Manufactured Starter Cultures - Which To Buy?

[huffdaddy]

I plan on getting a goat or two to make cheese.  There are also a lot of small dairies around me, and I'm going to see if I can get some raw cow's milk from them.  But I'm at a loss as to which cultures to get.  I'm interested in making a wide variety of cheeses, including a mixture of fresh and aged cheeses. 

Should I stay with Mesophilic cultures for now?  From my limited experience, it seems as though Meso cheeses are easier to make.  Controlling the high temps of Thermo cultures is a little more difficult for me.  Again, this is from very limited experience.

And which 1 or 2 cultures should stock up on?  I'm in Korea, so getting stuff shipped over is costly and difficult.  I'd prefer making one order for the year and not have to worry about it any more.  Come next year I can expand my cheese making repertoire. 

Which cultures work best with goat milk? 

From http://thecheesemaker.com/cultures.htm there are several types of Meso:
Series MM100,101
Series MD 88-89
Series MA11
Series MA 4000-4001
Mesophilic ll Starter
Flora Danica-Mesophilic Starter
Mesophile Aroma Type B/aka Flora Danica

In addition, http://www.dairyconnection.com/cultures.htm#ezal has
Mesophilic Aromatic Type B

I was leaning towards and MM100 for my soft cheeses and MA4000 for my harder cheeses.  What about  MD88-89, which needs to be used with another Meso culture?  Or Flora Danica?  Are these valuable cultures to have also? 

[Cheese Head]

Good evening HD in Korea, I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment on your choice of cultures, the key question I think is what cheeses do you want to make?

To try and understand this world I built an info webpage on them. I bought large MM100 and am happy with it as a wide use Meso culture as I (try to) make mostly softer cheeses.

My 2 cents:
1) To optimize the cultures' strength, you'll want to ship in winter (preferably have someone hand carry over and put in plane's fridge) and store in freezer, so you should get everything you need.
2) If you click on Dairyconnection's Commercial link and fill in the form with your US SIN, they will email you a commercial account User ID, no cheaper but you'll be able to see a few more cultures.
3) Depending on the cheeses you want to make, you may need Lipase when not using goat's milk.
4) If you want to make white mold or blue mold or washed rind tyoe cheeses you'll need some of those molds/bacterias.
5) Don't forget rennet!
6) Yes it's psychological, but Annatto food colouring is nice to have for off white or yellower coloured cheeses.

[huffdaddy]

Good evening HD in Korea, I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment on your choice of cultures, the key question I think is what cheeses do you want to make?

This year I'll probably focus on just a few cheeses and try to perfect them.  I'm thinking a basic chevre, maybe feta, gouda, and cheddar.  Any other suggestions are welcome.

To try and understand this world I built an info webpage on them. I bought large MM100 and am happy with it as a wide use Meso culture as I (try to) make mostly softer cheeses.

I'd like to make a mixture of soft and semi-hard/hard cheeses. 

My 2 cents:
1) To optimize the cultures' strength, you'll want to ship in winter (preferably have someone hand carry over and put in plane's fridge) and store in freezer, so you should get everything you need.

Probably not going to get anyone to hand deliver it, but it should be cold enough these days.

2) If you click on Dairyconnection's Commercial link and fill in the form with your US SIN, they will email you a commercial account User ID, no cheaper but you'll be able to see a few more cultures.

Done, thanks for the tip.

3) Depending on the cheeses you want to make, you may need Lipase when not using goat's milk.

Will order some. 

4) If you want to make white mold or blue mold or washed rind tyoe cheeses you'll need some of those molds/bacterias.

I'd love to make me some blue cheeses.  But that'll probably wait until next year.

5) Don't forget rennet!

Got some.  Ordering more.

6) Yes it's psychological, but Annatto food colouring is nice to have for off white or yellower coloured cheeses.

There's a flower here that used to be used as a food coloring.  My gf says I should use that.  But I'll probably order some of the Annatto stuff as well.