Goat Milk Cheese Makers

[lovinglife]

Anyone on here who has dairy goats and makes long aged cheese, such as cheddar?  I am having great luck with short aged cheese but I can't get a long aged cheese to taste good.  It is ok for a few months then after like 4 starts tasting, a well, not so good, goatie.  I have purchased a ph meter to hopefully assist in producing a good cheddar but I could sure use some pointers.  I usually use raw milk, the last batch I pasteurized to see if that made a difference, but not sure on that yet, a little early to judge yet.  so Help??  Please!!!!

[H-K-J]

You may want to give the forum a look at your recipe, temp, stir times, draining, cheddaring, pressing, you know stuff that will give us a look at your process

[awakephd]

No personal experience (unfortunately -- I would love to try working with goats milk!) -- but I have read that the way to reduce the "goatiness" is to keep the bucks and the does separated. Maybe Tiarella or someone else with goats will chime in ...

[lovinglife]

I am on all the goat forums, the milk is fantastic not goatie at all and the bucks have a separate pen.  It is just the long aging, I didn't take notes so I can't do all that, I followed one recipe was for a simple like farmers cheese, fine at first not so fine after aging, my gouda is wonderful at one or two months, not so much after that.  I followed the recipe from "The Art of Natural Cheesemaking" for the last batch, I made a different batch following a recipe from New England Cheese Making Supply using cultures instead of kefir thinking maybe the goat was overpowering something in there or maybe the kefir was keeping something in the goat milk active.  Also it isn't just cheddar it is pretty much anything I make that needs to age over a couple months.  Just hoping someone on here was really good at using goat milk and might have some ideas or know what I am doing wrong or is it just the way goat milk is with aging.  If that is the case I will focus on making cheese that is good with shorter aging and maybe someday I will figure something out.

Thanks

[SOSEATTLE]

In general, because of the types of fatty acids found in goat's milk, the gaminess/goatiness of cheese will increase with time as goat's milk cheese ages. Things like diet and breed can have some influence on how strong this flavor is, but is a normal characteristic of goat's milk. I personally have developed a taste for this characteristic, but other people don't so much prefer it. It is all subjective and a matter of personal preference.


Susan

[lovinglife]

I was wondering if it had something to do with the fact it is goat milk.  My girls get fantastic alfalfa and have pasture, very healthy and happy, Nubians, which are known to have some of the best tasting milk.  So, I will change my focus and start making cheese less aged, or try to develop a taste for it...  Do you make butter with goat milk?  I find the same thing with that, great at first but don't keep it in the fridge very long unless you like the goatie flavor.  Going to try cultured milk and see how that goes, also I will freeze what we won't use in a day or two.

[SOSEATTLE]

I haven't done butter, but most often use goat's milk for my cheese.


Susan