Freezing milk?

[rollingmeadow]

Has anyone tried freezing extra goat milk? Will frozen milk work for making cheese? If frozen correctly how long can you store frozen milk and still be suitable for drinking?

I am trying to decide on a standard or mini breed mainly because I think a standard would produce too much milk for our family of 3. I do intend on learning to make cheese but at first I think 1 gallon or more per day is too much to handle. A mini would give less per day on the same lactation cycle.

Here's my thought. Could I get away with milking a standard for a shorter cycle and freeze the milk to use as needed after the doe is dried up?

If this is possible I could keep our family trips and not be milking year round.

 

[ksalvagno]

You can freeze goat milk but sometimes it does separate when defrosted. Sometimes just putting in the blender will work to get it all back together and sometimes it doesn't. The frozen milk will probably work best for cheese. Goat milk is good for a year in the freezer but I don't know if I would want to personally drink year old frozen goat milk. But it does work great for feeding goat kids or alpaca crias.

If you don't need a whole lot of milk, the smaller breeds will work out well. You need to have at least 2 so they have a buddy. The Nigerian Dwarf gives about a quart per day. Look for good milking lines and buy from someone who milks their goats and can tell you how much milk they get per day.

 

[Roll farms]

I only milk mine for 8-9 mos out of the year...you can plan the breedings / drying off around your vacations (Dry one up right before you leave, have another due to kid when you return).

I freeze milk for cooking and for kids only...I don't care to drink it after it's been frozen / once it seperates. My head knows it's ok, but my mouth thinks there's a difference, LOL.

I have noticed that the milk I double strain for cooking (through a mesh screen AND paper milk filter) seems to seperate less than what I strain for the kids (just the mesh strainer)...dunno if that's a coincidence or if it's because of the second filtering...

 

[FarmerChick]

I freeze goat milk.....and then use it for my natural goat milk soaps I make. works great.

 

[lilhill]

I freeze goat milk.....and then use it for my natural goat milk soaps I make. works great.

 

[helmstead]

We freeze our extra milk too, and as said before only use it for bottle babies or cheese because of the 'mouth feel' of separated milk. Blegh!

 

[Shoshana]

You can freeze goat milk but sometimes it does separate when defrosted.

I've been reading about buttermaking with goat's milk and the need for an expensive separator in order to efficiently make it. When you say that freezing goat's milk can sometimes cause it to separate, are we talking into skim milk and heavy cream? Has anyone on BYH used a freezing and defrosting method to make butter before? Thanks!

 

[Roll farms]

I just ordered a hand crank seperator on Ebay (from the Ukraine) for $100 shipping included....however, I won't crow about it too much until I see if it works well or not.

I've never tried to see if I could get the cream from the skim when it seperates, I've just always shaken it up and fed it to the kids....
Sure wish I'd though of that idea before I ordered the seperator...

 

[freemotion]

Please let us know how it works! I would love to have more butter than the little delicious taste I get by saving a few tablespoons of cream off the gallon jars.

 

[dkluzier]

We've made cheese from frozen goat milk, doesn't curd up quite as well but it makes the same quality of cheese as fresh.