I've spent the last year attempting to make Alpine style cheeses with quite good success thanks to so many of you from this board. I've been pretty quiet here as I have never really needed to ask for advice, as every question was answered simply by searching through the posts. So after gleaning so much information from you all I thought I would post a run down of today's make and give thanks to the folks here that made it possible.
This Beaufort attempt is based largely on Sailor Con Queso's Beaufort post of March 3rd 2013 but was tweaked by input from greats such as Linuxboy, Alpkaserei, Arnaud, Jeff Hamm, Boofer, H-K-J, Gorkan, Al Lewis, DeejayDebbi, as well as Margret Morris and Wilma Klein Swormink of Glengarry Fine Cheese and for sure many more. Thanks guys!
So I started with 16 liters of Liberte organic 3.8% Pasteurized unhomogenized cow's milk
Starter cultures: (Still working on getting a scale that can go to thousandths so for now I'm still using spoons)
1-16th tsp Meso III (same as MA011)
1-16th tsp Aroma B (same as Flora Danica)
1-16th tsp LH100 (Lacto Helveticus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii blend)
1-16th tsp TA 061 (Strep Therm)
1-32 tsp Propionic shermanii (Friendly Sherman)
5 am: Milk out of the fridge to slowly warm up.
7am: Milk into double boiler with water bath at 101 F
8:28 am: Milk at 90F pH 6.61
8:30 am: Cultures in, waited 5 minutes, top stirred for 20 strokes. Breakfast time!
9:16 pH down to 6.51, three quarter tsp Ca Cl , 20 strokes, one half tsp single strength calf rennet, 20 strokes. Still the milk and start the flocc clock! Dip cake knife in milk for flocc every 30 seconds.
9: 30 First sign of flocc 14 X 3= 22 minutes to cut. (A little short so will lower rennet next time)
9:57 Good clean break achieved on second try. (Curds a bit soft so preparing kidd gloves for stirring) Cut into 1 inch cubes, waited 4 mins to heal. cut into peanut sized curds, waited around 10 minutes to heal.
10:18 Gently stirring without heating.
10:31 Stirring with heat! First ten minutes got me to 94 then ramped up the heat as the curds became firmer.
11:03 pH 6.46 and 116F; still stirring and heating. Strong rice sized curds.
11:15 Hit 127 F coinciding with 6.3 pH woo hoo!! Get these babies to shore!
11:16 Whey off, and into the hoop.
I use one of Glengarry's hardwood cheese presses so I don't have psi points to note here. Some day I will buy Carter's wonderful pneumatic one when I get the cash.
11:18 Pressed lightly under whey for 15mins
11:33 Flipped pressing a bit more for 30 mins (still under whey)
12:05 Took press out of the whey. Flipped and pressed harder for 1 and a half hours to close the rind.
1:40 Flipped and pressed again for the rest of the day. Which is where I am now.
At fourth pressing she's clocking in at 1.86 Kg or 4.1 lbs.
Will likely wake up real early to take a core pH. before it gets below 5.3. I know a Beaufort is meant to be a blind cheese but after a week of washing with B Linens and my Bohemian Pilsner I may try to get some eyes for the hell of it. It's never worked for me before but with the right salt and pH who knows?
Thanks to all of you for your guidance and remarkable courtesy here. Hats off to you!
Nathan