Belper Knolle

[KattGatt]

   Hi, newbie here. Currently I have some Belper Knolle, that  I have aging for 2 weeks. I checked tonight to turn and it has blue mold rounds on it !! I don't think is is supposed to be this way. So, asking all of you, should I toss it out or can I scrape the mold off? I am thinking too high humidity? I do not have a chhese cave, am trying to find a wine fridge. Thanks for any advise!! Kathie

[Schnecken Slayer]

Welcome Kathie,

Scrape the mold off and wipe down with a saturated salt and vinegar solution. You can recoat if you want.
All is not lost! it takes a while for the molds to infiltrate the cheese itself.

Post pics if you are still unsure. 

[Al Lewis]

Welcome to the forum Kathie!  I also got a spot of blue on one of mine.  I just brushed it off, let them sit out for 8 hours to dry a bit on the outside and put them back in the cave.

[Kern]

   Hi, newbie here. Currently I have some Belper Knolle, that  I have aging for 2 weeks. I checked tonight to turn and it has blue mold rounds on it !! I don't think is is supposed to be this way. So, asking all of you, should I toss it out or can I scrape the mold off? I am thinking too high humidity? I do not have a chhese cave, am trying to find a wine fridge. Thanks for any advise!!

Welcome to the forum.  I grew up in Ada County so I know and love your state.  There have been lots of threads on Belper Knolle lately.  I don't know if you are familiar enough with the search features of the Forum to have found them.  If not they are

here
here
here and
here

There is also a video that has been referenced many times in the threads above and I draw your attention to the 4:23 mark where you will notice that the peppered cheese balls get dried by fans.  The video shows a rennet process to make Belper Knolle and the procedure to do it this way is here.

I fan mine for about 48 hours in a 55F room with a relative humidity of about 60-65% before putting them in the 55F/85%RH cave.  I watch them in the cave and if the peppered rind starts to feel cool (moisture evaporating) I pop them back under the fan for a few hours.  My first two batches got blue mold, the last three have not using this procedure.

[wattlebloke]

My first batch is about 4 weeks old, and has tried growing mould too. I misted it with vodka that I put in a spray bottle (I must remember to empty it out before I use it for misting my indoor plants...!). It seemed to sterilise the cheese quite well. I then fanned them dry for a couple of hours, and back into the cave.

[Al Lewis]

Apparently the mold is created by the pepper and not the cheese.  Once I moved mine to a fridge it stopped developing the mold.

[Kern]

I agree with Al.  I just brush the round blue-gray mold spots off with a clean tooth brush.  It is the pepper that is getting moldy.  I've toasted the whole pepper corns in a non-stick frying pan to a temperature over 200F, cooled and then ground them.  Doesn't seem to make much difference so I guess that the mold spores get on the pepper during aging.  It is a nuisance more than a serious problem.  The mold growth is much less if the RH is 75-80%,