Mesophilic DVI Starter Cultures: Amounts Used?

[Cheese Head]

I assume that starter culture amounts are a key parameter in cheese making.

The most common starter culture for members here seems to be mesophilic freeze dried Direct Vat Innoculation who's units are normally DCU, which is a measurement of activity for culturing up to 10 liters of milk.

I noticed on member idiotboy's cheddar making page that he uses half a 250 DCU package of for 100 US gallons cow's milk. I believe this works out as 250 x 10 / 3.8 = 658 US gallons. He uses half a package so 329 US gallons, this means he is using 3.3 times the up to manufacturers recommendation.

What amount per unit of milk is best and why and what are others using?

[zenith1]

John-thanks for starting this thread. I have been pondering this same question for some time. I'll be interested to see how the members respond to this.

[DeejayDebi]

You could weight it out and divide it up by the number of gallons you are going to make. Each packet weighs a bit different due to the activity of the batch made. Often times the resellers will have recommended amounts listed for say 1 gallon, 2 to 5 gallons or 5 to 10 gallons of milk. It doesn't have to be dead on perfect which is why some of us (myself included) just use portions in 1/8, 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoons rather than pulling our hair out to measure every packet in grams and calculate it all out.

[Cheese Head]

zenith1, thanks.

Debi, agree doesn't need to be perfect, and that's basically what I've done up until my last batch when I doubled my amount. I weighed the bag, divided by the liters of milk it should culture and then calculated how much I need for per 1 US gallon (as that's what I buy my milk in), and then scaled that to the amount of milk in that batch. But, as the manufacturers say will culture up to X amount, and as my culture ages in fridge, I should probably add some extra. That's why I found idiotboy's info interesting in that as a commercial user, even though he probably has fresher culture, he still uses 3.3X the recommended dose. So even at 2X the recommended does, am I using enough? Thus I was curious how much others use per unit of milk, and why, and their results.

[DeejayDebi]

I see where you are going with this. It seems I read somewhere ... maybe here - I will have to look around that it is not nescessarily a linear division but I imagine as small as the packages are it would not matter that much.

Did you happen to notice how close the weighed and measured amount was to the suggested amount for this batch?

[Cheese Head]

Debi, good question, took a few minutes of digging. Found my weighing of my 250 DCU bag or Choozit MM100 here back in Dec 2008. For my meso culture I estimated 0.032 gram/litre milk or 0.12 gram per US gallon milk.

Since then I have been using 0.25 gr/US gallon milk, which is 2X! Except for last time I used it on my Queso Fresco #3 when I used 1.1 gram for 2 US gallons, 4.6X! So should I use 2X or 4.6X?

I bought it here where they recommend in volume rather than weight, I found these tiny volumes hard to measure, thus reason I switched to weight.

Anyway, I don't think it is critical as long as you are in ballpark, just not sure which ballpark and what are conseuences of being grossly incorrect are.

[zenith1]

good so far. I don't have much to add except that it is obvious that there is a window of weights of starter culture to work in. Again it stands to reason that smaller or greater amounts of starter will affect the rate at which the milk is ripened, and to some extent I suppose the final flavor depending on what strains are included in that culture. The rate of ripening will affect the time at which to add you rennet. Are we back to the PH issue yet. Any way it seems that these issues are all linked together and there is room to play and make that cheese your own. I'm rambling and still dazed and confused!

[DeejayDebi]

I used a small postal scale for my sausage to get a fair measure. I guess I never bothered with the cheese because I used to only make it in the winter and I was afraid it's go bad before I used it up. Now that I have the small mini cave I can do it until it full or I give it all away.

[FRANCOIS]

good so far. I don't have much to add except that it is obvious that there is a window of weights of starter culture to work in. Again it stands to reason that smaller or greater amounts of starter will affect the rate at which the milk is ripened, and to some extent I suppose the final flavor depending on what strains are included in that culture. The rate of ripening will affect the time at which to add you rennet. Are we back to the PH issue yet. Any way it seems that these issues are all linked together and there is room to play and make that cheese your own. I'm rambling and still dazed and confused!

In short, Yes.  It's all linked back to pH.  The more culture you add at a higher temp, the less rennet you need for the same curd set.  This is because of culture activity and, essentially, pH.

[Cheese Head]

Francois (or others), OK, understand that more culture you add at start the more potent at certain time and temp. But can you see my original post at the start of this thread, what is a reasonable multiplier for amount of starter culture to use to follow normal recipes?

Manufactures say up to X volume, plus issue of culture losing it's potency in freezer, so 1.5 or 2 times or 3 times?

Thanks in advance . . . John.

[FRANCOIS]

Personally, I always use the manufactureres dosage.  Possibly a pinch more if it's old.  I always go to fromagex.com, find the culture I am using and download the spec sheet.  It gives you the dosage for each culture, and each is different.  Some are a fractoin of a dose per 100L of milk, some are as high as 5, just depends.

[DeejayDebi]

John there's a table in the Farmstead cheese book by type of cheese. I was looking for something last night and ran acrossed the table. The multipler will change depending on the cheese.

[Cheese Head]

Francois, thanks.

Debi, also thanks but sadly I couldn't find that table, I must be blind.

Using Francois's method:

• I'm using Danisco's DVS Choozit MM100, a freeze dried direct vat inoculation mesophilic powder, I bought the 250 DCU size bag, picture here.
• Downloaded that Product's Data Sheet from www.fromagex.com (attached to this post.
• That data sheet says for semi hard Gouda's use 3.75 DCU/100 liters milk.
• That works out to 0.0625 DCU per liter or 0.2375 DCU per US gallon.
• I'm making 4 US gallon batches, so I need 4 x 0.2375 DCU = 0.95 DCU of culture.
• My bag when new weighed 87 grams, assuming bag is 7 meant 80 grams of culture, so 80/250 = 0.32 gram/DCU.
• So I need 0.95 x 0.32 = 0.304 grams of my MM100.
• Assuming a 1.5 safety factor as mine, while stored in freezer, is 1 year old, means 0.304 x 1.5 = 0.456 grams for my 4 US gallon batches.

This is ~1/2 what I have been using!

So basically my OP at top saying one DCU is for culturing up to 10 liters is wrong, forget where I read that.

Re-calculating what idiotboy has on his website above: He uses 125 DCU for 100 US gallons, or 1.25 DCU/US gallon, vs manufacturers data sheet recommending 0.2375 DCU per one US gallon, or 5.25 times the recommended dosage, assuming that webpage amount is correct.

Anyway, it all comes down to acidification and how long and at what temp you ripen for/at.

[DeejayDebi]

John I posted this somewhere else talking about multipliers but here it is again. Maybe we should put it ... in the library? It was way in the back of the book.

[Cheese Head]

Debi, thanks for posting and reminder, I just posted that guide in our Library here, also I split off the same discussion from the Tomme Recipe thread about Flocculation Technique to determine curd setting times vs Clean Break method.

But my understanding is that those multipliers are for determining rennet set times before cutting, not on amount of culture to use.