Gouda/Colby Defect

[JimSteel]

Attached is an image of a recent "Large Gouda" I tried to make. ("tried" because it was a good cheese, but not Gouda) Followed the exact same recipe as I normally would (200 easy cheeses) but used 4 gallons instead of my regular 1 gallon.

The cheese was good, but came out "Swissy."  Some slight gas bloatage as it aged (10-12 celsius) and a definite swiss emmental taste.  This same thing happened when I made my Large Colby last year.  I have only made 2 cheeses of this size to date and they both did the same thing.  The only difference was larger volume and a different pot being used compared to my small batches.

Additionally, both cheeses had these tiny, hard, discoloured spheres in them.  They were few and far between and only found in the centre of the wheel where there was the most gas bloating.

Any thoughts?  If more info on my makes is needed I can offer it, but I'm hoping the picture will be enough.

[jwalker]

What type of culture did you use , any P.Shermaii , that's what it usually takes for me to get that "Swiss" flavour.

Have you used Shermanii before , maybe cross contamination in packages of that and your cultures ?

Or some type of bacteria in the milk that produces similar results as Shermanii , like this:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propionibacterium_freudenreichii

Have no idea what those little hard spheres could be.

[Spoons]

Could those hard spheres be the start of crystal formations you would normally find in an aged gouda?

[Digitalsmgital]

I can crunch on gouda's crystals but have never actually seen one.

[JimSteel]

 For both of my cheeses I used MA 011 from cheesemaking. com  ( Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris)
The Gouda also had a Flora Danica/Aroma culture put in.

Never made a swiss variant and have never had shermanii in my house.

I know it's hard to see in the picture, but the dots are perfect spheres.  I could cut them out with the tip of a blade and they maintain their shape against quite a bit of pressure.

Also, both cheeses were only three months old.  One was waxed and one was vacbagged with breathing periods every so often.

Thanks for the input... the plot thickens.

[Chetty]

I was reading on Cheesemaking.coms website and under the Flora Danica it says
"The culture will also produce a small amount of carbon dioxide gas and is therefore a good culture choice when a lighter texture cheese is desired. "
Maybe that culture is producing some gas?

[jwalker]

I know it's hard to see in the picture, but the dots are perfect spheres.  I could cut them out with the tip of a blade and they maintain their shape against quite a bit of pressure.

Cheese Pearls ?