Alcohol in cheese

[CheeseSnipe]

It should not be bitter, it's a really sweet beer (almost too much so).
Next time I make it I'm going to kick up the hops to balance it out better.

[Mersunwea]

Hei CheeseSnipe,
How did your cheese turn out?
Let us know! Pics? 

[Brie]

Snipe--great idea to just wash the cheese as opposed to adding it to curd--you will find the the taste of the beer permeates the cheese as opposed to over-powering it. Waiting to hear the outcome!

[CheeseSnipe]

I think I'm still another month or so out before its tasting ready. But will for sure post pics and review once its done. I think I'm more excited about the whiskey version than the beer one.

[smilingcalico]

How was your stout cheese, Snipe?

[CheeseSnipe]

Still haven't cracked it open. It was waxed on 2/23, so end of this month will be 4 months. From what I've ready most cheddar's need about 6 months to be decent. I know the plain one I opened  a couple weeks ago was not stellar, needed more salt. So I figured I would sit on these for a bit longer.

[smilingcalico]

Sounds good, I'll be looking forward to reading about it.

[CheeseSnipe]

I cracked open the whiskey cheese. It had aged for 9 months. It was a bit dry and crumbly but everyone loved the flavors the whiskey added. The stout cheese didn't really turn out, a bit bland.

[mightyjesse]

I make a scotch cheddar that comes out really well after about 9 months of aging. I find that if I don't want a crumbly final cheese and a stronger scotch flavor, I should vacuum pack it for aging once it's dry to the touch on the surface.

I add my scotch to the make during the cheddaring phase. This means that several shots of scotch get washed away by expressed whey, but it gets thoroughly mixed with the curds. As long as you leave the curd chunks fairly large, I don't find that the alcohol kills enough of the lacto critters to kill the flavor of the cheese. If you use a nice smokey scotch like Laphroaig, or Caol Ila, it comes out pretty balanced and REALLY lovely.

[dthelmers]

If you use a nice smokey scotch like Laphroaig, or Caol Ila, it comes out pretty balanced and REALLY lovely.

I'll have to try this. I like both of those, and I'm glad the cheese is balanced. They have been known to affect my own balance adversely. I like the idea of adding it at the cheddaring stage. Did you notice any difference in the curd fusing?

[mightyjesse]

The curd knits together pretty well, and isn't noticeably that much different to work with than a standard cheddar. At least, not that I've noticed - however, I do observe the rule that I must drink as much scotch as the cheese does (so one shot per stack flip) so my recall may be a bit... hazy...

[Cloversmilker]

Last Saturday I tried the port cheddar from 200 Easy.  The recipe given adds a step to her cheddar recipe; soaking the milled curds in 2 cups of room temp port for 30 minutes before adding salt and pressing.  Earlier in the week I had made the cheddar recipe with 4.5 gallons of milk and thought it looked quite promising.  It's on the right in the attached picture.  However the port soaked curds did not fuse during pressing.  When the cheese was removed from the press and unmolded on Sunday evening, curds fell off in all directions.  This was quite a disappointment.  Since it was late and I was tired, the curds went into a glass jar in the frig.  Yesterday I made the 200 Easy's stirred curd cheddar, and added the port curds to the make just before draining the whey.  I milled them coarsely in the food processor before adding so that they were about the same size as the warm curds.  I also added them gradually while keeping the temp constant.  All the curds fused beautifully during the press as you can see below.  The smell is a lovely fruity wine aroma.  Definitely an experiment, but it does now look encouraging.  If I was to try the port cheddar again, I would keep the port soaked curds warmer, and remill them coarsely after the soaking. 

[mightyjesse]

I've never had a problem with curd fusion after a port soak, but I press under pretty heavy weight, and I do my curd soak in the double boiler at 75-80 degrees to maintain curd temperature. I think you have the right idea, but I don't think you'll really need to re-mill.

[dthelmers]

MightyJesse: I love the imprint on the cheese! Good idea keeping the cheese and the cheesemaker even on the Scotch.

Cloversmilker: That looks absolutely beautiful! What pressing weight did you use originally?

[mightyjesse]

I HAD to start stamping my cheeses so that I could tell them apart in the cave before they were vacpacked... In some cases they will never be vacpacked, so... I just picked up some of the scrapbooking stamps and arrange them on a plate under my cheese when I do the final press. I love the effect, and people wonder how I did it. Easy-peasy and $14 investment to make me look that much cooler wins the day!