Milk beer/wine idea.

Anyone ever experiment with milk and β-galactosidase (lactase) to produce a milk-sugar derived alcoholic beverage? Just think of the possibilities, Chocolate milk stout, peanut cream ale, etc.

Yeah, milk has been fermented for years. Kefir is a fermented beverage that history has lost the origin of (perhaps somewhere in the Caucasus). It's pretty tasty, like a less-viscous yogurt. Add some pureed fruit to it, and you've got a great breakfast on the go.

The alcohol level, though is low - 0.5% ABV, perhaps.

lactose is not an easily fermented sugar, I know of a few sour yeast strains that night chew through it

but you are still left with a sour milk product

If I remember right milk begins to curdle in the presence of alcohol

-Jason

Brewster2256 said:

. . . . Just think of the possibilities, Chocolate milk stout, peanut cream ale, etc.

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Goat cheese wheat?

Meunster porter?

I know there's some type of yeast/bacteria/micro-organism that can ferment lactose out there somewhere. I know the Mongolians drink fermented milk.
Airag - Fermented Mare's Milk - Mongolian Beverage

My whole idea is based off the use of lactase, which breaks up lactose into glucose and galactose (both monosaccharides). I know galactose is relatively fermentable, although a bit harsh on the yeast.

Brewster2256 said:

I know galactose is relatively fermentable, although a bit harsh on the yeast.

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And how would it taste? I'm not sure these endeavers would taste good in beer (or conventional beer at least)....sake maybe, wine maybe?

davesrose said:

And how would it taste? I'm not sure these endeavers would taste good in beer (or conventional beer at least)....sake maybe, wine maybe?

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I have no idea. I haven't heard of anything like it, so I imagine its worth a try.
Thought of it as an extra ingredient to my oatmeal ale (unmalted oats+ alpha galactosidase for greater fermentability).

Well you could always experiment with adding whatever amount of regular dextrose to up the gravity, but keep a cleaner profile. Actually, the extra foreign stout that I'm conditioning now had a pound of it to raise the gravity. I think the main reason it's not used in beer is A: expense, and B: there's plenty of other readily available sugars to try. It seems to me that you're doing a lot for returns that you can probably get from "accepted" beer ingredients. But if you're thinking of this as a science experiment, give it a try some time and let us know how it turns out

Milk usually goes bad because airborne bacteria converts lactose into lactic acid, which then lowers the pH of the milk until the casein proteins clump up. So lets say I convert the lactose into glucose and galactose, (no more lactic acid) balance the pH to account for the slight acidity of alcohol being produced (no more clumps); under sanitary conditions, would the milk still go bad during or after the process of normal yeast fermentation?