The recipe for this cheese was a bit different from my regular cheddar recipe. I should have used my cheddar recipe and soaked it in the beer, but I didn't, I used the one out of the book.
The big difference is the cooking time. Once the curd and whey reaches 102deg this recipe says to let sit undisturbed for 30 minutes. My cheddar recipe says to stir for 30 minutes and then let sit for 20 minutes.
I'm afraid this one is under cooked. I drained the curd when it said to, and the ph was 6.62. I think that's way high. While I was cheddaring it, the slab of curd was very soft, and it kept expelling a lot of whey. In my recipe the whey is expelled from the curd during the cooking period, but obviously not in this one. Every time I flipped the slab I had to drain off a lot of whey, and the be careful not to break the slab because it was so soft. I cheddared it for 2 hours instead of 1 like the recipe says because the curd did not have that cooked chicken texture that I am used to, but in the end it was still softer than usual.
I hope that the cheese is good, but I have a feeling that the ph level is too high. I didn't take the ph after I cheddared it, I was done with cheese making for the day at that point. I did take the ph level this morning, when I took them out of the press. One is 6.84 and the other one was 7.25. I don't think that taking the ph level after soaking it in beer is reliable. I soaked them in two different beers.
Only time will tell. That's the other thing in the recipe that is odd. It says it's good in 4 to 6 weeks. I don't understand cheddar being good that quick.