Blaand? (aka: adept brewer asks a newbie cheesemaker question)

Hi all,

I've posted here before about homebrewing, but never about cheesemaking. I'm thinking of venturing out into the latter this summer or the autumn following and am doing a bit of research beforehand. Part of that research involves wondering about ways to connect the two hobbies.....

I've read on Wikipedia that there is a medieval Scottish recipe (inherited from the Norse) called Blaand, and further dabbling on the WWW indicates it was once-upon-a-time popular when home cheesemaking was common practice. It involved saving the whey and making a wine-like drink from it. This guy (http://www.erringtoncheese.co.uk/pages/fallachan.php) is apparently making a modernized, high-quality, commercial version of the stuff.

My curiousity is: would anybody have a guess how this stuff would be made? I know from my brewing experience that s. cerevisiae (brewers yeast) will most likely not do the trick, as it cannot metabolize lactose. I know that the lactobacillus genus will, but it mostly(?) produces lactic acid, not ethanol.

Anybody have a suggestion for 1) what organism(s) make(s) Blaand and 2) where a homebrewer might obtain a culture of it?

Thanks!

did some searching and i may have a lead for ya . . . Try contacting a woman named Lowlander over on a website named http://www.rivercottage.net. It sounds like she might have some knowledge o the subject. Below is what I found

http://www.rivercottage.net/forum/ask/processing-and-other-crafts/blaand/

Thanks!