hello everybody.

[martinjamessymonds]

Hello, my name is Martin. I currently live in Alice Springs in central Australia, I work here to make some quick money to finance my farm in Victoria. My partner and I are trying to establish a goat and sheep dairy for cheese. Currently we have about fifty East Freisian cross ewes and a registered East Freisian ram. We are going to move the mob back to  pure East Freisian. We also have eight British Alpine and Toggenburg goats. These aren't registered but could be. My point being they are good milking stock. We haven't tried milking the ewes yet and would welcome any advice. We have milked the goats , our best gives about 4 litres a day, We only milk once a day.
  I am a novice cheesemaker. I have made a double cream Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Ricotta Salata, Gouda and a Parmesan so far. I live in a caravan and have limited space and facilities so all the cheeses so far are living in the vegetable section of my fridge, about 4.5 Celcius. There is nowhere else at present. Daytime temperatures here  are about 30 Celcius. I have waxed the Monterey, Cheddar, Ricotta Salata and Gouda with beeswax. They are  about one kilo each, shaped as short cylinders.
  I have a few questions; will the cheeses eventually mature at this low temperature? How do I detect mould under the wax or does the wax preclude mould? I waxed once lightly then again with a heavier coat. I am using store bought homogenized cow milk while I'm here in Alice and will begin with goat and sheep milk when I return home later this year.
  Anyway that's enough for now. Thanks.

[Cheese Head]

Welcome Martin, I had heard of Alice Springs, I think from watching Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert years ago, but had to look it up, wow you are smack dab in the middle of Oz! Somewhat similarly I used to work summers in Yukon & NWT Canada in camps, also good places to make some money.

Congrats on your goals and on cheeses so far!

At 4.5C / 40F your cheeses will rippen but very very slowly. I hope others here can give you a better feel but I suspect 2-3X normal. Most fridge's thermostats don't let you get warmer, but I've never tried a caravan/trailer's fridge, maybe yours will. See the Equipment -Aging, Caves Board for ideas, for example I use a small fridge and an external thermostat that are located in our garage. If you are long in Alice Springs you could hunt down an old fridge, park it outside the caravan, and leave/sell it when move back to Victoria?

Wax does not preclude mold, it helps but acts more as a long term humidity / moisture loss barrier. I haven't used wax but lots here have including beeswax. To view their tricks, traps, problems and solutions, go Menu > Search > Advanced and use key words like bees wax and beeswax and wax mold, and wax mould etc. Here's our FAQ Search Tool info.

[Gürkan Yeniçeri]

Welcome to the forum Martin. I am in Canberra.
Your space is limited for a while but may be you can get a second fridge outside of your caravan As John said.

For wax; wipe the cheese with heavy brine or vinegar before waxing and hot wax should kill any remaining surface bacteria. If things are growing underneath, the wax may swollen too.

Good luck with your goat farm. Let us know when the production started. I was talking with a lady at an antique clock shop, she was complaining about the lack of goat milk cheeses in the shops. It may be a niche market...