Wheyskey, anyone? Or perhaps some Cowcohol?
It’s not the most obvious ingredient for spirits, but distilling with whey—the watery liquid left once curds have formed from milk, a key step in the cheesemaking process—is a more established practice than many people realize.
A variety of whey-based spirits have been appearing in recent years on store shelves and in online shops, from vodka to aquavit to, yes, Wheyskey, a barrel-aged spirit from Oregon-based brand Wheyward Spirit. While some small distilleries in Europe and Down Under have been using whey over the past several years, it appears to be only recently catching on in the United States.