Emmenthal, I think I'll make an Emmenthal.

[Boofer]

No milk till this afternoon so tomorrow will be Cheese day

The crowd is growing restless...I hope the milk gets here in time! There could be trouble! 

-Boofer-

[H-K-J]

Got Milk? YEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!! 

[DeejayDebi]

Nice yellow high fat raw milk! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

[beechercreature]

five gallons of pre-cheese. time to party!

[DeejayDebi]

Woo Hoo! Milk!

[H-K-J]

O.k. some pic's and a question,
after brine, should I dry the cheese with paper towels and then air dry?
the make was very intense and pressing stressful, but that's just me

[beechercreature]

looks good so far, and the new press looks like it's working great.

[knipknup]

Beautiful press!  Beautiful cheese!

I've only made two goudas and I did not hand dry either after pressing, but just air dry for about 2 days.  Actually, the second (and most recent one - just vac packed it this morning) was air dried for about 4 days, flipping twice a day.  The wheel is still really soft but dry to the touch.  I'll check tonight to see if it has sweat in the bag.  I don't think it will but...

[H-K-J]

Disaster has struck, went to turn in brine and it fell into 3 pieces and crumbs
there should be a lot of swear words here but we have a G audience on the forum

[beechercreature]

Disaster has struck, went to turn in brine and it fell into 3 pieces and crumbs
there should be a lot of swear words here but we have a G audience on the forum

that sucks! 

can it be saved? like milling it and repressing like a cheddar. i would assume it has all the salt uptake it needs.

[H-K-J]

well I believe this is what I will have to do or just bag it? I am thinking repress
Cadillac time
Dang,Dang,Dang,Dang,Dang,Dang,!!!!!!!!!

O.K. last ditch effort, what do you think 400.20 lbs. at the plunger or 7.5 psi. on the cheese is going to do.
Don't have any other thought
and to think I asked DJD, where in hec would you use the pressure a quad pulley system can produce

[Sailor Con Queso]

Emmenthal uses thermophilic bacteria. The acid production on these usually starts kicking in hard at hours 5-6. At that point the cheese normally starts fusing like superglue and it wants to stick to everything. 2 psi should be more than enough pressure to get a good solid wheel.

So there must be something else going on. The thermos are so reliable, that I would suspect that something happened to suppress acid production. I would first look at the bacteria themselves. So pull out a strong magnifying glass and... - just kidding. Was this a new package of starter? You might have used too little starter, in which case acid production would be delayed. However, the thermos should have still kicked in during pressing.

I would also suspect it may also have been way overcooked. By pressing under 120F whey for an extended period, you may have really dried out the curds and lost butterfat. After cooking, and before pressing, a handful of curds should make a nice cohesive ball when squeezed, but they should still break apart easily. Without a pH meter, it is important to learn the "feel" of your cheese at different stages.

When the cheese broke, were you being gentle or was there cheese brutality involved? Why do you say that the make was intense and the pressing stressful? It's hard to give more input without exact details of your make.

[Boofer]

Disaster has struck, went to turn in brine and it fell into 3 pieces and crumbs
there should be a lot of swear words here but we have a G audience on the forum

I have several questions:

• How long and at what pressure did you press before brining?
• Did it seem like you got a pretty good knit to the curds?
• What was the strength of your brine?
• Was the rind fairly firm/hard when you tried to turn it? The salt should have firmed it up.
• Did one of your drill bits make an escape?

I dry my cheeses coming out of the whey-brine. That helps them move towards overall dryness more quickly.

-Boofer-

[H-K-J]

from Cheesewizz recipe;

   warm milk to 90 degrees.  (hit this perfectly)
   add CACL, Starters, Proprioni...let ripen for 60 mins (no CACL raw milk)
   add rennet and multiply floc. x 2.5 (floc. 14-min= 35-min)
   cut curds to 1/4 inch and let heal for 10-15 mins
   start to gently stir while raising temp to 100F in 40 mins (again hit it right on)
   then slowly raise temp of curds to 122F in another 40 mins(again just right)
   cook at 122F for approx 30 mins more....curds should be "pea - rice size".
   (cook until semi-dry and semi-firm but still able to knit easily)
   drain in cloth and load into mold in one piece or large chunks. (everything went well, seemed to be as specified)
From here I changed the pressure and weights to fit my press and 8-1/4" mould
   press under warm whey (120 degrees) for 20 mins. @ 15 lbs
   flip and re-press warm @ 25 lbs for 20 mins.
   flip and dry press at 25 lbs. for 1 hour.
   press at 50-60 lbs for 8 hours @ room temp. (7.5 inch mold) (I jacked this up a little more than 72-lbs. 1.36psi. At 2:00am I didn't like how it had knitted I bumped up the weight to 100-lbs, 1.87-psi. left it in the press for 5 more hour's)
   remove from press and brine in "medium" brine for 6 hours.
(saturated brine is too strong and will kill proprioni..).Use 1/4 cup salt to 4 cups of whey. (this is exactly what I made)

I would also suspect it may also have been way overcooked. By pressing under 120F whey for an extended period, you may have really dried out the curds and lost butterfat. After cooking, and before pressing, a handful of curds should make a nice cohesive ball when squeezed, but they should still break apart easily. Without a pH meter, it is important to learn the "feel" of your cheese at different stages.

When the cheese broke, were you being gentle or was there cheese brutality involved?

I was as gentle as I would have been with a new born baby grandchild 
as for the 120-deg. just followed what was recommended.

Boofer,

Did one of your drill bits make an escape?

I knew someone was gonna drill me on that one But, nope didn't find a spare one in the mix. 

[Sailor Con Queso]

Details are important - how much milk, how much starter, which ones, how much rennet, etc.

When you say that you pressed under whey at 15#. How? Did you use your press or do it in the make pot? You might want to consider "calibrating" your press with a scale so you know what you are really pressing. (discussed several times in the forum). My presses for example apply 20# at the plunger with no weight attached, so it's actually not possible for me to press with just 15#. A psi of 1.36 is a little light. I would shoot for 2. That would take 107# at the plunger. A little more won't hurt. My presses work out to a 25 to 1 mechanical advantage plus 20# of dead weight. For Swiss, I use 5# of weight, so that's 125+20 = 145# or around 2.5 psi.

In looking at your photo, the wheel looks pretty short. That would make it more fragile. 6 gallons is a better fit for an 8.25" mould.

If you cooked until the curds were "semi-dry and semi-firm but still able to knit easily", you then cooked under 120F whey for another 40 minutes. I would use warm, but not hot whey next time. Personally, I never press under whey, but I have a heated draining table so the curds don't cool down too quickly. Then I work as quickly as possible to hoop and get things into the press. I would also use a little longer floc multiplier. I use 3.5 to give a moister, more pliable knit.