/ 9 September 2005

French farmer invents milk beer

A resourceful Breton dairy farmer has come up with a new invention: milk beer.

”Everyone thought I was crazy to try to make a milk-based alcohol,” Marcel Besnard said on Friday in Rennes, adding that low prices and strict quotas had led him to consider other ways of marketing milk.

The new drink, Lactiwel, made from milk and malt, contains 2% alcohol and is brewed using a fermentation process similar to that of traditional beer, except that instead of ale or lager yeast, Bernard uses kefir (Turkish milk product) yeast and lactic bacteria.

The Frenchman has also developed a method to change the unsaturated fat content of milk.

With a current output of 300 bottles a week, sold in small shops, festivals and markets, Besnard is looking for investment to expand production and get his product on to supermarket shelves. — Sapa-DPA