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For those who make their own cheese here's something else you might consider doing with the whey - make a wine. You simply take the leftover whey: what you are looking for is a) the flavor and b) the remaining lactose sugars (which are not fermentable under normal conditions - they are too complex for wine or beer yeasts to breakdown) To this you add some fermentable sugar (could be honey or table sugar or maple syrup or ??). For lower alcohol drinks similar to a beer or cider you might add about .5 kg (1 lb) to each 4 liters (gallon), for something closer to a wine you might add 1 kg. Mix and then add a packet of wine or ale yeast (or even bread yeast).
This may take about two weeks to ferment and then you might add fruit (strawberries?) or nuts (peanuts?) or coffee or even chocolate (cocoa beans?) for additional flavor. The flavor of whey wine itself is a little unusual. It has great "mouthfeel" (viscosity) and is slightly piquant - and presumably will be more or less acidic depending on the cheese that was made with that batch of milk.

The idea of using the whey leftover from cheese making is apparently very old and the wines made from this were called "blaand" (blonde? )in Scotland. The trouble is that blaand was not made commercially but only as part of a cottage industry and it seems to have fallen out of favor in the last 100 years as cheese moved from being made at home to being made industrially. Finding authentic recipes for blaand is a challenge but my sense is that people would have simply used bread yeast if they were adding fermentable sugars or would have found some way to add a very specific yeast to ferment the lactose (Candida pseudotropicalis, for example). But today, you can make a whey "wine" that would have the same alcohol content as kombucha or kvass simply by adding lactase to the whey which would break down the lactose into fermentable sugars and so simply add a bread or wine yeast (they are the same thing).
I started a batch of whey wine last night after removing the curds to start a batch of blue cheese. If folk are interested I will keep you informed of the progress and any "tasting notes". (The University of Oregon, here in the USA, was involved in a study in the 70's to look at the economic viability of using whey to make wine and the paper they published did look at this in a very positive light).

Very interesting. I often make Crowdie, which leaves huge amounts of very sweet whey. I'm not planning any in the near future but I'll try and remember this when I do.

Do let us know how it progresses.

Interestingly, Maggie, this batch of whey wine was made from the whey leftover from a batch of blue cheese. I had used kefir to culture the milk and blue cheese cultures for the P Roqueforti. I never measured the pH but had allowed the milk to ripen at 90F (about 32 C) for 60 minutes and had allowed the rennet to coagulate the milk for 90 minutes, stirring for about 30 so all in all the milk (and so the whey) was exposed to acidifying cultures for a little more than 3 hours at temperature. My sense is that this will result in an acidic rather than a sweet whey but I am not trying to ferment the lactose here. My focus is on fermenting the honey. I am hoping that the acidity will balance the residual sweetness and provide additional "complexity".

At this stage I am not sure whether I want to add fruit (mangoes, perhaps - or strawberries ) to the secondary to make this a sortof kindof alcoholic milk shake or to add cocoa nibs to make this a chocolate drink...

I really wouldn't want to spend time, effort or ... ANYTHING doing that. I just don't want wine tasting of dairy or animal products. As an ... umm.... 'interesting' experiment, if you're REALLY bored and just wonder whether it's possible, I suppose there might be something tiny merit but it's not for me thanks.

I've heard of onion wine and actually made lemon wine (once) but at least they are based on veg matter - and they're on the limit of sensible wine ingredients for me.

Great point except the reality is that whey wine does not taste of cheese or milk. The whey is essentially lactic acid with a tiny amount of lactose and lactose is often added to beers when making "milk stout" (does not taste like milk but it is a sugar that most bread/beer/wine making yeast cannot ferment so it adds sweetness to a beer) and lactic acid is the key acid in true pickles (pickles made with brine not vinegar) and lactic acid does not taste like milk. Bottom line: if you are not interested in using lactose /lactic acid in making wines or beers (and sour beers are often soured with lactic acid), then so be it.

I'm sure I've got a recipe for milk wine in one of my books. As in made from (lacto-free) milk, not just whey - some story about a priest in Alaska (I think) believing that the devil in drink is in the fusel oils and that, apparently, brewing milk wouldn't produce fusel oils. Fairly sure I've seen pics of someone making it, the curds seperate out during fermentation.
I've got to admit, it's not one I am tempted by, and I've brewed some odd things, including a beer that that had a chicken carcass in it.

Lemon Wine? I have a gross excess of grapefruit (I can't find anyone who eats it, not even the cows or horses), perhaps mixed with other citrus I have available a reasonable wine could be forthcoming?

Lemon wine can be very delicious. There is a great recipe for a version called "Skeeter Pee" (skeeter being US slang for the mosquito and pee being pee). This uses a great deal of lemon juice but the original recipe uses lemon concentrate and this is really an adult version of lemonade - VERY drinkable. Grapefruits are a bit different IMO. Unlike most other fruits (oranges are another exception) you really need to dilute grapefruit juice so that when all sugar has been fermented the wine does not taste unpleasantly bitter. I would bench test the ratio of water to juice but you may want to dilute this 1 juice to 4 parts water (I dilute cranberry juice 1 : 8) But in any event, there are recipes published on line and some of them ( OK a few of them) are tested and are good.
As an aside, if you make grapefruit wine I would make sure that everyone you share this with knows that the main ingredient is grapefruit. Grapefruit apparently modifies the way many people metabolize different meds and the effect can be to enhance their potency OR to inhibit their potency - and both can lead to complications... Just sayin' ..

Thanks Bernard - Yes, I was warned against Grapefruit after the last heart attack - apparently very high in Potassium which interferes with the Blood pressure and stabilising meds. Since I ditched all meds quite a while ago not a problem for me personally (except I don't like them)

Nice post, thanks for sharing!