Author Topic: Brew-curds Cheddar -- nice surprise  (Read 2080 times)

bbrown131211

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Brew-curds Cheddar -- nice surprise
« on: March 23, 2013, 04:45:07 PM »
I have made this cheddar before with positive comments from tasters. I followed Mary Karlin's recipe from Artisan Cheesemaking at Home. Used a Shiner Bock instead of ale -- just to try it. Make went well. The surprise was the orange color -- did not add annato -- so must have been high in beta-carotene. Sorry to say, though, I am losing my favorite local dairy. They are selling and retiring. Darn!!! Here it is just out of the press and drying.

High Altitude

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Re: Brew-curds Cheddar -- nice surprise
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2013, 05:01:38 PM »
Oh that looks beautiful!  I use the same book and have made her farmhouse cheddar twice now (get wonderful knit) and the Irish cheddar (though I just made it plain...no whiskey :-(.  Neither of these is ready for tasting yet though.  Next up is the brewer's curd cheddar...woo hoo!  I will use a brown nut ale or similar as that is what I prefer to drink. 

Are you using a ph meter for your makes (not that Mary has readings in her book I know).  I seem to recall someone making a brewer's cheddar but they had issues with too high acidity that they suspected was due to the "marinating" the curds in brew prior to pressing as well as in the brining stage. 

Sounds like your other make(s) was good (got any pics for us?), so let us know how this one turns out in a few months.  I am particularly curious to know whether the cheese gets crumbly/dry from the acidification of beer.  I will make this soon and post my progress here too...if you will  ;D.

Cheers to beer cheese!

BobE102330

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Re: Brew-curds Cheddar -- nice surprise
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2013, 05:35:19 PM »
The obvious solution to your milk problem is to become a dairywoman, Barbara. 

The cheese looks very nice.  I'm waiting on my Guinness double milled cheddar from the same book, page 128 sidebar.  I hope it's good - it is a birthday present for my little brother's 50th. 

tnbquilt

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Re: Brew-curds Cheddar -- nice surprise
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2013, 03:52:44 PM »
It's lovely! I made the recipe and it didn't work out. It was obviously a problem with not enough acid production, but there are so many things that produce the acid that it's hard to tell. I've been blaming it on the 30 minute cook time, but if you are having good results with it then maybe the culture was old, or something else.

I will try it again in a couple of weeks.

bbrown131211

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Re: Brew-curds Cheddar -- nice surprise
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2013, 12:13:09 AM »
True confessions -- I cooked it longer than the recipe because I was waiting for the "white chicken meat" look. So, it was close to an hour cooking to get temp up to 102, then sat 40 minutes followed by heating in colander over the whey for an hour. Not sure if that is the difference or not.

H6

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Re: Brew-curds Cheddar -- nice surprise
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2014, 03:28:28 AM »
How did the brew curds end up in the end? I'm getting ready to make it myself and have been thinking that the cook time in her book was too little. Wish me luck! :)

DrChile

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Re: Brew-curds Cheddar -- nice surprise
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2014, 08:56:34 PM »
Nice cheese!
I've done the Irish Cheddar that Mary has in her book - it was too mild and tasted bland at 4 months.  So I'm aging it to at least 8-9 months and we'll see.
Also been afraid of the brew-curd cheddar being too acidic…

Trent