Beer Cheddar Recommendations

[cheesehead94]

Sometime soon (and by soon I mean maybe within the next month) I want to get started on another cheddar (my first is in the middle of a year long aging process) and I would like to add some beer to this one. It is my understanding that some cheddars can have beer added to the actual cheese as opposed to merely washing the rind with it.

So, what type of beer works well? I feel like I have mostly seen ales used, but could a stout produce good results too? I know a thing or two about beer drinking, but not enough about beer making to know if certain types of beer have ingredients that would be detrimental to cheesemaking.

[TravisNTexas]

You have probably seen this, but NEC has a recipe where they add the beer to the curds at the same time as the salt https://cheesemaking.com/products/beer-infused-cheese-recipe

I would assume you could use a porter or stout.  I'm curious if high alcohol level beers might impede the culture, but have no idea.  This will be interesting to follow along with!

[whatisboom]

Travis, I don't think the alcohol would be any more of a concern than the salt.

[rgreenberg2000]

Cheesehead-

The main ingredient differences in most beers will be the types of malt used, yeast variety, and variety/amount of hops.  A very light ale will use a pale base malt, likely very little or no "specialty" malts, and bittering hops, but limited/no aroma hops.  On the other end of color spectrum, a stout will have a good amount of dark roasted malt additions which drive both the color and flavor of the beer (stout, too, will have mostly bittering hops and little to no aroma hops.)  A hop forward beer like an IPA will have some lighter specialty malt additions (for color and flavor), and will include much larger amounts of flavor/aroma hops to achieve the desired result.

Like cheese, there are myriad ways you can tweak these ingredients (plus process adjustments like mash temperature) to achieve a particular end product.  Simply put, though, most beers just have water, yeast, hops and malt as their ingredients.  So, there isn't really anything in different beers that I can think of that would inhibit the development of your cheese, other than perhaps alcohol (on the high end of the scale.)  I would avoid IPA's probably, since they have a higher bitterness factor.  Lighter ales should be fine, and porters/stouts should work, too.  I might start with a porter if you are interested in using a darker beer, just to test the waters.

HTH,
Rich

[PacoSEDG]

I think that I would go for a strong beer that is clearly on the malty side, like a Wee Heavy or a Barley wine

[ROBBP844]

I would probably avoid using a barleywine, just due to the IBU (bitterness) on this style being quite high. The compound that creates bitterness in beer is iso alpha acids from the hops used which have antimicrobial properties. Something like a wee heavy, stout or anything more on the malt forward type of beer.

I'm going to do a beer cheese today, I haven't decided on which type of cheese but will be using a porter.

Cheers,
Patrick

[cheesehead94]

Cool! Hope it goes well and keep us updated!

[ROBBP844]

Opted for a Dubliner infused with Tempest Brewing Elemental dark porter. Pretty much a cheddar with both meso and thermo cultures and will add the beer after the curds are milled with the salt and allow it to soak for 15 or so minutes.

It's a filtered beer too, so shouldn't have any issues with S. cerevisiae fermenting anything.

Cheers,
Patrick

[whatisboom]

Sach shouldn't be a problem anyways as it can't ferment lactose.

[ROBBP844]

Yep this is true. I used the wrong word, I meant metabolise.

It will be happy to get to grips with any amino and fatty acids and if the yeast load from a beer is quite big like a hefeweisse bier, it might kick off some autolytic meaty flavour.

That aside, used a filtered porter and soaked half of the curd in it for 15mins. The cheese will hopefully have a marbled effect, I'll find out in around 5 months if it is any good.