G'day from W.A

[Richie1977]

Hello,

Been lurking for a while now and have got some great tips from some of you guys.

Went offline for a while because my cheese fridge stopped working but managed to find a new one that's all set up and running perfect.

Cheese making Saturday's are back on the cards now, my first effort was a chilli farmhouse cheddar looks good so far, going to wax it in a few days and age it for a couple of months.

I have some thermophilic culture on its way and planning on doing a couple of Parmesan cheeses, had previous good outcomes from stiltons and wenslydales along with a couple of disasters but I think that's normal.

Anyhow one small question is I have some older cultures and lipase left over from my previous efforts, I've ordered new ones but wondered if the old stuff would still be ok, it's about 18 months old and has been stored at -21

Just didn't want to chuck it out if it sill had legs.

Cheers.

Rich.

[Richie1977]

Sorry here is the chilli cheddar.

[john H]

A cheese for you Richie1977 looks like you got a good knit and a nice looking wheel.

John

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Hi Richie. Welcome on board.
The website that I get my cultures from (cheesemaking.com.au) says "Store in freezer. Up to 2 years shelf life from date of manufacture but starter activity will remain strong well past this date if it is kept frozen".
A cheese from me too for your good looking wheel of cheddar.

[Al Lewis]

Welcome Rich!  That's a beautiful cheese you have there.  AC4U!!

[Boofer]

Welcome to the forum, Rich.

I have some dry cultures with 5 years freezer age that have successfully created some excellent cheeses. I vacuum-seal my cultures after I remove them from the freezer and extract what I need. They spend little time outside the freezer.

One of the cultures that is not dry is my liquid Penicillium Roqueforti (prb18). Its date is 2011 and it was used in my Castle Blue #1.

So it would seem that the cheese cultures are fairly robust and resilient.

-Boofer-

[Mermaid]

I think the cheese cultures should still work fine! I used expired cultures sometimes, and keep them frozen and well sealed. Never had any issues.

Also, that is one beautiful wheel of cheese there! How did you incorporate the chilis so nicely?

[Al Lewis]

Welcome to the forum, Rich.

I have some dry cultures with 5 years freezer age that have successfully created some excellent cheeses. I vacuum-seal my cultures after I remove them from the freezer and extract what I need. They spend little time outside the freezer.

One of the cultures that is not dry is my liquid Penicillium Roqueforti (prb18). Its date is 2011 and it was used in my Castle Blue #1.

So it would seem that the cheese cultures are fairly robust and resilient.

-Boofer-

Same here Boofer.  Unless they grow legs and crawl out of the freezer I'm using them and, so far, they've all worked great.

[Richie1977]

Thanks for the advice with the cultures especially the vac sealing will give that a try.

My new starters turned up today so I should have enough for the next few years or 150 KG of cheese whichever comes first

[Richie1977]

I think the cheese cultures should still work fine! I used expired cultures sometimes, and keep them frozen and well sealed. Never had any issues.

Also, that is one beautiful wheel of cheese there! How did you incorporate the chilis so nicely?

Thanks as for the chilli I just put half in whilst incorporating the salt then the rest at the end and just gave it a good mix through before pressing, hopefully it's like that all the way through, now just have to play the waiting game.