My next attempt!

[MolBasser]

50# of ghetto!!



MolBasser

[DeejayDebi]

Remond me of that old show Home Improvement.

MORE POWER!

[Boofer]

So you've got that braced against the wall so it doesn't topple over, right?  Look out below! 

-Boofer-

[MolBasser]

Yes, it was ballanced when I went to bed, at 3:30am there was a structural failure in the plastic cup I had in the follower and the weight collapsed and shattered the plate.

That was fun sweeping up... 

Luckily, no damage to the cheese or the mold or the counter.  Time to brine it.

Again, I toss instructions to the wind and just wing it.  One of these days I will follow a recipe properly.

And I need to build a press that doesn't scare the crap out of me....

MolBasser

[MolBasser]

Removing the cheese proved a tad difficult, even though I did spray my cloth with some vinegar.  At any rate.  Lost a few edges.  No great deal.  I'm not looking to win beauty contests yet.

Been in the brine for a while now and I'm rotating it and such.  It floats just a hair above the surface of the brine, so I am rotating it pretty often.

MolBasser

[MolBasser]

The cheese seems a little soft, but since I have no idea at all what to expect, meh.  It is what it is.

I feel like a homebrewer that is making beer with extract in a too small pot and making up the volume in the fermenter.

I need to make cheese more often and read a ton more.

MolBasser

[Boofer]

Following a recipe does help a lot. It removes a lot of the doubt and inconsistencies. Timing, pH changes, temperature...all play a role in making a cheese.

Let's see what it says on the seat of my pants...hmmm.   

Did you follow a recipe when homebrewing? How did you know what kind and how much finishing hops to add...and when? Grain bill, what...where? Converting crushed malt into wort? What temp?

-Boofer-

[MolBasser]

I brewed the same way when I started homebrewing, but as I got more involved in the hobby I started paying much more attention.

I have a computer program that calculates IBU and such from hops and gravity and color from malt.

As I got more serious, I got way more serious.  I got so serious, that I went to brewing school, got a diploma in brewing and then lucked out at got a job at Sierra Nevada.  At which point I essentially quit homebrewing.... LOL.  Something about brewing 800bbl of beer a day all week just kills the drive to homebrew.

I'm still a complete newbie at cheesemaking, but I will get more serious and then I will learn more and make better cheese.  I still need to make mistakes and learn from them.

Good news is that I just found a guy at work with goats and I now have access to fresh goat's milk!  Woot.

I need to drop by the library and see if they have any cheesemaking books that I can borrow as my budget is such that it will be a bit before I can buy the books I want.

At any rate, this seems to be the most successful cheese that I have done so far.....  Now to not screw up the rind maintenance.

MolBasser

[MolBasser]

So, here is the cheese.....



I have it in my cave (without increased humidity) at 55F. 

I'm some what unsure of the wash process for the rind in the first few days.  Do I start washing every day now or wait for the rind to develop a bit?

Do I wash with fully saturated brine or do I wash with a lesser concentration, or something else?

So far, today I have just flipped it and not washed it at all.  What sort of cloth do you wipe it down with?

Sorry for the newb questions.

MolBasser

[DeejayDebi]

So, here is the cheese.....



I have it in my cave (without increased humidity) at 55F. 

I'm some what unsure of the wash process for the rind in the first few days.  Do I start washing every day now or wait for the rind to develop a bit?

Give it a few days to dry to the touch

Do I wash with fully saturated brine or do I wash with a lesser concentration, or something else?

It depends on the cheese. With this one did you brine it al all? Add salt in sme way?

So far, today I have just flipped it and not washed it at all.  What sort of cloth do you wipe it down with?

I use a cheese brush or cheese cloth

Sorry for the newb questions.

MolBasser

There is more information here than you will find in most books unless you get a college text. One advantage of following the posted recipes is they have the instructions for how to proceed with the cheese after the make as well. Some basic things like washing, oiling etc. are just talked about here.

[MolBasser]

Yes it was brined after pressing in saturated brine for 4 hours (it is a 1.5# cheese).

I really want to get more deeply into the biochemistry and micro/molecular biology of the aging process.

Being the science geek that I am, and working in the fermentation science field gets me interested.

My stupid gung ho self jumps in without the proper knowledge first just to see if I can do it.  I'll get better.

The nice thing about books is that it is all neat and organized and easy to access.  Forums are awesome sources of information, but it is sometimes hard to find it.

MolBasser

[Boofer]

The cheese looks great! What style is it?

There are a lot of threads on the forum talking about rind maintenance. What kind of rind were you looking to develop? That kind of steers you to the rind maintenance regimen. Use the search function and the wiki to find the info.

-Boofer-

[MolBasser]

Flipped the cheese again, it is almost dry.

MolBasser

[MolBasser]

I just hope that I didn't kill off all the bacteria by the 10 degree slip early on.

I'm sure some made it through, but might not be the innoculation rate that I wanted.  Oh well.  I is what it is.

New cheese make this weekend!

MolBasser

[anarch]

Yes, I need to make a "real" press too.  The weight system like that has also failed me many times and my junky screw tightened cheese press isn't really good for much, either. 

The cheese looks good, what are you making this weekend?

Until I make a real press I'm concentrating on low press stuff and penC ripened cheeses...