Author Topic: Bitter Tasting Colby Troubleshooting  (Read 1753 times)

Offline MellonFriend

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Bitter Tasting Colby Troubleshooting
« on: July 28, 2022, 06:55:05 PM »
I cracked open my first wheel hard cheese that I made and tasted it, and it has a bitter undertone that I don't think should be there.  It's a colby that I waxed with beeswax and aged in my modified refrigorator cheese cave at around 48-55*F and 60-80% humididty for approximately six weeks.  The taste reminds me of Munster cheese.  It's not unbearably bitter, but it isn't what I expected it to taste like.  Any ideas what would have caused this flavor and how I could avoid it in the future?  Or is colby just like this? 

Offline Bantams

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Re: Bitter Tasting Colby Troubleshooting
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2022, 07:53:28 PM »
It could be a number of things - not enough salt, too much acidity, bacterial contamination in the milk, etc. And some cheeses can go through a bitter phase but are fine after additional aging (say, 5 months total) but Colby should be good at that age. 
Which recipe did you use?

Offline rsterne

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Re: Bitter Tasting Colby Troubleshooting
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2022, 08:55:14 PM »
I haven't had bitterness develop that early, but a lot of our cheese were becoming bitter after 5 months.... It turns out that Vegetable rennet was the culprit, after long aging it produces bitterness.... We changed over to Chy-Max rennet to avoid the problem....

Bob
Cheesemaking has rekindled our love of spending time together, Diane and me!

Offline MellonFriend

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Re: Bitter Tasting Colby Troubleshooting
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2022, 03:47:51 PM »
I figured it could probably be a lot of different factors.  I used New England Cheese Making Co.'s colby recipe.  I'm extremely new to cheese making and I wouldn't say the process went perfectly, so I imagine that this might be a difficult thing to figure out. :-\