You can also make kefir from pasteurized milk. Better than nothing.
Al - I'm afraid that I disagree with you on this. I personally think it is better to make water or coconut milk kefir or kombucha or just about any other option for fermenting rather than pasteurized, homogenized, hormonized, antibioticized, de-natured milk from cows fed grains. Milk is a fabulous food when it's natural form and can be so very bad for a body when it is destroyed in this way. I think that raw grass-fed milk is to regular milk from the store what fresh berries picked from the wild are to twinkies. I'd take a stabilized for room temperature pill form of probiotic before using pasteurized milk to ferment with. Just my opinion from how my body reacts to the two different substances.
I say if you take whatever you have that is raised properly and ferment it - you will be better off. If you have good organic beets or cabbage or cucumbers etc. - use them. If you have un-heated hand packed honey, use that. If you have a great meat source use that. If you have someone who can share with you a kombucha scoby then use tea. You can use ginger, grapes, fruit - just put a cloth on top to let the alcohol release. Fermented vinegars can be some of the best ferments that help to break down foods that are difficult to digest beautifully. If you have great naturally raised eggs - ferment them. Those are supposed to be a real delicacy and when I finally have more eggs than I eat every day I will be excited to try it. If all you have is water - get water kefir grains. Even fermented grains are better than pasteurized milk imho. I'd drink a beer from a local brewery or home made with the yeast still in it before fermented pasteurized milk any day.
The only reason you would ever use pasteurized milk is if you had cancer, couldn't get raw, and needed the sulfured milk (cottage cheese) in order to get fats to by-pass your liver. But even then...... I would choose other ways to help the liver to digest the fats instead of challenging the liver to get rid of the toxins in the bastardized milk product. The sulfur in fermented raw milk however can make fats water-soluble and get them right past the liver into the cells and is one of the best cancer remedies ever discovered - by Johanna Budwig - super genius. If you have a liver that is up to par you don't need that.... but it's good to know.
Things that I cannot eat otherwise seem to be just fine if not really good for me otherwise. So, if honey, milk, cruciferous vegetables etc. etc. usually don't digest well - don't let that scare you away from trying them fermented.
Ok, that's my little "Song of the Ferment".