# Lactomel - milk and honey wine



## BernardSmith (Jul 22, 2014)

Still playing with the idea of a wine made from milk (kumis) because I am a sucker for traditional brews and I came across a number of threads on the internet discussing a mead made with milk (rather than water). I found a basic recipe and adapted it so that it is very simple: 

1.5 gallons of fat free lactose free milk
2.5 lbs of clover honey
nutrient
energizer
Premier Cuvee yeast. 

My plan is to ferment dry and then backsweeten. 

Warmed the honey in its still unopened jar in hot water for about 30 seconds to increase its viscosity. Mixed the milk and the honey in a blender to areate the mixture and poured the mix into a three gallon carboy. Added half the nutrient and all the energizer. Pitched the yeast. Twelve hours later there is a great deal of activity in the carboy and 36 hours later I have about 2 inches of curds floating on the top. After work tonight I intend to strain the mead and remove the curds that have formed and allow the mead to continue fermenting with another 1/4 of the nutrient and the remaining nutrient to add Wednesday night or Thursday morning.


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## gratus_fermentatio (Sep 6, 2015)

How is this progressing?
Regards, GF.


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## BernardSmith (Sep 7, 2015)

um... interesting. Not something I would offer to anyone looking for a wine to drink but am happy to offer a glass to friends who are interested in indigenous, traditional wines. Made a separate batch with cocoa and honey...


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## dorfie (Sep 7, 2015)

I wonder why the recipe calls for lactose free milk? the lactose is the thing that makes milk creamy/sweet if i understand it correctly, so why lactose free over normal milk?


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## BernardSmith (Sep 8, 2015)

Good question, dorfie. I have made kumis using lactose free and with regular (but fat free) milk. I used lactose free in one experiment for two distinct reasons: 
1. because I was a bit concerned that the lactose in the milk would create a secondary fermentation and would sour the wine and 
2. because wine yeast cannot in fact ferment lactose. 

The souring never occurred and the lactose rich kumis may be sweeter than the lactose free version.


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## wineforfun (Sep 11, 2015)

haha
Just ran across this thread. @BernardSmith, you are my hero. You come up with some very unique concoctions.............which I like. Milk in wine? I would have never thought of that one.

On a side note, can't wait to open your Te'j tomorrow night.


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## BernardSmith (Sep 11, 2015)

Ah... Not milk IN wine but wine made OF milk... and that is not something I came up with. Kumis has been made for hundreds of years in Mongolia. Their wine has not much more alcohol than a session beer (about 3%). Mine was about 12%. The image in Wikipedia is of an opaque wine whereas mine is clear. Traditionally kumis is made of mare's milk. Mine was milk from a cow. And the curds, by the way, were absolutely delicious as they held some of the added sugars. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumis.


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