Whey - Maximizing Shelf Life

[wcaprar]

I have searched high and low on the forums for the answer, but nothing yet. I made some simple cheese on january 14th of this year. I retained the Whey afterwards, which is pretty much just whey and lemon juice. Is it still good by any chance? I smelled it and it doesn't smell good or bad. I want to use it to make a brine/wash for some Gouda I have.

[ArnaudForestier]

I know that Sailor Con Queso has had this to say:

Filter, filter, filter. Put it in gallon milk jugs and store it in your fridge. I would do 3 or 4 cheeses and then replace. BUT you can also add a few drops of chlorine to kill any undesirables and use it much longer. This is completely benign and will add no flavor to the cheese. It is no different than the chlorine in city water. Commercially they can use brine this way indefinitely.

But, that presumes this has been followed from the beginning.  I personally would be loathe to use a brine from the middle of January - even if you killed off all undesirables (and I would just be paranoid, to be honest - Listeria's no fun), I can't imagine the metabolic/lysis-breakdown products, etc. from good and/or bad microbes would add any benefit, at this point (my only reference comes from brewing...no, nothing pathogenic can survive, but before they die off, they produce some truly nasty products).  Consult with the experts on the forum (I am a complete noob), but IMHO, I'd just make a fresh brine.

[wcaprar]

Thanks Arnaud,

I was telling my brother earlier that the only way I would use it is if absolutely everyone that responded to this post would have no problem at all with using it

[Cheese Head]

wcaprar, just to add, I've saved and stored whey in used clean gallon milk jugs in kitchen fridge for later use in cooking ie soup or bread making. But I've used it or thrown leftover after a few days even though it still smelled good.

So I don't know the shelf life of whey. FYI a big listing of non-cheese whey uses here.

[Tomer1]

I had whey sitting in the fridge for a week before it gone bad,
It smells like spoiled milk.
If your using it for cooking just taste it, if it tastes bad throw it.