Failed goat cheese x 2

[dgcheese]

Hi everyone.

I'm in the process of transitioning from soft cheeses to hard, aged cheeses. In the last week I've tried to make a simple hard goat cheese twice---both times were complete failures. Perhaps someone has advice:

Round 1: used 1 gallon of Meyenberg store bought goat milk. Danon yogurt with active cultures and animal rennet. Combined milk and yogurt after milk was at 68 degrees. Left overnight. Warmed to 86 degrees. Added rennet. Left sit for a total of 3 hours...got a "soft" break, but after 3 hours decided to proceed. Curds cut well, but came apart with heating and gentle (gentle) stirring. Used 1/4 teaspoon rennet in 5 teaspoons water.

Thought I had used too little rennet. Tried to salvage by draining the milky soup I had made...horrible taste, most of it drained thru the cheese cloth.

Round 2: used half a gallon this time with Whole Foods brand yogurt (with active culture). Same process, but after leaving overnight in oven with light on, initial temp of milk was 92 degrees (yikes--oven was off). Since temp was over 86 degrees, added the rennet immediately.

This time I used 1/4 teaspoon with 1/2 gallon of milk (since I figured I was low on rennet in Round 1). Left it for 35 minutes. There is 1/4 inch of whey on top and no firm curd at all. Looks completely ruined.  Will leave it for a few more hours, but have little hope.

Is the store bought goat milk the problem? Too little rennet? Adding rennet at a temp of 92 degrees?

Any thoughts/advice?

Will likely re-attempt but with normal milk. Can't keep buying blowing $$ on goat milk only to throw out. By the way, got a decent soft goat cheese spread out of the Meyenberg milk a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks so much. As you can imagine, this is demoralizing and frustrating.

David

[mtncheesemaker]

Hi and sorry to hear about your frustration!
I don't know firsthand but have read on the forum that much store-bought goat milk is Ultra-pasteurized and not suitable for cheese making. You might want to try and find out if that is the case with your milk.
I'm curious what recipe you are using and what cheese you are making? That info would be helpful. I usually add a starter culture, i.e., buttermilk, yoghurt or powdered culture to the warmed milk, let ripen 0-60 minutes depending on the recipe, and then add the rennet.
I would suggest checking out your milk and posting more info about your process.
Pam

[linuxboy]

That milk is awful for making hard cheese. You can usually pull off making a chevre with it, but that's it.

[dgcheese]

I sense it may have been the milk.  Just went to Meyenberg's  website...ultrapasturized. Will repeat the recipe this week with regular cow milk from the store.

Below is a link to the recipe I used. I have both liquid and tablet rennet, but used the liquid these past two times. Could that have worsened the situation? Maybe I'll use the tablet next until I get my process straightened out.

Thanks again. David

http://www.clc.uc.edu/%7Efankhadb/cheese/CHEESE98.htm