washed rinds

[hbhokie]

Ive been making raw milk (bovine) tommes for several about 4 months now.  I'm making three 5 pound wheels each week from Jersey milk.  I've been washing the rinds with a 3% brine with geo. candidum added to the wash solution.  I've experimented with adding the geo to the milk when culturing with M4002.  My results have been pretty good.  I'm getting pretty comfortable with my process.  I'd like to experiment with some new additions for a more complex rind.  I've seen Kl17, Mycodore, and PLA mentioned on here.  Can anyone give me a quick rundown of what each is and how it will affect the final product?  Can or should any of them be used in conjunction with others?  I generally order my cultures from Dairy Connection.  I recently put in an order to restock my FD for chevre making and added some b. linens to the order. 

I began selling the tomme a few weeks ago and have sold 4 wheels so far with pretty good success.  I'm looking to get a more complex rind.  All of my tomme ages in a commercial cooler that I have set at 50 degrees.  The cooler is in an unheated area, so this time of year, it is running in the 40-45 degree range.  I've set an ultrasonic humidifier in the bottom of the cooler to raise the RH.  Before adding the humidifier, my RH was dropping to approx 50%.  I'm running about 65-70% RH now and may add another small humidifier to see if I can get it up to 75-80%.

Will I encounter any problems with storing wheels with different rind microorganisms in the same cooler?  I'm also aging my Camembert in this cooler, but keep them in sealed boxes.  I pull the Camembert out daily to flip them and open the boxes outside of the cooler.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

HB

[mtncheesemaker]

 I'd love to see some pictures of your tommes. I make a lot of tommes, usually 3-3.5#. I use only raw milk, Jersey this time of year, but mixed during the summer with goat and sheep in whatever proportion I have on hand. I inoculate the milk with Geo, B. linens and Mycodore, and don't use any of those in my wash.
The geo grows first, then is knocked back by the brine washing, and prepares the surface for the B. linens to take hold. Then, in my experience, after I quit washing, the Mycodore comes on. The result is a really pretty pink/grey/brown rind, very edible.
I age mine in boxes, because I have such low humidity, at +/- 50F. I wash the oldest ones first and try to spread the molds to the younger ones. You might get some molds jumping from one cheese to another, but that wouldn't be a bad thing, IMHO.
This is our everyday cheese. We eat it instead of cheddar which I find too time consuming to make.
You might check out the Glengarry Cheesemaking site. She sells all those molds/yeasts and her book has some good info on rind development.
Pam

[DeejayDebi]

It is very difficult sometimes not to get cross contamination from the the other cheeses. The geo loves to kiss it's sister cheeses! Keep your eyes on them and wash as needed.