My attempt at a generic "alpine" cheese

[DoctorCheese]

Hello. For this cheese I wanted to create something I could age for 3 months or so. I went with an adaptation of a recipe for an alpine cheese.

10l alpinerose milk
1 packet thermophilic
Half rennet tablet
2.5 ml CaCl
¼ tsp lipase

Between 94-100 degrees, 60 min innoculation, 60 minute rennet set. ¼ inch cut, 10 minute heal. 15 minutes stir, 40% whey removed, ¾ gallon warm water added, 10 minute stir.

Pressed 6 lb for 2 hr, then added 6 lb every hour until 54 lbs is reached. Then 12 hours pressing at 54 lb
Brined 24 hrs

I mentioned this in my other post about Butterkase, but here it is again. My curd yield seems really low from the amount of milk I am using. Any advice?

[Al Lewis]

Mine did the same.  Not sure what it is about Alpines.  Seem to lose a lot of their weight and volume.  Very dense cheese is the reason I guess.

[DoctorCheese]

 It is true that I pressed this cheese pretty extensively. However, my other cheese I made around the same time with a different brand of milk had a similarly low yield of curds from the milk.

[AnnDee]

What is the weight of this one?

[DoctorCheese]

I do not have a scale unfortunately. It is 1.25 inches tall and 6.5 inches in diameter though to give you an idea.

[Al Lewis]

You will find that if you use the cheap milk from the bottom shelf in Albertsons or Safeway you will get excellent curd yield.

[DoctorCheese]

Al Lewis- What brand are you talking about? Aren't most of the cheap milks ultra pasteurized?

[Boofer]

my other cheese I made around the same time with a different brand of milk had a similarly low yield of curds from the milk.

What is the weight of this one?

I do not have a scale unfortunately. It is 1.25 inches tall and 6.5 inches in diameter though to give you an idea.

So if you don't have a scale with which to weigh the cheese, how do you know what the yield is?

Was this whole milk, 1%, 2%...presumably P&H?

24 hour brine time seems excessive. Typical rule of thumb is 3-4 hours per pound, but there again you need to know the weight. I'd venture a SWAG of 2.5-3 pounds for the cheese @ 10 liters (around 2.5 gallons). That might give you a brine time of 9-12 hours.

I don't see where you cooked the curds at all. Did I miss something? Did this make follow a recipe?

The typical yield is one pound (450g) of cheese to each gallon (3.8 liters) of milk.

-Boofer-

[Al Lewis]

Al Lewis- What brand are you talking about? Aren't most of the cheap milks ultra pasteurized?

No they aren't.  The more expensive ones are.  Here's the label. They also have a pasteurized cream you can use.  It's the Lucerne Heavy Whipping Cream with the yellow label.  The red label is Ultra-pastuerized.

[DoctorCheese]

First off I apologize that I cannot provide quotes in my response, because I am currently on a bus to visit my parents for the holidays and it is too hard to.
Al-
 I thank you for this information about Safeway milk I will give it a shot and report results after my next cheese process.

Boofer-
 I can see why you missed the cooking process in my archaic description that I gave. Where it says add three-quarter gallon warm water it should also say That I then  brought the milk and curds back to temperature and stirred them for 10 to 15 minutes before straining the curds. You ask how I know the yield without being able to weigh what I have created and the answer to that is that I roughly followed a  bloggers Tutorial  and compared the visual approximation of what I had and what they had.  It is becoming clear to me that I should obtain a food scale so that I can more accurately portray to you wonderful people what is going on on my end. I know that what I have feels approximately like 2 pounds in my hand but again that is a pretty rough approximation.  I figured with the brine time that it would take longer to saturate because I pressed it hard for a long time. The milk is whole milk. What does SWAG mean?

[awakephd]

I have found this scale from Horror Freight to be surprisingly useful; as best I can tell it is reasonably accurate and repeatable. And best of all, it is not very expensive, especially if you catch it on sale or take advantage of a 20% coupon (frequently available from multiple sources - including signing up on-line to get their ads): http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-scale-95364.html

[DoctorCheese]

Hey awakephd I actually purchased a scale off Amazon on the bus ride over to visit my parents for the holidays so all of my future endeavors will be more accurately detailed and recorded for easier analysis by my new cheesy champions here on cheeseforum. I will also weigh my current items and at that point we will know if I had just been imagining the low yield or not.

[Boofer]

What does SWAG mean?

Scientific Wild Ass Guess.

-Boofer-

[Danbo]

Ha ha ha ha.... 

[DoctorCheese]

Update. I got a scale and this cheese is 1 lb 15 oz. I believe that means it is a little over a half pound light which could be the result of many factors-- so many in fact that its hard to speculate which is the culprit.