Off taste in milk

For the past few weeks I have been experiencing a off (bitter or sour) taste in my store bought milk.
It only happens when I buy from the local dollar store. If I buy a different brand at wal mart or such it taste fine.
So I ask the store manager and he said that a couple of people have complained about the milk or the past few weeks.
That leads me to believe that the store cooler or delivery truck are not cold enough.
So I asked my daughter if her store has had problems with the milk.
She sells the same brand but has a different deliver guy so different truck.
She also said a couple of people had complained about the milk taste over the past few weeks.

Since we have now involved 2 different store coolers; and 2 different delivery trucks; I could not figure out why this one brand of milk has a bitter taste but the wal mart milk does not.

Went to see my dad today so I ask him about it. He has a lot more dairy experience than I do.
He told me the brand sold at the dollar store is a local dairy; using milk from local pastured cows.
Yea I know that but so what.......
The wal mart milk is most likely from out of town; coming from a mega dairy where the cows are never on pasture.
OK dad but how does that change the taste of the milk?
You my son are tasting the spring wild onions in the pasture raised cows milk.
It gives the milk a slight bitter taste that most never notice but some do.

Now I would have thought running the milk threw pasteurization and homogenization process it would knock out these off taste but maybe not as I can sure taste a difference in the milk.
So I guess there is an advantage in raising cows in a barn where they never see green grass.

Your thoughts on the subject......
 
(quoted from post at 20:54:12 04/28/16) For the past few weeks I have been experiencing a off (bitter or sour) taste in my store bought milk.
It only happens when I buy from the local dollar store. If I buy a different brand at wal mart or such it taste fine.
So I ask the store manager and he said that a couple of people have complained about the milk or the past few weeks.
That leads me to believe that the store cooler or delivery truck are not cold enough.
So I asked my daughter if her store has had problems with the milk.
She sells the same brand but has a different deliver guy so different truck.
She also said a couple of people had complained about the milk taste over the past few weeks.

Since we have now involved 2 different store coolers; and 2 different delivery trucks; I could not figure out why this one brand of milk has a bitter taste but the wal mart milk does not.

Went to see my dad today so I ask him about it. He has a lot more dairy experience than I do.
He told me the brand sold at the dollar store is a local dairy; using milk from local pastured cows.
Yea I know that but so what.......
The wal mart milk is most likely from out of town; coming from a mega dairy where the cows are never on pasture.
OK dad but how does that change the taste of the milk?
You my son are tasting the spring wild onions in the pasture raised cows milk.
It gives the milk a slight bitter taste that most never notice but some do.

Now I would have thought running the milk threw pasteurization and homogenization process it would knock out these off taste but maybe not as I can sure taste a difference in the milk.
So I guess there is an advantage in raising cows in a barn where they never see green grass.

Your thoughts on the subject......
e always made it a point to keep ours out of the wild onions. I could immediately detect the onion taste, no mistaking it to me.
 
Lots of different feeds will change the taste of milk. Our cows had a fairly stable diet but you could still taste the difference when the seasons changed or feeds changed. You can also ask any mother who has breast fed a child about how the foods they eat can affect milk.
 
Years ago, when we had our own milk cows on the farm, bitterweed would make the milk taste terrible. You had to make sure you got rid of the bitterweed in the pastures.
Richard in NW SC
 
Homogenization and Pasteurization should not change milk taste. Mixing it so the butterfat is reduced in globule size to the point that it cannot recombine into cream on top, and heating to bacteria killing level, are not really chemical in nature. Onions or other forage is likely the issue. Jim
 
Milk always tasted slightly different when we turned the cows out to pasture in the spring. I don't know if we just got used to it or if it went away later in year.
 
Ultra pasteurizing can give milk a slightly burnt or chalky taste depending on how they do it, but should not be bitter.

Most school milks is ultra pasteurized.
 
Not only the feed the cows eat will affect the taste. If the cows live in a dirty barn, the milk will, quite literally taste like crap.
 
sounds like the milk was turning sour or what we called tainted. I have been in stores that it set out an hour before put in coolers.
 
