The Return of the Caerphilly Seven

[Flound]

7th Caerphilly underway today. It's in the first pressing now, but I was very pleased with my floc ring.

Caerphilly 7
19/04/2015

12L 3.25% Farmers
2.6ml CaCl in 60ml distilled water
5 cubes cultured buttermilk
2.7ml calf rennet in 60ml distilled water
46g salt

9:10 19.5C raising to 32.0C, added 5 cubes buttermilk culture
9:39 26.0C
10:04 29.6C
10:23 31.7C started ripening 30 minutes
10:51 33.3C
10:55 33.1C started floc
11:06 32.9C floc reached, cut curd 11:28
11:28 32.9C started cut curd
11:30 32.9C finished cutting curd, let curd heal 5-10 minutes
11:44 32.0C raising to 35.0C over 30 minutes, in sink bath
11:50 32.0C stirred
11:57 32.8C stirred
12:03 33.7C stirred
12:09 34.4C stirred
12:14 34.9C stirred, maintaining at 35.0C for 45mins
12:28 35.3C stirred.
12:37 35.0C stirred
12:45 34.9C stirred
13:03 35.1C
13:05 removed curd from whey, hung curd to expel excess whey. Finished 13:15.
13:15 started secondary coagulation, hung curd for 10 minutes
13:30 curd in press, 10kg for 30 minutes

[Flound]

Out of the press, she's looking nice.

Milled it, added salt, and it's back in the press.

[Flound]

I tasted a bit of the curd I had put aside. Made me recheck salt amount and yup, miscalculated. Shoulda been about 40g.

Well, we will found out soon.

[Al Lewis]

Looks great!!

[Flound]

After mulling and salting, back in the press, flipped twice, then put back in the press without cheesecloth to smooth the surface. It's now down for the rest of the evening, a flip before bed and once in the morning.

Weighed it for curiosity. 1510g.

Got 340g ricotta on the secondary coagulation.

[OzzieCheese]

Never seen a Caerphilly that is re-milled I'll be trying that next time -just to see what it does.

-- Mal

[Danbo]

Looks nice! :-) AC4U

[Flound]

Thanks, folks.

Just came out of the press. 1.5kg exactly.

[Flound]

Grrr. The same thing is happening to the Caerphilly that happened to my Camemberts.

https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,14544.0.html

Slimy, yellowish tinge, slight yeasty aroma. There's also a bit of blue mold, but that beast is half expected since I played around with blues.

Created a vinegar, salt solution, gave this fellow a brush, but I'm suspecting it was my culture. It's one thing these cheeses, having never been in the same storage area or touched by the same surfaces, have in common. Well, other than being in my house.

Made three days apart, in cleaned equipment, the Camemberts all in separate ripening chambers. They were in the cave before the Caerphilly was started.

The Caerphilly never even made it into the fridge. It was being air dried.

I follow a strict sanitary glove protocol when handling them. Working the Caerphilly first with a set of gloves discarded.

With a new gloves I would tackle the Camemberts next. Which, because initially, I see the same gloves on the four Camemberts I may have transferred a surface issue but once it seemed the PC bloom wasn't happening, each Camembert got its own glove.

The 'Berts are already binned. I suspect this guy is headed that way, too, but I'm hoping I can salvage this one.

Edit; my meso culture was made from cultured buttermilk and not a proper culture (normally I use a few grains of Biena Meso A in UHT for starters, but went b-milk this time.)

[JeffHamm]

Hmmm, you haven't been making bread recently have you?  If yeast were in the air in your kitchen and contaminated your milk or got on the cheese as it were air drying, that could do it.

[Flound]

Hmmm, you haven't been making bread recently have you?  If yeast were in the air in your kitchen and contaminated your milk or got on the cheese as it were air drying, that could do it.

Not for 4-5 weeks, and I've done a few bleach solution rubs of counters and surfaces, too. I did another before starting my Parm. Not that it's foolproof, but I'm hoping you're right.

On a sad note, the Caerphilly has been buh-hinned. Again, two syllables for emphasis. There may even have been some NBA-esque dunking action to accentuate the binning.

Not only is is slimy, yellowish and yeasty, it has softened. The mesh mat on which it was resting was on its way to being enveloped by the softening wheel. You can see the indentation and the start of the collapse.

[JeffHamm]

Hmmm, that's a new one to me.  I've not had a hard cheese do that.  Could be your buttermilk culture I suppose?  I've used buttermilk lots of times and never had a problem.  Maybe your buttermilk got some bread yeast in it at the time?  Anyway, given that this has happened with two quite different cheese types, both of which were made with the buttermilk starter, I would just toss those cubes and try again (unless, of course, you've made other cheeses from the buttermilk in between which turned out fine, in which case the starter is ok).

[Flound]

Hmmm, that's a new one to me.  I've not had a hard cheese do that.  Could be your buttermilk culture I suppose?  I've used buttermilk lots of times and never had a problem.  Maybe your buttermilk got some bread yeast in it at the time?  Anyway, given that this has happened with two quite different cheese types, both of which were made with the buttermilk starter, I would just toss those cubes and try again (unless, of course, you've made other cheeses from the buttermilk in between which turned out fine, in which case the starter is ok).

Already biffed. And my parm was made with an entirely different culture and so far it appears healthy.

I'm hoping it's the culture, because if it's something else, I'm buggered.

[John@PC]

On a sad note, the Caerphilly has been buh-hinned. Again, two syllables for emphasis. There may even have been some NBA-esque dunking action to accentuate the binning.

  Buh-hinned a few myself, Flound, 'cept here in South Carolina we "toss it in the can" (really perks up the septic tank flora ).