Perhaps the most important consideration in good flavored milk products is the proper handling of the milk from the time it is "harvested" to the time that it is made into cheese. Here are the critical factors I have discovered over a couple of decades of keeping goats and making cheese. All of these are aimed at keeping bacterial contamination as low as possible. Undesirable bacteria are what make milk products taste rotten. The goal in cheese-making is to add bacteria which produces good tastes while avoiding the rest. Never try to make cheese out of "turned" (or spoiled) milk--the unpleasant flavor will linger. Feed it to your pets, if they will drink it. Otherwise, put it on the compost pile.  Note that repeated reference is made to complete drying.  The reason is that most bacteria do not survive well on dry surfaces in the absence of organic material.

AVOIDING BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION IN YOUR MILK PRODUCTS

1) Cleanliness/Sterility of milking cans:

a)  Immediately after milking, rinse equipment in lukewarm water to remove the majority of milk.  If you let the equipment sit, the milk will glue itself in the cracks and crevices, and will be come a breeding ground for bacteria.
b)  Subsequently, you should carefully wash the rinsed milking cans in very hot soapy water, rinse well, and dry COMPLETELY. If you have no problems with odor or taste in your milk, you may not need to actually sterilize cans, jars and lids in boiling water. But if you are having problems, these implements should be boiled, and air dried.

1. wash implements well in very hot water and soap
2. rinse thoroughly in very hot fresh water
3. ensure that they thoroughly dry before using

2) Filter freshly milked milk immediately through a sterile fine-weave cloth:
Immediately upon milking, filter the warm milk through a fine weave sterile handkerchief (sterilized by boiling and then completely drying). This filtering removes goat hair and dander which are VERY rich in bacteria and can make milk and cheese taste and smell funky.  It is the action of bacteria found on hair and dander on goat butterfat which gives improperly handled goat milk products its "goaty" flavor.

3) Store milk only in scrupulously clean, completely dried jars:
Filter into scrupulously clean jars, cleaned at least as well as the milking cans (sterilize in boiling water if you are in doubt). Use wide-mouthed jars if possible since they are more easily cleansed. [If careful attention is paid to cleansing, boiling and thorough drying of all apparatus does not help prevent spoilage, (strong goat flavor, etc.), you might resort to such poisonous chemicals as chlorine to treat surfaces.]

4) Chill the freshly milked and filtered milk in an ice bath as quickly as possible.
To retard spoilage of milk, the importance of rapid and complete cooling to near freezing cannot be over-emphasized.  "Funkifying" bacteria HATE such cold conditions. I reserve a second refrigerator (outside in my garage) for my milk and cheese. On the floor of this refrigerator, I have a large 2 gallon plastic bucket which is half filled with near-freezing water. I keep blocks of ice floating in it so it's temperature remains at 0ºC (32ºF). Another block of ice is added each time a fresh jar of warm milk is placed in the chiller. (I freeze this ice in 12 oz strong plastic cups filled with clean water.) Chilling in this apparatus is much more rapid than air chilling in a refrigerator.

5) Keep the milk chilled at 4ºC until ready for use.  Do not add warm milk to previously chilled milk.  It will encourage any bacteria in the older milk to grow.

Follow these steps, maintaining a temperature of no more than  4ºC and your milk should keep easily for more than a week without pasteurization. If milk is kept this long, more cream can be skimmed off when making cheese. Freeze this cream immediately after skimming to produce delicious ice cream.
 

(If you don't follow these steps closely, you risk a number of bacterial contaminations including those of Salmonella, Escherichia coli and reportedly, Listeria.)