How do y'all keep the goat-i-ness out of goat milk (and cheese)?

[slikchik]

I know some prefer the twang peculiar to goat milk, my family is not among them, especially my suburbanite husband. My nubian's milk tastes great on day 1, fine on day 2, decent on day 3, and full of goat hair on day 4. She gets brushed, then washed prior to milking and dipped after. I milk into a clean SS pail that is set into a bucket of ice. The milk chills in the ice bucket for about 1/2 hour and is usually around 55 degrees when I strain and store it in clean mason jars in the fridge. I use the standard milk strainer and disposable filters.

How long does everyone else's milk last?

Is there anything I'm missing?

I'd love to make cheese from this stuff but all previous efforts have done nothing but highly concentrate the goaty flavor.

 

[GLENMAR]

You know. I think that it depends on the goat and what they are eating too. I wish mine had a goaty taste. My cheese is just creamy and boring. No goat twang.
Same with the milk. I am OK with that, but I want more "goat" in the cheese.

Maybe someone will come along and help both of us.

 

[Evergreen160]

I think the milk flavor is HIGHLY affected by what the goats eat. In the Summer our goats were eating a lot of browse and their milk was a little bit more "goaty" tasting. Now that the browse is mostly gone they are just eating alfalfa hay and the milk doesn't have that "goaty" taste. Just my experience.

 

[GLENMAR]

That sounds reasonable. Mine are in a pasture with only grass no browse.

 

[slikchik]

Well shoot, glenmar, wanna trade?

The ladies are getting fresh grain, grass and a touch of browse in the day and hay at night.

How long does your milk stay fresh in the fridge?

 

[Evergreen160]

Our milk tastes the same even when it is a week old

 

[GLENMAR]

Same here. I don't pasteurize. I have tasted milk that was a week old, and did not notice a change. It will be interesting to see when my two
younger girls freshen in January, if there is any difference in their milk.

 

[hbmimsy]

Get a Toggenburg. Their milk is extremely goaty. I couldn't drink it, but the cheese was sublime.

 

[ksalvagno]

It was my understanding that you should strain the milk warm. I wonder if that is your problem?

I milk and then bring my milk in the house. Strain it right away and then put it in the back of my refrigerator. No problems with goat tasting milk even at 2 weeks.

By the way, I heard that Toggenburgs are lacking in B vitamin and to feed them heavily in B vitamin and it should make their milk taste better. They were bred for making better cheese and somehow all that breeding to breed for good cheese made them more vitamin B deficient.

 

[sawfish99]

3 thoughts. Is there a buck in with your doe? If so, remove the buck and that will probably eliminate the taste.

Second thought, we had 1 doe that was giving milk with an off taste. She had a mild case of mastitis. Once we fixed that, the milk went back to tasting completely normal (not goaty).

Final possibility - have you given any chemicals to the goat, ESPECIALLY a chemical wormer? That can definitely affect milk flavor.

Our milk easily lasts 10 days.