No pH drop on Emmental type

[CurdCutter]

I know you have more important things to do on a Christmas Eve Sunday morning but in case you read this I need some advice.  Made a Swiss-style (Caldwell recipe) yesterday.  Summary:

2.5 gal. whole fresh dairy (vat pasteurized) milk
1/4t thermo C; 1/16t propionic bacterium
short (10 min.) ripening time (pH 6.55)
1/2t CaCl, scant 1/2t single strength rennet
Floc in 14 min.; 38 min @ 90F then cut curd 1/8"
Temperature: 90F through curd cutting then incr. to 122F over 40 min
Stirred until pH 6.4, whey off
Packed mold and pressed overnight

All went well until I checked whey pH after first flip (about 30 min. after whey off).  pH had increased to 6.5 and held there up until now (12 hrs. after start pressing).  Curd pH is now 6.55!!  Cheese consolidated very well and looks great but no discernible pH drop yet.  I have it on the counter at 70F wrapped in plastic waiting to see if pH changes but holding off salting until I get some advice.  Thanks.

[CurdCutter]

Anticipating questions:  Used digital (YY-1030) pH meter calibrated before and checked after.  Hit all temperature targets.  Cultures were new and milk was fresh.  Whey was typical and mostly clear through pressing.

[B e n]

I made this recipe about 10 days ago, that 1/8" cut is a bear, I've been meaning to post on it. How did that go for your make? I ended up closer to 1/4" and upped the cook time a little to account for it.

What is your room temp where the mold is? My house gets cold overnight so i leave the sous vide for the make and put the press over the water bath on a sheet tray, it helps the cheese stay a little warmer so the culture can do its thing in bliss.

Recipe calls for 1/2t thermo b, 1 skewer tip thermo c for 4 gallons, and 1/16 propionic. So you were a little under on thermo and almost double on propionic.

For your substitution of thermo b/c, the book talks about these on page 275.  The difference is thermo b contains lactobacillus delbruekii ssp. Bulgaricus, and c contains lactobacillus helveticus. Should be fine for interchange, honestly I am not sure why thermo B is called for in that recipe, C seems more in the style. What I am trying to say (longwindedly) is I don't think this was a bad substitution and shouldn't have caused your problem.

For my make it took over 24 hours to hit the final pH. I wonder if you are seeing a rebound from calcium coming out of solution. I would flip it and give it the remaining 12 hours before you start to get very concerned about it, it may still come around if your room temps are high enough.

[CurdCutter]

Thanks B E N.  I used the Thermo C because I didn't have LH100 so that may have been one problem  I made a farmhouse cheese a few weeks back and didn't have MA400x so used a blend of FD and Thermo C.  Had a similar problem with slow pH drop and ended up adding an extra day before salting and pH was only 5.7 by then.  Makes me think that a combination of my being a bit short on the culture and questionable TC potency may have contributed?  That and the buffering effect (if that's what it is) from the calcium coming out of solution??  I will do as you suggest and wait another 12 hr. or so.  By the way, I used a 8" mold for this and ended up with a pretty low profile cheese so I'm thinking about dry salting the top and bottom to hit the salt% target better than by brining.  Then again if there is a question about pathogen development I don't want to risk it.

[B e n]

I'm not sure if there is an acidification speed difference between thermo B, and thermo C. If anyone has info I would love to read it!

[mikekchar]

I've used both and I don't recall there being any significant difference.

CurdCutter, can you give us your whole procedure?  It's difficult to guess where it may have gone wrong.  The only thing I can think of is maybe you got a bit too hot in the cook???