus is one I've heard of that can ferment lactose
- ravenstine 7y ago> Due to the heat tolerance of K. marxianus, high heat fermentations are feasible, reducing the costs normally expended for cooling as well as the potential for contamination by other fungi or bacteria. In addition, fermentations at higher temperatures occur more rapidly, making production much more efficient.[9] Due to the ability of K. marxianus to simultaneously ustilize lactose and glucose, the prevalence of K. marxianus in industrial settings is high as it decreases production time and increases productivity. Dang! I've got to get my hands on this!
- windsurfer 7y agoA similar business in Canada: https://www.dairydistillery.com/ https://www.dairydistillery.com/ I think it's neat that they use yeast developed for fuel manufacturing.
- GeekFortyTwo 7y agoRight now they have switched, like many of our local distilleries, to making cleaning alcohol for high risk facilities to use as needed. Their regular product is good stuff, I have a bottle on the shelf right now.
- kwhitefoot 7y agoYou could also turn it into brunost: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunost
- 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y agoAny link to the process or research? I’d love to learn how this is done.
- amjaeger 7y agoI think this is it. https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/hx11xm59p https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_o...
- JimmyL 7y agoThis is also being done[1] in Canada, in a project that started as a way to use the byproducts of the normal milk-making process in a way that didn't cost farmers anything. [1] https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.4852183/moo-ve-over-smirnoff-this-ontario-distillery-is-making-vodka-out-of-cow-s-milk-1.4852755 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-ed...
- konart 7y agoWhen Kumis is not enough
- growlist 7y agoI for one would very much like to try some of this moooooonshine. After all, if you made some from sheeps' milk as well you could line them up on the baaaa! I'll get me coat
- trhway 7y agoit is a crying shame when it goes to landfill especially considering the appalling low quality of feed at industrial animal farms. Back then, my grandmother was selling milk from the cows on her farm to the cheese making factory, and the factory was returning back the resulting whey which the grandmother used in the pig, chicken, turkey feed. Animals were in great shape, and the meat was very good. Another thing i wanted to mention is that during 198x, especially during anti-alcohol campaign, when people in the USSR would be making moonshine out of everything containing anything resembling sugars (and there were shortages of real sugar, etc.) nobody used the whey for moonshine. Knowledge is power. Opposite is even more true :)
- Animats 7y agoIn the current market, if they have alcohol and a bottling line, making hand sanitizer might be a better idea. The "high end vodka" thing is such a joke. A few years ago, one of the vodka companies put an article into Wikipedia with all their high-end vodka hype. That did not end well for them. People started digging for reliable sources about the company, and found them. Turned out the vodka company was entirely a marketing operation. Production, bottling, and distribution was outsourced to another company, one that makes liquor products to order in addition to marketing brands of their own. That company is quite open about what they do in the trade press, so lots of reliable info was available. The ethanol came from an industrial refinery sized plant in the Midwest, where corn went in and ethanol and cattle feed came out. Some of the alcohol was re-distilled for beverages and cosmetics, and some of it went to oil refineries to be blended into gasoline. Tank cars of ethanol went by rail to the outsourcing company, which had its own railroad sidings. The outsourcing company took in ethanol, did a bit of re-distilling and polishing, added de-ionized tap water and flavoring, and bottled. Just like they did for the other thousand or so products they make. No secret in the industry, but something the general public usually doesn't find out about. It's all bottles and labeling. The outsourcing company admits they make a thousand different brands of booze, but only have a hundred different recipes. The company moved to an area north of San Francisco a few years ago to be next door to the bottle-making plant, and have better rail access. All that ended up in Wikipedia. There's an interesting economy of scale in doing it this way. Under US law, the booze industry is divided into distillers/brewers, wholesalers, and retailers. Usually, the distiller/brewer makes the final product and bottles it, there are bulk shipments of bottled goods to wholesalers, and wholesalers are basically a fulfillment operation serving retailers. But the way this outsourcing company does it, the distiller/brewer is an industrial plant sending them tank cars of ethanol, and they make up the consumer product and distribute it to retailers. Only one step of trucking instead of two.
- Znafon 7y agoWhat is the company?
- flyingfences 7y agoI don't know this particular story, but you can read up on MGP for similar shenanigans going on with Rye and Bourbon.
- hootbootscoot 7y agoreal hipsters only distill kumis...
- kaikai 7y agoAnother way to reuse whey is to make geitost, which is a hard "cheese" made from boiling down the whey. It's sweet and carmely, and keeps well. I used to work in a grocery store and would make cheese and geitost from the slightly-expired milk. I like the idea of making alcohol from it, but that's a much more intense process that has a lot of licensing attached to it.
- bane 7y agoThere already is a milk-based vodka, here's a great video on it, includes a traditional home still and the high-end versions: https://youtu.be/1BBzjbVw6Q4 https://youtu.be/1BBzjbVw6Q4
- easytiger 7y ago> Luckily, a niche field of researchers and an eager group of craft creameries are taking an unexpected approach: turning all that whey into “vodka.” Is this a joke? Milk vodka is very far from new. Americans claiming simultaneous invention on something they read online? https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/dec/07/meet-the-milk-vodka-maker https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl...
- mabbo 7y agoYeah, I'm back visiting my parents in their tiny hometown near Ottawa, and there's a distillery called "Vodcow" that's been open a little while now, selling Vodka made from milk permeate. I can't drink liquor because it brings out the devil in me, but my friends swear that this particular vodka is excellent.
- noodlesUK 7y agoWhat Oregon could really do with now is lifting some of the restrictions on selling liqour. You can’t buy anything stronger than wine in grocery stores, and I suspect that’s all that’s gonna be open soon.
- mattmaroon 7y agoThe math on this doesn't add up if you were to scale it. If this works, it's only because "vodka made from milk" is a neat marketing ploy that's bringing in premium prices. If several people did this, it would end quickly. My math: Milk is about 5% sugar. Typically for distilling you want to get a wash of at least 10% sugar. So for this to add up milk would have to be half the price of 10 brix simple syrup, and it definitely is not. A gallon of 10 brix simple syrup would cost about 40 cents and that's if you're just buying the sugar at a grocery store. Average price of milk is over $3/gallon. Also, you can buy enough bulk neutral spirits from MGP to fill a bottle of vodka for about 40 cents. It would take 1.6 gallons of milk to end up with that same amount vodka, and that's if your distillery ran at 100%, which it doesn't, so it'd be close to 2 gallons. (I'm comparing retail to retail prices. I don't know