Colby

[DrChile]

My colby - aka - the "i hope the shelter in place will be over with so i can share this with friends when it's ready" cheese.

(It was also my spring break last week - I had debated whether to cancel the time off and go to work but this COVID stuff is causing a lot of stress at work so I did take the week off - hence why I was able to make 2 cheeses in a few days)

2 gallons Costco Whole milk
1 gallon Snowville creamline cow milk
1 gallon Indian Creek creamline cow milk

Followed the recipe here:
https://cheesemaking.com/collections/recipes/products/colby-recipe
and the cool washed curd recipe in Caldwell's book.

My culture was 1.2%
5 oz of C101
1 oz of Flora Danica
1/2 tsp CaCl2, mixed in 1/4 cup distilled water
1/2 tsp SS rennet, dissolved in cold1/4 cup distilled water
I did do my pH measurements (initial was 7.1) but then forgot to do them until moving to the mold (ack!).

-I raised the milk to 70F, added the cultures and CaCl2 and ripened for 60 minutes while bringing up to 86F
Added the rennet.
-Used a floc multiplier of 3:  floc'd in 11 minutes. After 33 total minutes, I cut into 1/2 inch cubes and let heal for 7 minutes
-Over the course of 107 minutes I slowly heated and occasionally stirred the curds to 102F
-Then removed 2 gallons of whey (1 inch from top of curds)
-Added 2 gallons of 70F water slowly while stirring to bring temp down to 85F
Stirred for 15 minutes at 86F
Whey pH was 6.32
Drained whey to curds and stirred x 10 minutes
Drained whey completely and stirred x 15 minutes
Caldwell said to check the curd pH - at this point it was 5.9
Salted the curds with 34 grams of salt in two batches.

-Hand-packed the curds into a 8 inch mold with cheesecloth under some whey.
-Pressed with 0.4 psi for 20 minutes
-Flipped & rewrapped (that was a scary process - the curd was very fragile) and pressed at 0.9 psi for 60 minutes
-Flipped & rewrapped and pressed at 1.35 psi for 90 minutes
-Flipped & rewrapped and pressed without whey at 1.96 psi for 4 hrs
-Flipped & rewrapped and pressed without whey at 2.34 psi for 7 hrs

Went right into the cheese cave at 50F and 80%RH.
Letting it achieve a rind a bit and then will vac pack in about a week.

Trent

Note - pics show sous vide - it works fine for these meso makes (up to 4 gallons) but for thermo makes, I move to the stove top - my gas range can go very low and slow and get to the temps desired.  I have yet to use 2 sous vide devices (borrow my friend's device) to do thermo makes and may do that in the future - we shall see...

stay safe everyone

[mikekchar]

Looks great!  AC4U.  What do you mean by "culture was 1.2%"?

[DrChile]

Whoops...

Typing too fast...  meant to say that the amount of "culture was 1.2% of total milk volume"
I usually use 1.5-2% of my mother culture for makes and used a bit less for this make.

Trent

[mikekchar]

Awesome!  I'm glad to see someone else using mother cultures.  I wondered if that was the case.  Yeah, I tend to use 1.5% as well.

[DrChile]

Cracked the vac bag just shy of 8 weeks old.

and had a taste.

Nailed it - IMHO 

Great paste.  Mechanical holes.  Tastes like a typical colby should taste.
Success!

Trent

[mikekchar]

Looks perfect!  I want to make a Colby soon :-)  Not sure how to age it since I don't have a vac pack system.   I *might* just have enough wax for a small cheese, though...

[MacGruff]

Awesome! That looks just like it should. Congrats and AC4U!

[smcatharine]

Awesome. I'll try not to be jealous! I hope you can share it with friends over wine and crackers!