Hi, I'm Andreas. I am the son of immigrant parents (England and Germany) and have a taste for European foods, including cheese. My wife's family is from the Azores (Portuguese) too. I like to cook and have way too many hobbies...most relevant here are perhaps making cheese, homebrewing, baking rustic type breads and I have my first batch of grape wine fermenting currently. I have been making cheese for a little over a year. I have been reading this site for a little longer than that. I still consider myself a beginner.
Cheeses I have made so far:
yogurt type cheese
Quark
Mascarpone
Mozz
Camembert -- came out nice, although I have read that it didn't come out quite right.
Gouda -- tried this with a natural rind and it ended up nothing like Gouda...was still good, but hard. I still have it after a year and it is a nice grating cheese.
Raclette -- I didn't get any B linens on my first one so it ended up tasting entirely different. I have a second one in the cave now, but I had some wild mold get to it before I rediscovered containers. It has a ton of B linens on it now. I have a thread for this one.
Vacherin Fribourgeois -- I've never even tasted this cheese, but I made the recipe from 200 Cheeses and it is not quite correct. It is my cave now. I have a thread for this one too.
My interests in cheese are pretty much any kind. I'd like to make cheese types that aren't readily available or at a better quality than I can buy. I discovered Raclette while in Switzerland staying with family friends. I instantly fell in love with it and my wife (whose favorite cheese used to be "white american"!!!) now loves it too. We have two Raclette grills.
I'm here to learn from the best. You guys are amazing. I also like to drool over the amazing cheese porn.