Mostly Nubian and Alpine with a little Boer in all of them.
Are genetics mixed, meaning multiple lines, or do you have shared genetics? I'm trying to eliminate this as a cause. Some lines just have absolutely terrible milk for cheesemaking. It's somewhat rare, but if all your does share similar parentage, it could be a contributor.
Not sure what you mean by numbers, Butterfat was 3.75 at last test. That was a few years ago.
When you get your milk tested, what is the SCC, BF, protein, lactose, etc. PM if you prefer. Now, what I'm trying to do is eliminate milk abnormalities as a possible cause. It could be that you have sub-clinical mastitis, or your feed program is making for unusual milk, like milk with too much nitrogen in it from feeding excess protein. Your pellet is a 20% protein. Easy to overfeed. I feed mine a whole grain mix that I balance to 14% protein, and use alfalfa + browse for calcium and roughage.
They eat Blue Seal Dairy Goat Pellet,
OK, how much per head? Or are you free feeding? here, in the nutrition discussion, I am trying to determine if the caloric, element, protein, fat, fiber, calcium, phosphorus, etc needs are being met, or if they are out of balance. Please, give me some specifics if possible.
They have free choice minerals high in copper, and free choice hay.
Which brand minerals? What kind of hay? What are the hay numbers if you had the hay tested?
They also are out on pasture mostly grass all day.
What kind of grass?
I sanitize all equipment and let air dry.
What sanitizer?
I wash udders ,dry and teat dip. I wash my hands and hand milk. I strain and cool.
How fast do you cool? To grade A standards?
I have made, cheddar, Colby, MonterayJack, Havarti, all with similar results.
Those are all basically the same cheese. They're in the same family type.
I have an Edam that I have not yet opened. I am using Meso MM 100 or Ma11. I was using generic Meso from Hoeggers.
I have yet to make Tomme. It seems like an awful lot of time to invest into something that will taste bad.
I don't follow. My tomme is one of the fastest makes out there. You go from vat to press in under 3 hours. And from morning milk to brine by the end of the day. I designed it as a backbone cheese that sells well for artisan creameries. If you need help, post in the thread, PM me, call me, etc. Tomme should be the first foundational cheese anyone makes when going from soft cheeses to hard. It's hard to mess up a tomme. Even when you think everything has gone wrong, it still winds up good. And you learn a great deal about cheesemaking with this style.
But i will try if you think it is a good one to make.
I do. I can send you a culture packet of 4001 if you need it.
I follow what ever recipe I am using.
Which recipes do you use?
Pressing, draining,I air dry in the kitchen, now in my cheese room. I have been vac sealing and I keep in wine cooler.
How long from drying to vac sealing? And what temp in cooler? Do you have any whey seepage in the bag?
My biggest puzzle is the same piece of cheese when opened at 60 days or younger is great then I put it in a ziploc and back into the fridge. Two days later that same piece tastes bad.
Goaty taste is due to fat lipolysis. Lipases from the culture and natural lipases in the milk break down fat. In your case, it could be that the exposure to oxygen is causing mold/yeast/bacteria to grow in the surface, causing excess fat breakdown. Another possibility is that the bag has 100% humidity, which causes rapid aging on the surface, leading to a strong goaty tang. And another possibility is your milk handling. If goat milk is agitated, it breaks up fat molecules, releasing lipases.
The other possibility is your affinage. When lipases break down fat, they at first release the immediate FFAs, which for goat milk is the shorter chain, C8-C12. Those are your really goaty tasting FFAs. With time, those FFAs break down into flavor forming compounds and will be less goaty. It may be that you are aging at the wrong temp, and eating too young. Do you sample the cheese with a trier as it ages so you can train yourself on the transformations, and tell what the cheese does as it goes through the various phases of aging? If not, it's very good practice. You vac seal, so instead of that, what you can do is cut a wheel, and age slices to different ages, and taste them every 2-4 weeks to see the changes.
Anyway, I can help more if you give some more details.