Drinking the Raw

[Ironmonkey]

My does should kid in March and I'm practically foaming at the mouth at the prospect of raw goat milk. I've never had it before but I love raw cows milk (kinds spendy though). Anything I should be aware of in particular in terms of handling?

 

[breezy B ranch]

just remember to filter and rapid chill before you put in fridge. We use an ice water bath for 30min. Our milk will stay good for up to 2 weeks lol not that it ever stays that long as we are all big milk drinkers and cheese eaters!!

 

[Ironmonkey]

I have a copper coil wort chiller I was planning to use. Basically, it just hooks up to a water source and runs cold water through a bunch of coils until it comes out the other end. It'll take a pot of boiling beer down to room temp in about 10 minutes max...

 

[Catahoula]

I have a copper coil wort chiller I was planning to use. Basically, it just hooks up to a water source and runs cold water through a bunch of coils until it comes out the other end. It'll take a pot of boiling beer down to room temp in about 10 minutes max...

Interesting gadget...but you want to bring the milk to really COLD right away...not to cool down to room temp. I would be interested to hear about how you like raw goat milk. I would very much like to try raw cow milk myself.

 

[sawfish99]

I know people talk about rapid cooling, ice baths, etc. We milk, then take it inside and filter, then put it in the fridge. We have never had a problem. Even in the summer when the milk sits for 30-45 min before getting filtered and cooled, no problems. We wouldn't pass a formal dairy inspection, but that doesn't matter to us.

I think the biggest thing is keeping the milk clean during milking (udder wash, no foot dirt in pail, etc). If the taste is off, isolate the milk by individual animals to determine who is the problem. Individual goat health can impact the milk flavor dramatically.

 

[ksalvagno]

I bring my milk into the house. Filter it. Then put it in the back of my refrigerator. Still tastes great at 2 weeks old and no goaty taste at all. So it doesn't necessarily have to be that rapid chilled.

 

[that's*satyrical]

Mine goes in the freezer for an hour or 2 then I move it to the fridge. It seems to last a couple/few weeks and we even warmed it a little to separate it after a week or so and it was still good as butter, cream & skim milk. I milk into glass jars that I clean and re-use with the dishwasher.

 

[breezy B ranch]

The reason we rapid chill is because when we first started milking we would put straight to the fridge also but for us the milk would only last a few days before it went bad. I ended up asking the lady down the road what she did to make hers last longer and she told me about the rapid chill so we tried it and found for us that it worked. Maybe our fridge isn't cold enough to not do the ice bath? Good luck with your milk! lol now that we drink raw goat milk my daughter refuses to drink cow milk (at least without chocolate lol) because she says it tastes "gross" to her. Crazy kid! She was the only one that wasn't sure about goat milk when we started!!

 

[pdpo222]

We use to have a farmer who would let you go to his milkhouse and get raw cows milk. We use to get a couple gallons at a time. Everyone liked it, but me. The boys and hubby thought it was great. I didn't like goats milk either though. Just me. The others thought it was great. So I got pygmys so no milk problems. When we had the dairy goats what we didn't or couldn't use we gave to the pigs. Now that was some good meat. We have a cheese factory that use to buy goats milk but they need to retool for it now. If they start picking it up again I may go into a few dairy goats, just to help pay some of their keep.

 

[Oakroot]

I have heard that the fridge you use makes a big difference regarding if you need to prechill or not. Even how full your fridge is can impact how quickly things cool in it.