Japanese Make Beer from Surplus Milk TOKYO, Feb 13 (Reuters Life!) - Great news for beer and milk lovers: A liquor shop owner in Japan's largest dairy farming region has stopped crying about local spilled milk and started making beer from it instead. "We came up with the idea after hearing about surplus milk," said Chitoshi Nakahara, head of the Nakahara liquor shop on the northernmost island of Hokkaido. Milk consumption has been declining steadily in Japan, and Hokkaido disposed of nearly 900 tonnes of milk last March due to over-production, according to the Japan Dairy Association. Nakahara's new brew, "Bilk" -- a combination of "milk" and "beer" -- is about 30 percent milk. It also contains hops, and the production process does not differ much from that of regular beer, he said. His shop started selling Bilk, which apart from a slight milky scent looks and tastes like ordinary beer, on February 1 after spending about six months developing the product with a local brewer. Bilk is only available at six local shops or by mail order, but Nakahara is currently out of stock due to heavy media attention. Don't worry if you can't get hold of any, though: Nakahara also sells beer brewed from another major Hokkaido product -- potatoes.
It doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do. Milk has lots of sugar in it, which would be the source of the fermentation. In essence, the milk would be replacing the barley. It's just a matter of filtering out the milk solids... Milk prices are through the roof over here, though, so it wouldn't be very economically feasible.
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