Hey Ben,
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I missed out this post until now.
By drier curd, I mean curd that contains less whey per volume. It gives you firmer cheese. When you cut curd smaller, you create more walls which whey can come out of per your total volume of curd. This is why, recipes for harder cheese typically require more more cutting and even using whisk. Brie is a moist soft cheese, so the curd is usually ladled and layered. Camembert curd is cut to large cubes and scooped. Hard, dry cheeses like Parmesan require curd that has been cut to the size of rice grains. The problem with Camembert type cheeses is that you ripen the milk for very long time and then rennet it for long time. This apparently changes the cellular structure of the curd and causes it to retain more liquid than similarly cut curd of other cheese which has ripened and renneted half the time. This result in fast maturation outside, slow maturation inside, liquid, ammonia, skin slip. My practice is to make up for the excess moisture by simply cutting the curd smaller and letting it release more whey. It gives me the moisture that requires an extra 5-7 days to age, but I get nice firm cheese that matures slowly to liquid and the inside will reach maturity before the outside smells like Ammonia and the skin slips.
As for the brine: yes. I salt the cheese when I take it out of the molds (24 hours). In spite of my generous sprinkle, the salt isn't enough; most of it washes off in the osmosis and whey drainage over the next few days. When the cheese is done, it is undersalted. I then dip it in 18% brine (1 cup kosher salt, 4.5 cups filtered water, 1/4 tsp CalCl, up to 1 tsp White Vinegar). I do this for 2.5-3 hours per side, per Lb. If you do this for too long you risk over-salting your cheese and losing the white rind you so beautifully prepared over the past few weeks... Reducing the brine salinity is NOT the answer - most bacteria will survive it if its below 16% (in fact you may encourage the growth of unwanted bacteria). This will take a bit of practice until you feel that you got it right. This has extended the shelf lives of my cheeses by more than a month! Ut also have a side effect of slightly hardening the rind and locking more moisture in.
Send me a message if you need more help with this!