A year ago we had a friend that had one milk cow and so we drank raw milk from it. Whenever the cow could go out and eat grass it tasted really good, but when it ate grains not so much.
 
We had goats here when I was younger. If they got into the burdocks the milk stunk so bad, could hardly stand to milk them let alone drink it.
 
(quoted from post at 18:15:31 04/28/16) Milk always tasted slightly different when we turned the cows out to pasture in the spring. I don't know if we just got used to it or if it went away later in year.

I remember that as a kid too, milk tasted funny in the spring. Also do not stand behind a cow that was just put on grass LOL! I had a neighbor tell me a few years ago that friends of theirs were veggie farmers and lived next to a dairy. They had a bumper crop of cucumbers, so they started tossing them over the fence to the cows....I guess the milk coop wasn't too happy!
 
we get milk that taste like that even in winter time and the milk is going sour. Cows that eat wild onions or garlic the milk will taste like onion or garlic not sour. All the milking operation around the cows never graze they are feed in building or feed lots.
 
When my cows go out on pasture for the first time after that the color even changes to a cream color, and the milk tastes like grass, as the summer goes on it goes away since the pasture doesn't keep up and they go back to eating more stored feed.
 
Along with the feed issues....any chance that the company is repackaging old milk with newer, just like some egg producers do?
 
As Richard said, in the south it's bitterweeds--a little low-growing weed with a small yellow flower. When we had our dairy we designated one cow for the family use. We made sure she couldn't get close to bitterweeds.
 
John.........my Mom was a pusher. Here, drink some more milk; O.K, just a 1/2-glass Mom. The difference between 1/2-glass and full glass was about 1-inch. (frown) Neither my Mom nor my Dad could taste the spring weeds in the local milk, but boy did it taste BAD. The only way to make it palatable was to flood the oatmeal with lottza sugar. Fortunately, she was into Kool-aide fer lunch and supper. One thing I did love was butter-milk. Just loved the white stuff streakin' down the sides of the glass afterwords.........now why am I hungry?........Dell
 
It's Called terroir taste of the earth. Same way with meat. You can't help but wonder if this is nature's way of teaching little ones what to eat
 
I had to pick up some milk just last week after work handy place is the dollar store. I'm in Ohio and I noticed it was "funny" smelling ? I don't use much milk myself so don't know about the taste. I just put some in my oatmeal. I wrote it off to inferior product.
 
pasteurization will mot remove the bad taste from milk. In the spring it is wild onion and in the fall it is hedge apples. When we had an old cow ate a hedge apple, that milk went straight to the hogs, they didn't care what it smelled or tasted like. What you are getting in Squallmart is, as stated, from a commercial dairy where the cows are fed the same commercial feed every day. That way the milk always tastes the same. If you turn the cows out to fresh green grass in the spring without giving them some corn or other grain, the taste of the milk will be adversely effected, kinda like eating grass fed beef.
 
Growing up on the family Dairy, we had some wild hemp growing along the lot fence. The cows loved that stuff, but man did it give the milk a nasty taste and smell. Dad and us kids would go out there and pull it all up. Finally got rid of it, and didn't have that problem any more.
 
What color are the jugs and are there fluorescent lights in the cooler? The lights will cause an off flavor in regular plastic jugs. Oddly,yellow jugs prevent the off flavor.
 
Dairy animals tend to put whatever they eat right into the udder. Onions, garlic, bitter weeds, and grains can change the taste. My guess is the dairy producing the milk you are buying has had some sort of feed change. It's spring and just putting them out on pasture and letting them eat the spring grasses and weeds will change the taste. Generally pasteurizing or homogenizing won't change taste unless they are using an ultra pasteurizing process. That can make it taste cooked or even a little burnt. It could also be getting close to spoiling. As it starts to spoil it will get an off taste. I notice when it is close to turning it will taste really sweet and the next day it gets bitter. Time to toss it or turn it into cheese or yogurt.

Greg
 

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