Blaand, anyone?

[bernardsmith]

I wonder if anyone is interested in making a blaand mead in 2019 and sharing recipes and tasting notes?
For those who are unfamiliar with the word, "blaand" is/was an indigenous wine made by the Norse and the Scots up until cheese making was commercialized towards the end of the 19th Century. It's made using whey that is the byproduct of either soft or hard cheese making. The problem is that there appears to be no published recipes from when it was made by farmers, crofters, Vikings and others who lived on the land.
A couple of years ago a number of us on this forum made a "lactomel" - a mead that used milk. This is a variant on that theme.
Side bar issue: sweet whey will continue to sour because the lactic bacteria eat the lactose in the whey and transform it into lactic acid, but if you boil the whey you kill the bacteria and the whey stops becoming more acidic because of bacteria. Not sure if acidified whey (whey that is made by adding something like lemon juice to milk to clabber the milk) sours: it has a brighter, more bitter taste in blaand than sweet whey.

 

[S-Met]

No for this year, still haven't started making my own cheese. Wife told me no cheese making, but little does she know that it's still on my agenda. Too many projects running right now, so I sort of agree. Still thinking about setting up my own apiary. Have a peach farmer who would gladly take them.

 

[bernardsmith]

Don't want to get between a husband and wife but the simplest soft cheese takes only a few minutes to make and no more equipment than you are likely to have in your kitchen. To make one pound or so of cottage cheese you gently heat a gallon of milk to near boiling (say, 180 F) - I would use a double boiler to ensure that the milk is not scorched and the use of a double boiler means that you do not need to be constantly stirring the milk. When it hits the target temperature add about 1/2 cup of lemon juice. You allow this mixture to rest for about 15 minutes as curds form and separate from the whey. You strain the result through cheese cloth and collect the whey allowing it to drain for another 15 -30 minutes.
I would add salt (1-2t) to the curds and perhaps some herbs. If you prefer a firmer cheese you can simply press it overnight under a little weight, perhaps, 2-5 lbs.If you do press it add the salt and herbs after you remove the weight.
Making hard cheese is a bit more complex and generally takes more time.

 

[S-Met]

Irony: no aversion to getting apiaries. Double irony, we both love cheese. Especially feta and chevre which seem to be on the easier side to make.

 

[madscientist451]

I never heard of using whey in an alcoholic beverage.
I've found some information where people have searched for blaand in literature and can't find anything.
I searched for "whey beer" recipes and found a few articles about research into using whey in beer and this podcast where whey is an ingredient in a stout:

https://chopandbrew.com/episodes/whey-stout-three-ways/

Searching for "whey wine" turned up some interesting tidbits, including this:

http://www.liquidirish.com/2012/05/whey-alcohol.html

Finally, I looked on youtube and found 3 videos under "making blaand"
Just one link added here, but there are more:

 

[Maylar]

Grocery store clover honey makes a pretty bland mead...

 

[bernardsmith]

Grocery store clover honey makes a pretty bland mead...

arghhhhhh.

 

[bernardsmith]

duplicate post

 

[bernardsmith]

I never heard of using whey in an alcoholic beverage.
I've found some information where people have searched for blaand in literature and can't find anything.
I searched for "whey beer" recipes and found a few articles about research into using whey in beer and this podcast where whey is an ingredient in a stout:

https://chopandbrew.com/episodes/whey-stout-three-ways/

Searching for "whey wine" turned up some interesting tidbits, including this:

http://www.liquidirish.com/2012/05/whey-alcohol.html

Finally, I looked on youtube and found 3 videos under "making blaand"
Just one link added here, but there are more:

Interestingly, the author of the Youtube video breaks down the lactose in whey and ferments this but there is only about .5 or .6 of a pound of sugar in every gallon of milk so this will result in a wine with about 2.5% ABV. Most folk I know who make a version of blaand add sugars and so they can produce a wine at 12% (or more or less) ABV. The whey, then, is used as a key element of the flavoring.

 

[Kent88]

Bernard, when my wife and I find a new house and get moved in, I'll be happy to join you (as well as I can) in this endeavor. I've been looking into making this for a couple years, I've just been a little preoccupied making my whey stouts and since I took a break from that I moved. Life gets crazy sometimes.

 

[madscientist451]

IMost folk I know who make a version of blaand add sugars and so they can produce a wine at 12% (or more or less) ABV. The whey, then, is used as a key element of the flavoring.

Did you get a chance to taste it? How would you describe the flavor?
From what I've found out, whey has been traditionally used as an ingredient in mead and beer or made into a low ABV wine that is then distilled.
Is it your goal to make a 100% whey wine or to use it along with other fermentables?

 

[bernardsmith]

Did you get a chance to taste it? How would you describe the flavor?
From what I've found out, whey has been traditionally used as an ingredient in mead and beer or made into a low ABV wine that is then distilled.
Is it your goal to make a 100% whey wine or to use it along with other fermentables?

I've made about a half dozen different batches of blaand to date one using acidified whey and all the others using sweet whey - I make a small batch of hard cheese almost every week. To date I have not tried to ferment the whey itself but always ferment on the whey using honey or sugar and one I used DME. Most batches have been low ABV (about 5-6%). My favorite at the moment is the one I made with acidified whey and the acidification was made with lemon juice (I harvested the whey from a cheese I had made known as "crowdie" in Scotland) and while all cheese results in whey with a low pH (have to check my notes to recall the actual pH but it would be around 5.0, I think) the lemon juice gives that batch an added zing.
Just started a new batch this morning from the 7 pints of whey I harvested from a squeaky cheddar curd cheese I made yesterday (I routinely get just over 7 pints of whey from a gallon of milk) to which I added 1lb of black treacle (it's a British syrup that uses a near burnt caramelized sugar) - but I've made one caramel wine (using home made chocolate caramel), and another using tootsie rolls, a mead (using OB honey) , a whey wine using brown sugar , and another using table sugar. That said, I see from a paper published in the 70's by researchers at Oregon U that when they were making wine from whey to see if this was a viable way to make use of what is (or was) essentially a waste product that created ecological problems when it was disposed of in the water system, they found that those they offered the resulting wines to preferred whey that was fruit flavored, so that is going to be something I still have to try (although I think whey with caramel/chocolate flavors is an obvious match made in heaven.
What does it taste like? Not sure I have the vocabulary. There is a creamy mouthfeel because of the residual lactose and it is slightly sweet with a bit of a tang (lactic acid from the cultures I use to clabber the milk, but I "boil" the whey about 4-5 hours after I add the culture to the milk and so kill the souring bacteria, so it is not nearly as sour as yogurt or kefir), a little nut-like. Whey tastes like ... whey.

 

[bernardsmith]

Just reread my last post and can see some real ambiguity. I don't boil the whey FOR 4-5 hours. I just want to hit the boiling point and then kill the heat. I do that boiling about 4 or 5 hours AFTER I culture the milk (so if I begin making cheese at say, 6.00 PM, I am ready to boil the whey around 10 or 11 PM ...