Fermenting Milk... into alcohol

I recently tried doing something with milk I had never done-- turning it into alcohol! I figured since alcohol is yeast and sugar combined to create alcohol, I could do the same with milk. I looked at other sources to see how this would be done, but according to them the typical yeast used in brewery apparently can't digest lactose 😑. Well, I was like 'screw that' and decided to try anyway by, as I said, mixing honey and putting it somewhere to ferment. I know obviously that milk will clabber if left at room temperature for two days, but I decided to see what would happen. After all it couldn't hurt😜. Well I had sort of hoped a wild yeast would colonize the milk and the sugar in the honey would be digested and thus turned into alcohol. Instead after two it looked the same! I guess I'll try again one day, but what really intrigued me about this experiment was that the milk didn't clabber! Usually after leaving out for that long it typically solidifies into tangy, curdy mass. But this time it stayed liquid, which I guess could be due to the honey since it could have inhibited the bacterias' ability to turn the milk sour. At least that's my best guess. Any input for next time?

i’ve seen people talking about doing milk-meads on some homebrew forums. they all insist that one should either start with lactose-free milk or use an enzyme (lactase?) that will convert the lactose into a more fermentable form.

they all mostly find the finished product fairly disgusting, too.

i’m afraid that that’s all the help i’ll be good for on this.

Thanks for that, yeah I'll research more about and then maybe I can publish my findings

Welcome to Permies!

Welcome to the forum.  What you are trying to make is called Kumis.

Kumis is a dairy product similar to kefir, but is produced from a liquid starter culture, in contrast to the solid kefir "grains". Because mare's milk contains more sugars than cow's or goat's milk, when fermented, kumis has a higher, though still mild, alcohol content compared to kefir.

Kumis is made by fermenting raw milk (that is, unpasteurized) over the course of hours or days, often while stirring or churning. (The physical agitation has similarities to making butter.) During the fermentation, lactobacilli bacteria acidify the milk, and yeasts turn it into a carbonated and mildly alcoholic drink.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumis

According to what I have read yogurt can be used as the starter and the more sugar or honey used determines the alcohol content.

I made a whey wine once.  I used a combination of white and brown sugar.  It was pretty darn good.  Tasted sort of like cream soda.

I do know off the top of my head that wine, beer or baking yeast - Saccharomyces cerevisiae - won't ferment lactose.  There is one though that is in kefir, probably the same one as in kumis, but I can't remember the name.  It's the one that sometimes gets into cheese and makes it smell yeasty and turn out spongy.  That cheese goes to the pig.  Anyway, I digress when I say that this info puts to rest the idea that you can't make cheese in the same kitchen you bake bread in.

Whey is sometimes fermented and distilled into neutral spirits (ethanol) for inclusion in beverages. Shanky’s Whip is an Irish liqueur that used to be advertised as whey-spirit based, for one. Apparently K. marxianus can break down lactose.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kluyveromyces_marxianus

https://modernfarmer.com/2020/03/the-rise-of-milk-vodka/