Ricki Carrol says 72F (meso) in her book, but seems like optimal growth/acidity temps are higher than that.
It's not wrong per se, but 72 is the ultimate meso safe harbor temp regardless of the culture strains and types. Suboptimal for common O culture.
CHR Hansen recommends incubating mesophiles (including Flora Danica) at 95-113F
Typo, that's the range for thermos. FD especially is incubated at max 75 F. I like 74F.
77-86F generally for mesos,
64-77F for “aromas” like Lactococcus lactis biovar diacetylactis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris
104-110F for thermophiles like S. thermophilus (higher end of that for bulgaricus)
Correct, that's the proper range.
ideal temp for acid production is 2-8 degrees Celsius higher than optimal temp for growth.
Yes, acid production is faster at higher temps.
using a typical starter like L. lactis +L. cremoris, what temperature would be ideal?
O type culture is at 85F.
For thermo there seems to be general agreement that 110F (to grow overnight primers) will do the trick.
Eh, that's too high for me. I do 100F, max 105. Thermos have a WIDE range of temps. You wouldn't use 100F with some Streptococcus and some helveticus, you'd use 95F. Might be okay for some strains of Helveticus. I like my helveticus at 98-100F, especially helveticus used as adjunct.
Here's the other part of this. Bacteria will change based on the temp. Meaning if you culture and grow a O type culture (lactis and cremoris) at 80F, but then make cheddar with it, and your cheddar is cooked to 102F, and you add the culture at 88F, you just grew an entire population at the lower end of the range, and then push it to perform at the higher end of the range. Not optimal. Your bacteria will be stressed. It is used to a mild temp, and then you stress the heck out of it right away. Your lag period will be suboptimal, and your population growth and acid production will be NOT what you expect. For this reason, it is usually important to culture close to the relative temps of your make. That's why the range you posted works. You use something like 76-78F for a chevre frais, and you culture FD or similar heterofermentive culture at 76F. You add culture for most continental cheeses at 88-90F, and so you culture the meso at 85F.
Thermos are a little different in that you actually want thermos to build acid slowly, and grow more in the starter, that's why you propagate at 95-105F, and then also add the mother at ~100F.
There's a lot to this. That's why I keep requesting specific questions about specific cultures; too much to type otherwise.