Hello All, I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a few concerns about phage. There have been aprox. 6-8 affected vats of chevre that have been affected. The target pH is 4.1-4.3 for our chevre but the vat stops dead at 4.8-5.1 and the texture is not consistant with our other vats. This is very rare and I am unsure if it is phage related. We rotate 3 types of Cultures CC02 CC06 (frozens) and R704 (freeze dried) which im assuming is the most phage resistant culture of the 3. The affected vats that have been cultured with frozen ended up with a result of high ph (4.
gritty texture with no flavor, almost looks separated in the tank (We use 20,000L OST tanks) and %10 yield loss as well as slower acidification, but the pressing time was normal. The affected vats that have been cultured with freeze dried ended up with the same slow acidity progress, looked like milk pumping it, the grading was good creamy texture and taste, almost normal yield and took x3 longer to press (16hrs than our usual 5hrs). I am not sure if these characteristics fit that of phage but I am concerned as I have been here 5 years and this has never happened before and recently happened 6-8 times in the last 6 months after renovations.
Alittle more understanding would be great.