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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => EQUIPMENT - Aging Cheese, Caves => Topic started by: umgowa on April 07, 2010, 06:44:43 PM

Title: Temperature and Humidity measuring
Post by: umgowa on April 07, 2010, 06:44:43 PM
I am new to cheese making and am assembling the equipment I will need.  I almost bought a little $9 temperature/humidity gauge at Ace Hardware this morning.  I didn't get it because the gauge's humidity scale only went up to 80%.  And some of the recipes in my cheese-making book call for humidity ratings in the 90% range . . . Stilton, and a few other soft cheeses . . . also Gruyere (which surprised me).   So my question is this:  Is 80% close enough?  and Does anyone know where I can get a temp. humidity gauge where the humidity rating goes up to 90%?  Thanks.
Title: Re: Temperature and Humidity measuring
Post by: MiaBella Farm on April 07, 2010, 07:06:29 PM
I purchased 2 digital thermometer/humidity meters from Walmart, in the section by the light bulbs and a/c filters.

I keep one in the corner closest to my window unit and the other one farther away so I can see if the aging cave is staying in the range I need.
Title: Re: Temperature and Humidity measuring
Post by: umgowa on April 09, 2010, 11:57:50 AM
Thanks, MiaBella . . very helpful information, but I need to repeat my 2 questions . . . in regulating humidity during the aging process, is 80% close enough?  And does anyone know where I can get a humidity gauge that goes up to 90%? 
Title: Re: Temperature and Humidity measuring
Post by: DeejayDebi on April 16, 2010, 08:23:44 PM
a meter that only reads to 80% is not good enough. Getting the humidity up to 80% in your cave is okay and better than some can achieve. I prefer 85% if osible. And as Bella stated WalMart has meters that go beyond 80%.
Title: Re: Temperature and Humidity measuring
Post by: JMB on April 16, 2010, 08:39:27 PM
Don't go for cheap on these things.  I did the $10 one from a hardware store at first.  It was a waste of $10 and I finally bought a $30 one which is digital, still not lots of cash though really.  It matches the readings from an expensive one I borrowed from a fellow cheesehead.  Nice to be able to calibrate things but most of the time not possible.  Humidity and temp are BIG factors in aging and aging is what we are all about.  We can buy cheese at the grocery store if we just want cheese. It's hard enough to manage humidity without an accurate tool to measure it first, well unless you are an experienced affinuer.  So make the investment.  I just tossed 10 bucks in the garbage can.  Old enough to know better.
J
Title: Re: Temperature and Humidity measuring
Post by: DeejayDebi on April 16, 2010, 11:52:55 PM
I bought a few combination digital units (with a remotes) that can be calibrated for less than $15 each on Amazon.com. I beleieve they are Honeywell and Timex brands.
Title: Re: Temperature and Humidity measuring
Post by: phorest on May 22, 2010, 06:03:50 PM
Hi,

I recently just purchased my temp/humidity monitor and the details can be found here (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,3201.msg30475.html#msg30475).

What's neat is you can log the data to a spreadsheet if you're so inclined.