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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => INGREDIENTS - Milk Types, Formats, & Pre-Cheese Making Processing => Topic started by: anutcanfly on November 09, 2011, 07:04:50 PM

Title: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: anutcanfly on November 09, 2011, 07:04:50 PM
I've been making chevre since my suppliers nubians freshened in february.  For the first time the chevre had a faint goaty taste.  I know her dairy hygiene is very good, so I'm not sure why the taste changed.  Does late lactation milk taste different?
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: linuxboy on November 09, 2011, 07:34:39 PM
Most often, yes. Plasmin content in some lines increases dramatically, and generally rises across the board, so it does tend to cause faster lipolysis.
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: anutcanfly on November 09, 2011, 09:54:10 PM
Thanks linuxboy, that's what I needed to know.  I'll wait until next spring to make anymore goat cheese! Unless it's romano, I'm not a fan of goaty cheese or milk.  :)
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: linuxboy on November 10, 2011, 12:46:57 AM
You can still do it, but make drier cheeses or washed rinds. And use the freshest milk possible.
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: Oberhasli on November 10, 2011, 04:47:10 PM
I  milk and make cheese year round with my goat milk and I never get "goaty milk".  I know the longer the lactation, the pH changes, etc., but it shouldn't effect flavor or cause that "goaty" taste.  Maybe she is letting her milking does get too close to the buck pen or hang with other does that have already been bred and have that lovely goaty smell on their coats.  Just a thought.

Bonnie
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: anutcanfly on November 10, 2011, 06:03:21 PM
That's possible.  I know she keeps them well apart from the boys, but I don't know what she does with regards to the females that have been bred.  I'll ask her when I get a chance.  Meanwhile, I'll stick to Fromage Blanc for soft cheese.
Thank you for the feedback.

Anut  :)
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: linuxboy on November 10, 2011, 07:15:03 PM
it could be other causes. Sometimes, the milk is off as does come into heat.. both in volume and taste. Sometimes, the decreasing days and lower vitamin D makes a difference, as it influences calcium regulation. Sometimes, feed changes or microelement changes make a difference. Or there might be subclinical mastitis. But overall, if the cleanliness is there and the practices are the same, not much can be done other than adjusting the types of cheese that is made.
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: Spellogue on September 14, 2012, 01:44:10 AM
Popping in on another old thread but couldn't resist casting my ballot.

I too raise goats for their raw milk and only rarely get any goaty flavor at all.  Lots of variables can contribute to adding all sorts of 'goaty' nuances, from feed,  to hormone levels, through the drying-off process to name a few.  These nuances are normally slight and should provide pleasant variety to your cheeses.  The only thing I've found to cause a strong goaty (read that bucky) flavor is proximity to the bucks. Anything less than 10 feet of constant separation of does from bucks in season can affect the flavor of a couple of milkings.

I noticed that your original post was in November.  That is the height of breeding season for most goat herders.  That is when the bucks are at they randy-ripest.  To make milk for the next year the buck has to be intimately close to the doe, if you know what I mean.  Many goat owners keep the does in milk for three months or so after breeding.  You should ask your producer about his/her breeding practices.  If it was a 'driveway breeding' it should have only affect a few milkings.  If the buck and doe were kept together for 6 weeks,  well that's two months worth of goat milk I would feed to the pigs.

Some folks like that bucky flavor in their goat cheeses.  Personally, I don't care for it much.  To me goaty=good, bucky=flawed.  I'd hate for you to miss out on great goat milk from your producer each winter.
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: Tiarella on September 14, 2012, 03:25:33 PM
And there are some that say low mineral levels can cause that goaty flavor.  You could ask the farm what they do about minerals.  I keep 2 or 3 mixes of minerals, baking soda and kelp out free choice although they go through the kelp so fast I don't try to keep it in front of them at all times.
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: bbracken677 on September 14, 2012, 03:54:34 PM
Years ago I had a couple of goats...ostensibly to keep the underbrush cut back...turned out they really like rosebushes and ANYTHING from the garden better than underbrush  LOL

When you remarked about them going after the kelp for some reason it brought back a memory of the goats eating our rosebushes.
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: Spellogue on September 15, 2012, 03:18:20 AM
We have lots of invasive wild roses here, none of the garden variety.  Goats do love rosebushes, and blackberry bushes, and poison ivy.  All of those browses are very good for them and our goats eat quite a bit of it.  I haven't noticed a difference in the taste of the milk from those forages.  I do notice that the milk tastes a tad sour when the girls eat a lot of green ash or hickory leaves.  Not bad, just different.

I've heard that about a mineral deficiency too, but haven't experienced it.  Definitely worth looking into.
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: anutcanfly on October 05, 2012, 03:29:25 AM
Thanks for the info Spellogue and Tiarella.  Good food for thought.  So far the hard cheeses I've made with the milk in question have been good--I really liked the goat cheddar and feta.  I'll try a batch before and after November and see what happens.  She does have bucks on site.
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: Tiarella on October 05, 2012, 11:32:52 AM
I have bucks on site also and the milk I get is sweet and tastes like rich cow's milk.....no taint of other flavor.  And let me tell you, my bucks are STINKY!!!   ;)  They do not have contact with the does except for the day of breeding for less than half an hour but it's never changed the taste of the milk then. 
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: anutcanfly on October 05, 2012, 10:40:33 PM
I still laugh when I think about stinky bucks as I remember a friend complaining that they could aim their pee and would target you as you walked by!
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: Spellogue on October 07, 2012, 12:58:55 AM
They pee in their mouths and all over their faces.  So much so that they can get "urine scald" from too much urea in constant contact with their skin.  That's hilarious to think that they might try to hose down passers-by, but I should hope mine don't get the idea. 
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: steffb503 on October 07, 2012, 10:13:51 AM
Well my buck lives with my girls 24/7/365 and as Iratherfly will tell you my milk has no goaty taste.
Unless the person milking is NOT washing their hands or udders and allowing them to come in contact with the milk there is no way that  the way the buck smells can taint the milk.
It is like the person next to me having real bad BO and my breastmilk tasting off.
Old wives tale.
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: Spellogue on October 13, 2012, 03:52:33 PM
Perhaps, and maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I'm not taking any chances for now. It is easy enough for us to keep the boys separate from the girls, we need to do that to control who is breeding whom anyway.  I love the smelly little guys, but I just don't want them around my primadonnas when they are in milk.  This is the first year I'm still milking while the boys are in rut.  Perhaps in the future I'll be able to run trials in this area for my own confidence.  I might have mentioned that we did have one guy in with the milkers when he wasn't yet in season (emitting none oh his personal cologne) and that had no effect on the milk.
Title: Re: Raw Goat Milk
Post by: botanist on November 17, 2012, 06:15:06 AM
I saw this thread a little late, but thought I'd contribute my experience also.  My bucks are immediately next door to my does in milk--I mean kissing through the fence close.  I only noticed a little bit of increased goaty-ness in the milk when the does were actually being bred, so maybe for a week total, across the girls' breeding period.  I have never noticed any off flavor due to what they ate, and I've fed them lots of different veggies I've grown for them, including Brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, turnips, etc), as well as browse (branches from different trees and shrubs).  Both those observations fly in the face of the 'common knowledge'.