Howdy! My name's Jerome, I live in the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle, Washington with my wife, Janet. We have a passion for quality food and beverage - particularly in doing it for ourselves. I'm a long time hobby brewer, more recently a hobby charcutier, pickler, baker & spirit maker, and new to cheese making as a hobby.
Santa was good to us last Christmas, left a decent kit of gear in our stocking and we've knocked out a couple of cheeses since the New Year; gouda, whey ricotta (delicious!), 2 batches of farmhouse-style cheddars, camembert, a bloomy lactic set goat cheese, and a semi-hard washed curd cheese that we're washing the rind with Trappist ale. Nothing is quite ready to try yet but I'm hopeful that we're off to a good start.
I love cheese, but bloomy rinds, slightly stinky, sharp, and blue cheeses the best. I'm looking forward to playing with bloomy rind and washed rind cheeses the most, using my home brews as a washing medium and exploring the intersection of beer micro-flora with cheese micro-flora.
So far I've been reading a lot (finding "Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking" by G. Caldwell was perfect), getting the cheese "caves" dialed in, proceeding to make cheese with some careful trial & error, and looking forward to making a lot more cheese. Getting a pH meter on hand & building a proper cheese press are next on the list.
I don't really have an issue to bring to the forum right off the bat; except that I'm curious if there are any organized hobby cheese making clubs in the Seattle/King County area. I've been in home brew clubs for a long time; great opportunity to meet folks, share information, equipment, and plan events. If the interest is there, I'd be willing to organize a group.
I'm glad to have found the forum and look forward to hanging around.
Cheers,
Jerome