Hello! A newbie from Arizona!

[wcaprar]

Hello Everyone! My name is Will and to be honest I'm not terribly new to the forum. I had signed up a while ago, but never bothered to introduce myself or be active because I couldn't find and cheese making supplies. *BUT* now I have found a supply store, and I am totally stoked about making some real cheeses and can't wait to get started! So hopefully I can pick your brains a bit to help me succeed! Thanks!

[dadzcats]

Hi, Will,

Me too, I joined and read a lot but didn't get active otherwise until now.  I know what you mean - sometimes you have to wait until you have everything together.  It took me awhile to research those supplies and purchase them.

Between October and December, after I read a lot of these posts here and also herehttp://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/cheese.html I began experimenting.  I gained a lot of experience with some of the basics by making yogurt, fromage blanc and then chevre from raw goat's milk that I pasteurized here at home.  Now, I've ordered molds, supplies and ingredients to try my first Camembert this weekend.

Have fun - see you around!  (I'll look for your photos!)

[Cheese Head]

Welcome Will, if you are still looking for supplies our list of suppliers is here.

Cheese making is way way more complicated that recipe books make out, have fun!

[Brie]

Hi Will and welcome! Where do you live in Arizona? I'm in the Phoenix area.

[wcaprar]

Thanks everyone!

Can anyone suggest what kind of cheese I should start with? I have only made paneer and queso fresco maybe 5 times total and some cottage cheese. I would like to start off with something that doesn't have to many variables in it and I don't need something that will provide instant results -- I can wait a week, but 2 weeks is kinda pushing it right now. lol

Brie- I also live in the Northern phoenix area.

John- I'm not a big fan of buying stuff online, lol, which was one of the reasons that I never got to far into cheese making -- when the closest thing you have to rennet is junket, thing don't turn out right. But I finally found an actual store that has EVERYTHING I need and then some.

By the way, Everything there is Mad Millie brand, Has anyone heard of it or used it?

dadzcatz- I hope to have some photos soon!

[Cheese Head]

Will, fair point on buying on-line, I'd also rather buy local and support local merchants but sadly cheese making is not a popular endeavour thus for most of us a local store is not feasible. That said most of those stores have physical "bricks and mortar" stores.

On what cheeses to work on next, there is a Wiki: Recommendations For New Cheese Makers article, my vote is for Light Cream Cheese, (also called Neufchatel in US, not be confused with French white mold Neufchatel), or as you've made Chevre, I assume you have a goat's milk source then Feta or Fetta as it's frequently spelt in Oz. If you don't have goat's milk then you'll need Lipase. These both take a couple days to make and are fresh unaged cheese but I have seen talk of ripening Feta so it benefits from some aging.

Nope, never seen Mad Millie before, searched and just added that store/website to our list. I also see several Beer/Wine type stores also resell Mad Millie's products. See attached image from their website, looks to me like they stock repackaged manufactured starter cultures, probably from CHR Hansen as one of their packaged products is Flora Danica.

[Brie]

Do tell about the store in Phoenix that you've found!

[wcaprar]

Brie,

It's a wine and beer brewing specialty store called "What Ale's Ya?"   It's located between 67th and 63rd ave and Bell. The people there are very nice, in particular Norman. Like I said they are a wine and beer brewing store and they just started stocking cheese making goods as of a few weeks ago - nothing is even priced on the boxes yet. Norman tells me that none of them there are experienced in cheese making, so they aren't a big help there, lol. But like I said they are very nice over there. Everything they have is Mad Millie brand, and they had quite a few things in stock. I saw a Gouda kit, a yogurt kit, a small cheese press, Cheese vats and incubation tubs. Then they have liquid renet - both vegetarian and calf - Calcium chloride, lipase, and a lot of cultures and molds in their freezer. Sadly, I need to wait a few days till I get a paycheck than I will start buying things, so I can't attest to the quality of any of it but it at least seemed fairly priced.

Please, tell all your AZ cheese making friends about this place, I would hate to have them remove the stock because it's not being sold. And if they ask, tell them Wesley sent you. Wesley sent me to this store and I'm sure they will be happy to hear he's spreading the word

[wcaprar]

John, I went with your suggestion and made some Feta! I was very excited but it didn't turn out too great.

I have pictures and a few words on my mistakes posted here https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,6176.0.html

Thanks guys for your help and encouraging words!

[moodock]

Between October and December, after I read a lot of these posts here and also herehttp://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/cheese.html
Have fun - see you around!  (I'll look for your photos!)

Yeah, I have spoken to that guy. He has never made a successful Swiss-style cheese. His original recipe calls for this:

"15) Prepare saturated salt water bath: dissolve 5 Tbl salt in 16 oz water (some salt remains undissolved).  Pour into a plastic container slightly wider than the cheese, cool the salt solution down to 45 F.  Float cheese for two days in this 45 F brine, turning each day, sprinkle salt on surface of cheese. [NOTE:  I have recently recieved an email that suggests this time is too long, that the cheese may become too salty.  I am not certain about the finer points of brining the cheese, and am eager to hear any information others may have on the subject.

His saturated brine and time is for a 1 gallon batch. At that concentration, the propionic bacteria will perish, and no eyes will occur (he stated he never had eye formation in email). Yes, I am the guy that emailed him about the brine issue.