john, you and others here, just simply amaze me with your cheese-making knowledge. it is a bit overwhelming, how little i know about cheese making.
on a side note, the milk from walfart was the only store-bought milk i was able to get to coagulate without cacl, even though that success varied gallon to gallon. (i'm guessing their need to produce cheaply outweighs quality control, which let some less-pasteurized milk slip through
)
does your local home-brew store carry cheese supplies? i'm lucky enough that mine does (i'm in SW MI). they have the rennet in the cooler with the hops and wine cultures, and the cheese cultures and molds in a freezer up front. i wouldn't have ever known they were there, if i hadn't asked. ask them, the next time you go
the first time i purchased rennet, i asked if they had rennet, the fella ran in back and brought up a pack of tabs. i didn't know they had liquid, until the next time i went, and the gal showed me where it was kept. they had veg. rennet, double strength veg. rennet and veal rennet (liquid), in addition to the tabs. not only is the liquid so much easier to use (add an amount to your water, pour in immediately, as opposed to tabs: crushing and then letting sit for 20 minutes, and still not having an accurate way to tell how much is there), for the same price i can buy a bottle of the liquid and get 3 times more uses out of it.
sorry, got off on a tangent. what i was getting at was the ability to add tiny amounts with the liquid. sometimes you'll see a recipe call for 1/5th drop of rennet (measure out 5 tsp of water, add a drop; each tsp you take out will be 1/5th drop)(also be sure if it is noting regular or double strength, you may have to dilute or multiply your amount of rennet). i have no idea how you would use tabs in a recipe like that. the chevre recipes i was finding called for just a titch of rennet (chevre is a lactic coagulated)
about asking your brew shop- in the freezer with the cultures, my shop has kits for making certain kinds of cheeses, in addition to the meso's, thermo's, molds, etc. seems like mine had a neufchatel culture (just add the packet of culture to a gallon of milk). this is what i did with my chevre. as i become more experienced, i'll purchase individual ingredients and do it myself, but this was just easier for someone who has no clue (me).
however, yours might not have the cheese making stuff, but you could always twist their arm to get it
it doesn't take that much room on their shelves