With my caerphilly make yesterday, I switched starter from Flora Danica to MA4001, trying to keep other variables the same, because I wanted to see what difference there might be in the make, and in the taste later on. (I have a FD Caerphilly made 2 weeks ago).
With the FD caerphilly, it took about 2 hours between cutting the curd, and pH drop to 6.4 for draining. With the MA4001, the time was barely over an hour. In fact, the pH was 6.4 earlier, but I tried to hold it there by removing 1/3 of the whey, and then I stirred more vigorously to try and get more whey out of the curd as it was very soft.
The ending pH this morning was 5.5, which is what I usually have for caerphilly.
Was this a logical response to the ph dropping before the curd had lost enough whey?