Got Bilk?

I can hear it now, thousands of Japanese husbands will be telling their wives: "Honest honey, I just had five or six glasses of milk with the boys."

Consumers in the city of Nakashibetsu on the island of Hokkaido can now enjoy an ice cold brew made from cow's milk. A local brewery is working with a farmer who wanted to find a way to use surplus milk. The end result is something they are calling bilk.

The brewery says it is using the same technology employed to make conventional beer, but it heats the wort with hot air instead of a flame because milk boils at a lower temperature. The end product looks like standard beer, but is said to have a slightly fruity taste. It sells for about $3 a bottle.