Ooooh...Gouda!

[linuxboy]

pH stops falling once the bacteria stop producing lactic acid. Yes, in cheddar, and most other cheeses, some bacteria continue eating the lactose, but decreasingly so. Usually, it will stabilize 1-2 days after press, and then over time most cheeses will rise a little in pH during maturity. Some, like emmenthaler, rise a lot, all the way to the high 5s or low 6s.

You are right, vac sealing does inhibit the natural interactions, but not so much of the bacteria, which enter an anerobic/survival phase anyway, but more so of the physical cheese. Oxygen, for example, aids some catabolytic and proteolytic processes. Similar to wine in analogy, but different pathways.

You will produce different flavors when you vac seal vs air age.

And yes, the bacteria first eat, then slow down eating as they run out of food, then go to sleep, then slowly die off over time.

[Sailor Con Queso]

Assuming it's an impermeable membrane, doesn't waxing cut off oxygen and inhibit proteolysis as well?

I know that Francois has talked about vac bagging Swiss and others to create rindless cheeses. Of course many commercial makers use flavor enhancers and some age at higher temperatures so they can get product out the door quicker. I have also read a couple of articles recently that suggest slow aging around 45F. They suggest that bacterial breakdown and proteolysis takes longer but produces a much more complex cheese.

[linuxboy]

Sailor, cutting off oxygen has to do with the redox reaction in oxidative phosphorylation. Meaning glycolysis and ATP/NADH. Sorry, no time to get into a detailed explanation right now. But recall that cell walls in bacteria have a shell of bonded polysaccharides, and when they break up, the glycolysis of those sugars are important, as is the glycolysis of residual lactose and any trace sugars that remain. Proteolysis by proteases in protein catabolism is simpler than that; it's just the hydrolysis of peptide bonds in the caseins into the monomer amino acids that make them up.

Try saying that one three times fast

Having the cheese exposed to the air not only provides oxygen, it also removes any gases produced, lowers the water content, etc. This makes for a different cheese. Not fundamentally different, of course, just slightly different in terms of the balance on the sensory wheel. But that subtle difference is sometimes the difference between good and fantastic.

You're right, a lower aging temp will produce a more complex cheese, but it takes a long, long time. Not practical for most producers; there are bills to pay

edit: Re:oxygen and water. This is more important when there are active cell processes that go on, meaning in the first 2-4 weeks of maturity. Those weeks are ultra crucial to the final character of the cheese because bacteria still carry out metabolytic processes, mostly anaerobic. With active metabolysis, Krebs and other similar processes have a chance to produce more complex foundational compounds that are then key in later chain reactions as the cheese ages from 30 days to eating.

[mosborn]

Yesterday I cut the Gouda that I made on November 21.   
I used the recipe from Ricki Carroll's "Home Cheese Making" book, -- mostly -- as close as I could.    The final aging was in the vegetable bin at the bottom of my refrigerator, so that's got to be cooler than 50 degrees.  I put a few tablespoons of liquid smoke in the one gallon of whole cow milk, storebought milk at Aldi.
   I posted this picture of how I pressed it before.  Some of you might remember.   Seems to have worked.
   I waxed it with melted candles I bought at the thrift shop.   
It came out like smoked Gouda.    Seemed pretty good, but then I'm not a cheese expert.  I just make stuff and eat it and think it's pretty darned cool.  That, with some of my homemade-from-frozen-grape-juice-concentrate wine, and I think I'm doing something neat.     It's enough to amuse myself and impress my friends, anyway.
   
Thanks to all of you guys for your help, encouragement and information.  As you can see, you have nothing to worry about as far as competition goes!  LOL

[DeejayDebi]

I love your setup Mosborn! Looks too familuar!