Point of using raw milk for making yogurt?

[jenniepaige]

I've been doing some reading on this topic and it seems that there really isn't a point in using raw milk to make yogurt. You have to heat it up around 185 which sort of pasteurized the milk destroying what's so great about it. But I was reading that milk is pasteurized when it is held at 30 mins at around 130 degrees then cooled down. So, is it still pasteurizing it when it goes to the higher temp. but only for a second?
I saw somewhere else that you can still make yogurt if you only heat it up to around 100 degrees but I'm not so sure about that.
Of course, even if it does become pasteurized it's STILL better then regular milk but does it justify the higher rice paid for it?
Right now I get raw milk for excellent grass fed milk for $5/gallon and regular milk is around $3.50 give or take. "Organic" milk is closer to $6/gallon which I don't even really bother with anymore.

[CrunchyChristianMama]

You can get raw milk for only $5 a gallon!!! So jealous.

Anyway, you can get yogurt starter that cultures at room temperature for use in raw milk. You still have the benefit of it not being homogenized as well even if you do go the heated route.

[jenniepaige]

I was getting it at $6/gallon in plastic jugs and this is even in 1/2 gallon glass jars making it 10 times better plus it's only 5 min away from my house!
(not to rub it in or anything it's just that we just found this jewel of a farm)

But where would you get the not heatet one? Never heard of it. I got my starter from a health food store and it's just the regular powdered kind.

[snowbunny]

You don't have to heat it to 185 to make raw milk yogurt, instead, just heat it to about 100 - 104 F, mix in your starter and culture it in your yogurt maker. If you're planning on keeping a pure seed starter, you'll need to scald the milk first, culture it and use that as your starter that you then add to raw milk. Preparing a starter in this manner will keep the bacteria strains in your desired yogurt more or less pure.

[jenniepaige]

Thank you for the info!
I don't have a yogurt maker but you usually keep the temp at around 110-115 degrees. What should it stay at then?
In the case where you scald the milk to make a pure starter first do you still have to heat up the milk?