Propergating dried mesophilic culture

[MikesCheese]

Hi, very much a novice to cheese making and only make occasional small quantities not least of which because it takes time to eat and enjoy. To date I have been acidifying my milk in 2litre batches with citric acid powder, I can understand this does not result in the best cheese result and have eventually got hold of some dried Mesophilic Culture; this was not easy to obtain and relatively expensive. The single culture packet received is tiny and says it is sufficient for 8litres of milk, I’m guessing once opened it needs to be used straight of in one go. My thinking is to propagate it and freeze it into ice box cubes that way I will get much better value over a longer period. Probably obvious to you experts but would welcome any advice on process for doing this such as quantities, media, temperature and timing.  Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Aris]

I did something similar. I bought a packet of culture that is meant for 2 gallons. A pinch of it is enough to ferment 1 liter of skim milk which is good enough to inoculate 50-100 liters of milk. I store the mother culture in the freezer and thaw it in the fridge before use. Turning the mother culture into ice cubes is the better approach. I use 1-2% weight of milk in mother culture. Your culture packet can be stored in the freezer so it last longer. The frozen mother culture will eventually weaken maybe after 2-4 months.