Hi cottagecheese,
I've had a poke around the forum, and have found some discussions where people recommend leaving the whey for 24 or 48 hours, so the idea that it must be fresh seems like it might be a bit of a myth.
As for where to age your cheese, here's what I'm doing for a "cave". I use a chilly bin. I put a cutting board on the floor that leaves space at one end of the chilly bin. The space is large enough to stand two 2 litre milk jugs. These are filled with water and then frozen, so it's 2 litres of ice (leave room at the top for expansion or it will spit when you freeze them). The space is so that any condensation on the milk jugs ends up on the floor of the bin, and the cheese is up on the cutting board where it's dry. Actually, I sit the cheese on a layer of chop sticks, spaced out a bit, on top of the cutting board, which allows air to reach both top and bottom.
I keep a thermometer in the chilly bin to check the temperature morning and evening. It stays in teh 10-12 deg C range. Also, I wipea up any water that is under the milk jugs when I change them. They get changed every morning and eveneing. So far, seems to work ok. Not sure of the humidity, but so far none of my cheese have cracked.
- Jeff