this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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Lactose plays a role in cheese making as it is fermented by bacteria.
You can replace it with other cultures. Anything that can convert a sugar into lactic acid and you could use a milk that lacked lactose to make normal cheese. Or you can make a cheese with out the lactic acid. It will just taste a bit different.
as someone who loves cheese way too much, lactose free cheese has something off about it. it's just not cheese. not saying it's bad, but it just ain't cheese.
Lactose has a specific mouthfeel in beers, so I buy it would change cheeses dramatically.
Beer has lactose? TIL
Sometimes! Lactose is not easily fermentable, so it leaves residual sugars and a unique silky feel. Mostly in darker beers, like milk stouts or chocolate porters.
And what you absolutely don't want in beer is lactose fermenting bacteria. It gives it a cleaning rag stench.
If the cheese aged for enough time, it's getting practically lactose free in the process.