Hello everyone,
First cheese back in, two styled after Tome Des Bauges, natural (ambient mold, make milk and cave inoculated with rind of Tomme de Savoie).
I used TJ's P/H whole milk. A woman who works there was kind enough to dig up sourcing for me; it's local, and not too big a coop. I've found it OK for p/h, recipe development.
I pre-matured the 6 gallons with 1/64 each of MD 89 and LBC 80. 20 hours at 38F.
When I pitched the milk, I was pretty stunned to find it at 6.3 already, lower than my usual drain targets. I made adjustments in the make to slow the acid curve down as much as possible, and got a good brining pH (5.37 into brine), but the initial milk pH threw me - expected some drop from the LBC 80, but a very minor one, if at all. Anyone else experience this?
Thanks.
Paul, what was the pH before the prematuration? I've been finding that the milk I've gotten from the store seems to be running on the low side lately.
Thanks Andy, yeah, I should have checked. I have never had this issue so stopped doing the initial milk at some point over the years but you're right, that's a bad practice, even if it is p/h milk and they try to standardize so much.
It's a good suggestion, thanks. I'll do it from here on.
Well, I confess that I don't check every time ... but some time back I checked after a short ripening time, and it was down to about 6.3, and I couldn't imagine how that had happened so quickly, so I started periodically checking the milk. Not sure why, but it is consistently low. :(
Yeah, that's just weird to me, too. I don't think I've ever seen 6.3 milk. Given the prematuration with LBC it was probably higher in the jug, but very unlikely it was higher by much. Strange. Thanks again for the nod to check, Andy.
linuxboy mentioned one time that one of the advantages of pre-ripening milk was that the fat doesn't break down as quickly. I seem to remember him saying that bringing the pH down a bit lengthened the time he could store the milk and still get good results (to something like 5 days IIRC). Is it possible that the dairy is doing this on purpose for the same reason?
Wow, that is a very interesting thought, Mike. I'm checking out milk straight from the jug today or tomorrow but your idea is fascinating. I've forgotten all the cheese science I once knew (and that almost entirely came from linuxboy, or literature he threw my way. Man do I miss the lad!) but I'm going to dig in. Thanks.
Interestingly, even though I was pretty shocked at the 6.3 pH of the pitched milk, drain pH, though not ideal (6.11), was better than I would have guessed given the initial, and I was able to pull from pressing after 3 hours at 5.37. I cooled overnight so presume we dropped a bit from there, hoping for a 5.2-5.25 landing before brining. I went with Peter Dixon's culture dosing rate, extremely low, to me, on 1st read, but then I'd forgotten how well such a dosage rate works for a long, gentle, controllable acid curve. .5 DCU for p/h, half that for raw milk.
I'm itching to do another make but this time watching every target pH to see if I can get a proper curve for an elastic, 3.5X multiplier tomme. Always liked TJ's for P/H, but my farmer friends have wonderful spring Ayshire available so.....maybe this whole P/H trial scene is out the door. ;D
Alright, just as a data point, and this completely puzzles me, but on 3 readings of the TJ's whole, I got 6.20 as untreated milk. 2 point calibrations each time. I got one bizarre reading that climbed upwards of 6.28-6.30, and I need to check that my electrode is still sound (this was an uncalibrated reading and some time ago after brewing, I made the mistake of relying on the included sponge-tube to keep the electrode wet. It didn't, so it dried out. I drenched it in electrode solution and have kept it there ever since, and it seems it wasn't damaged, if brews are any indication).
Our local TJ's has always gone above and beyond the call to find arcane answers out. I'm going to just ask them to find out the specs on this milk, incl. pH. To be honest I've never run across this acidic a milk from the get go, and Mike thanks again as this would be really interesting if your was the reason.
Now, doing alpines with such a low pH to begin. Hmm...
You are going to have a PH range from all milk. From the point of creation or pasteurization little microbes are replicating.
If it spends a few extra minutes outside of refrigeration at the store, or maybe put back in the cooler after someone had it in their cart for a while, or its even a day older, or the case door wasn't closed, or it was in your car just a little longer......
even if the PH hasn't changed much the bio load will not be in your favor. the bio load of the milk will vary dramatically even from gallon to gallon by the time you are ready to start your make.
your little bugs plus the little bugs from the milk plus the little bugs in the air that day.... all can and will add an element of unpredictability. this is why we use a PH meter. If it were straight forward we could simply go by time alone.