I vac packed my couple of cheeses this past weekend after fighting with humidity and giving up. The highest I was able to get anything was 70%. My cave is a little dorm fridge. Now I'm fighting with temp. I am trying to avoid buying a temp controller, but the warmest I've gotten it is 45F. Is that too cold? It really isn't big enough to age cheese for years unless I stop making now. I would prefer to age 3-6 months on 'regularly made' items.
I have two 4.5 cu ft "dorm" fridges as caves. They each have a temp controller that keeps the temp around 52F. The ambient humidity inside is around 80%, but my new cheeses are in their own little
minicaves which keeps them comfy at RH around 98%. Right now that's important for the blues I have in there.
You can get by without a temp controller for now, but the cheeses will take longer to ripen. There are a lot of choices for cheeses that ripen in 3-6 months. I opened my Leiden recently after only 9 weeks. There are blues, lactics, Camembert, Reblochon, and others that ripen fairly quickly. Very rarely do I see a cheese that has to go for 12 months and pretty much never for
years. That third pic shows some possible candidates for long-term affinage on the shelf below the minicave (Fourme d'Ambert #1, little guy): Cheddar #1, Cheddar #2, and Double Gloucester #1. Humidity isn't an issue for them because they're enclosed in vacuum bags.
-Boofer-