Thank you for all the great advice. You all have definitely put our minds at ease as far as the mold situation. Sunday was cheese waxing day, and it went well. The cheese is now in the cave aging.
So a little bit more about the cheese and why I thought it was too moist. We made a farmhouse cheddar following the first hard cheese recipe in Home cheesemaking by Ricki Carol. Out of the press the cheese looked really great with nice straight sides, but the next day it had slumped and looked like a elephant foot as Gregore said. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture. The cheese dried for almost two weeks and with flipping twice a day it eventually evened out so it doesn't look like an elephant foot anymore. Attached is a picture of the waxed cheese. We picked clear wax to hopefully be able to see any mold growth underneath.
So next steps... Flipping the cheese weekly to check for pin holes of whey leaking out, check for mold growth, check to make sure the wax is still stuck to the cheese. Anything else? We are planning on opening it as soon as a month because we are really excited to try our first hard cheese. What would you all recommend as a next cheese to tackle? Another farmhouse cheddar with a different mold?
Also that cheese cave is fantastic. What size cheeses are those larger ones?
QD, don't be alarmed if, when you open it at one month, it doesn't have a lot of cheddar flavor. A farmhouse style, with more moisture in it, will develop more quickly, but a true cheddar won't taste like much of anything for at least 6 months. You might consider cutting it in half, and if you like it, eat one half but rewax the other half and put it back to age further. And if you don't care for it at that point, rewax both halves and put them back.
As far as the next cheese - it wouldn't be very different from the farmhouse, perhaps, but you might look at a Lancashire - this is my favorite quick-ripening (6 weeks), cheddar-family, easy to make cheese. There's been some recent discussion about it, and a search will turn up several recipes. Another to consider is a Caerphilly - even quicker-ripening, ready in 3 weeks. For this one, be aware that there are two somewhat distinct recipes; one involves a cheddaring/milling/salting approach before pressing, while the other just lets the curds rest in the whey for 45 minutes before pressing, followed by brining.
