Hello from Oakland CA

[uncle_bad_touches]

hello -

I am new to the cheese making craft.  I have had several years experience making beer, so I understand sanitary technique and recipe formulation.  I tend to jump into things two footed, but I do like to understand the process as I am going along.  My first book is "Artisan Cheese Making at Home" which I find useful as a cookbook.  I'm ok with the how but not satisfied with the why, but I'm willing suspend judgement until I have a better handle on things.

Anyway, I have made a couple non-aged cheeses (feta, young manchego, etc.) with reasonable success.

I have a stiltenish cheese going now and all seems well.  I also have an Ale Washed Trappist chesse that us about 3 weeks old that i am debating what to do about the mold.  do i continue to wash with vinegar/salt? or do I ignore the mold and let it create it's own natural rind?

Picture of mold here:

Untitled

i had just sprayed it down so it is usually not that wet or dark.

My main passion is to make blue cheeses but I am willing to be patient somewhat

[beechercreature]

welcome to the site. not sure what to do about the mold. i'm fairly new to cheesemaking myself. i'd probably scrape it off and try to re-rind the area where it was.

don't take that as advice, though. it's just what i would do.

[Cheese Head]

Hi uncle, welcome!

Feta's will ripen further in brine, albeit limited, and Manchego's also ripen/age.

Natural rinds are very very hard to keep clear of molds and thus rarely made, me I like to oil.

With your Trappist cheese looks like you are going for a washed rind, looks good. As you say options are to keep removing unwanted mold by scrubbing off using vinegar and salt or letting in run free. If you are scrubbing off regularly then I think your ripening humidity is too high, try reducing a bit to create a drier rind (not too low a humidity otherwise will get cracks), and I'd keep going with the washings, farther apart as age longer.

Again welcome!

[hoeklijn]

Hi there, welcome to the forum.
Natural rinds have indeed a habit to pick up molds. Rub it with a bit of non iodised salt or a solution of 1 liter of water and 250 gram of non iodised salt.

[DeejayDebi]

Welcome Uncle. You've come to the right place and your brewing experinece will will very handy. COntroling temperatures is one of the difficult things for people to learn - waiting for their cheese to age is another.