My Gouda is full of holes

[sblat]

I am hoping someone can tell me what went wrong with my first cheese, a Gouda. It was made following Gavin Webber's recipe (youtube) using MM100 mesophilic culture and 5 gallons of Walmart whole milk. After brining, it was air dried a few days at 65F before waxing on March 2, after which it has lived in the cheese fridge for 40 days at 54F. I noticed it was starting to swell about two weeks ago and today the wax was split. It's full of holes and has a cheesy smell. I tried some and I think it tastes like Havarti. I have been concerned that this is late blowing although smelling and tasting ok leads me to believe it is not late blowing. Does anyone know what has caused this and does it look edible?

[Dorchestercheese]

You created baby Swiss. I understand that culture might produce gas.  How much did you use?
Seems like a lot of holes. I love it!

[sblat]

Thanks for the reply. I used 1/4 tsp of MM100 in 5 gallons of milk. There wasn't any ripening time in Gavin's recipe which was different from other recipes I looked at. The renneting time was supposed to be 30 minutes but I think mine took an hour and even then the curd was a little sloppy. I later attributed that to a lack of ripening period as my other cheeses have had better curd sets. I also think there was a delay in the washing process as I remember having to heat more water. I will be happy if I created surprise baby swiss, much better than surprise botulism.

[Thewitt]

MM100 contains diacetylactis, which is a CO2 producing bacteria, so this is not a surprise.

You used 5 gallons of milk?  Gavin's recipe is for 10 quarts, so you scaled it up to 20 quarts?

[Dorchestercheese]

Is that not a lot of gas for a short time at 54F? I've had Swiss cheese with a lot fewer holes.

[Bantams]

That looks like it could have coliform.
Not all coliform contaminated cheeses have an off-smell.

[Thewitt]

Is that not a lot of gas for a short time at 54F? I've had Swiss cheese with a lot fewer holes.

It was air dried a few days at 65F, with diacetylactis, so I'm not sure how many holes that would generate.

[sblat]

Yes, I doubled Gavin's recipe.

At this point I am going to assume it is Clostridium tyrobutyricum caused late blowing. If it was coliform it should have blown in the first few days. Clostridium symptoms show up after several weeks at cave temperatures. I don't think diacetylactis is at fault as MM100 is a recomended culture for gouda and those made with it don't look anything like mine.

Here is an example of a gouda made with MM100

https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,11466.msg88658.html#msg88658

The following links show goudas that look similar to mine and were attributed to Clostridium tyrobutyricum infection.

https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,12939.msg100362.html#msg100362
http://heinennellie.blogspot.com/2008/10/gouda-with-holes.html

The following is from Fundamentals of Cheese Science by Fox, Guinee, Cogan, McSweeney:

10.7 MICROBIAL SPOILAGE OF CHEESE

The most common microbial defects of cheese are early and late gas, both of which are relatively uncommon in cheese today, mainly because of better hygiene and better quality control in cheese plants. Early gas generally occurs within 1 or 2 days after manufacture. It is characterized by the appearance of many small holes and is caused by coliform bacteria and/or yeast. The gas produced by coliform is mainly H2, which is produced by formic hydrogenylase activity from formate, a product of lactose metabolism. It is more problematic in soft and semi-soft cheese than in hard cheese because of higher aw in the former. An effective way of controlling early gas is to add KNO3 OrNaNO3 at low levels (0.2%) to the milk. NO3 does not prevent the growth of coliform but acts as an alternative electron acceptor, allowing complete oxidation of lactose to CO2 and H2O rather than fermentation to formate, thus effectively reducing the production of H2 from formate. Early gas production by yeast is due to the production of CO2 from lactose or lactate.

Late gas formation, or late blowing, does not occur until late in ripening. It is due to fermentation of lactate to butyrate and the production of copious amounts of H2 by Clostridium tyrobutyricum and Cl butyricum. Consequently, large holes are generally produced. The butyrate is responsible for off-flavor development in the cheese. Late gas can be particularly prevalent in Swiss-type cheese, where clostridia can grow with the propionic acid bacteria during the "hot room" ripening period. Silage is a potent source of these bacteria, and for this reason it is forbidden in Switzerland to feed it to cows whose milk is intended for cheesemaking. In addition, many thermophilic cultures are thought to stimulate the growth of clostridia through the production of peptides and amino acids. Late gas production can be controlled by bactofugation of the milk (see Chapter 4), but this often results in inferior quality cheese.

[Thewitt]

Did you make this with raw milk?

[sblat]

Walmart brand pasteurized milk.

[Thewitt]

From the posted data: "Silage is a potent source of these bacteria" - which means pasteurization would have removed this bacteria from your milk.

I'm not saying you did not have contamination, because that can happen from poor hygiene in the cheese making process, but it would not have been from bacteria inside the milk, it would have had to have been in the environment.

Yeast will leave a smell that you cannot avoid as well, so I don't think it's yeast.

[sblat]

According to what I have read, pasteurization kills the bacteria but the spores survive and it only takes relatively few spores to infect the cheese.