Aging temperature question

[Storm256]

I have been going over many of these posts and will be making a Feta shortly, the question I have is about where these cheeses age/ripen the best.
I may have missed it somewhere but when these recipes say they brine in "fridge" after hardening up a bit on counter for a day or two are they referring to a normal household fridge or warmer modified fridge / cave?   Again probably obvious to most of you but I would rather ask now than later after I ruined my first batch because I assumed something.  I will be using raw goat milk and really want this to be as full flavored as possible if that makes any difference.
Thanks for input in advance, hope you all have a superior day!

[linuxboy]

Normal 35-40F. Point of the fridge rest is to stabilize the acidity and casein interaction so the cheese solidifies. You could actually higher, it would work, but be less effective.

[Storm256]

Thanks for the info. I'll get going on it in the next couple of days as soon as I get the milk.

[ellenspn]

Did you manage to get some feta made yet?

[smilingcalico]

I age mine at 54F, but only for the reason that that is the temp of my ageing room.  The Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research says that Feta is safely stored at up to 84F.  LB, is your temperature what is considered ideal?  I've personally not heard an ideal feta ageing temp.

[Storm256]

Picking up 2 Gallons Goat milk tommorow I'll make it Wed P.M.  $12.00 dollars a Gallon now I paid $9.00 at the same store 3 weeks ago.....Supply and demand I guess.

[zenith1]

Bill- I just noticed-that is a great Avatar!

[Storm256]

I am sure that this will be  a valuable "teachable moment" in my cheese making education, but right now it just sucks!  I am attempting to make a Feta with Raw Goat milk (2 Galllons) I was using Fiasco Farms recipe as a guide with one change that I'm guessing is causing my problem now that would be the Culture I used. I used a Mad Millie Mesophilic MW because it was the only one locally available the recipe indicates a mesophilic MA or MM?? I warmed the milk to 86F added Culture(one Packet) and Lipase (1/4 teas.) I realize it isn't usually used with goat milk but it looked like they did so I added some as well.  the recipe had the curd cut at 30-40 minutes an hour later ph (measured with paper strips,,)was still 7.0  and it was still liquid an hour after adding rennet......to shorten the story after keeping at 86F for 5 hours with no discernible changes I was forced to turn it off and leave it overnite, 7:30 AM ph is near 5 and curd is starting to form but no where near "clean Break". I have it warming back up now (it was 68F). Is this still worth waiting for or is it to little too late? I added 4ml of liquid calf rennet at one hour BTW....

[Storm256]

25 hours after adding rennet... I can''t afford to not figure out this failure at $12 agallon ......

[smilingcalico]

Tell us the age and condition of each of the key ingredients.  One, or a combination of them are bad.

[Storm256]

Milk was one day old, Culture was purchased about  a week ago it was in freezer at the store and I kept in freezer here, it was stamped BB 02 2013 which I assume is best before feb 2013?   The liquid rennet (Mad Millie Calf) I have had for about three weeks bottle is not labeled with date but I have used this same bottle twice for chevre it  worked well then.
 goat Lipase was purchased same day as the culture the bottle was in freezer and it has no dates on label either. 

[linuxboy]

Have you made any hard cheese with the rennet? Seems like that's the cause of no coagulation.

[Storm256]

No Linuxboy this attempt makes a grand total of three cheeses! The first two were soft chevres but they both had good curds after sitting overnite on the counter..

[linuxboy]

Right, but you don't even need rennet to get a good chevre set, so that's not indicative of strength. Can you test your rennet by coagulating a small volume of milk and seeing if the rennet is active?

[Storm256]

Good Idea! I'll just put a few drops in a cup of milk or so??