OzzieCheese, yes, I need to get a pH meter, it's next on my list of stuff to get.
Here's the recipe:
1.75 gallon Clover Sonoma Organic Whole Milk. It's pasteurized and homogenized but it's one of the best local milks in this area.
2 oz mezo frozen mother culture (expanded from New England Cheesemaking mezo)
Rind from Marin French Brie
1/4 tsp CaCl2 diluted in 1/4 cup dechlorinated water
1/4 tsp single strength animal rennet liquid diluted in 1/4 cup dechlorinated water
Diamond Crystal Kosher salt
Heated milk to 90F
Added the CaCl2
Added 2 oz frozen mezo culture
Waited 60 minutes
Added the rennet.
Started floculation test, which yielded a floculation time of 7 min, so 28 more minutes.
Got a clean cut, so cut curds, let rest 5 minutes.
Stirred gently, let rest another 5 minutes.
The curds were very fragile, but filled molds anyway.
30 minutes later flipped the molds and went to bed.
Next morning at 6:00 am flipped the cheese, it was still actively draining.
1:00 pm The cheese still looked very wet, thought about salting it, but decided it was still draining and flipped without salting.
4:30 pm salted the cheese with 1.8% salt.
12:00 pm placed the cheese into plastic container and moved it to the cool garage.
Flipped the cheese for the next 4 days, then moved it to the refrigerator set to 47F.
The cheese developed slip skin, and I think it was because it had too much moisture. I should have drained it longer.
I was not surprised as I winged the whole thing, didn't have the proper molds ( I improvised them), used a brie rind instead of Penicillium and Geo cultures, etc.
The second time I tried it, I used Flora Danica, P. candidum ABL, GEo 13, CaCl2 and rennet, and waited longer for the curd to form and then followed Yoav's advice and drained it in cheesecloth before molding it. I think I drained it for too long because it turned out too dry, but it was delicious.
As I mentioned, I have had good success subsequently making soft lactic mold ripened cheeses since then and I have learned a lot, including not rushing draining. I'll probably try another batch of cam tomorrow. I'll wait longer to let the curd firm up, then drain it in cheesecloth, but not as long as the second batch. Hopefully it will be better than either batch 1 or batch 2.