Yes, they've always said that when in doubt, use the recipe on the website. I was simply more surprised by how MUCH the site recipe differed from the original - most others had less differences, in aggregate, than that one did. I've pretty much stopped doing Gouda anyway - I was only doing those for lack, at the time, of a Havarti recipe.
On the other hand, that Gouda I posted about above is now 6 weeks and tastes worse than it did at 3-1/2 weeks. I'm wondering whether to just give it away now or see if it gets any better in a few more weeks.