I made Jarlsberg using the recipe from cheesemaking.com. Culture was Meso MM100 and proprionic bacteria. I waxed after drying it, put it in a 13C cave for 8 days, then brought it to a 67F room temp to allow for formation of holes. After 30 days the cheese bloated significantly, with an "air" space under the wax, then the wax split, it dribbled a bit of whey and the bloating stopped (I now know waxing before warm phase can cause issues like wax cracking during the warm phase). Six days later I noticed black mold under the wax, removed the wax, cleaned it and left it to air dry. After 10 hours there were many surface cracks (you can see 3 surface cracks with mold incursion in the photo). I decided to vacuum bag it and put it in the cave, which is 13C for the most part. A month later I got back from vacation and removed the bag to try for a natural rind. Cut it open today, to find ~10 internal cracks from 1-3 cm long, and many very small holes - so small I can't tell if they are smooth and shiny surfaced or not. Given the timing of the bloat and the cracks, I am thinking clostridia butyric, and that I should throw it out. Opinions on that?
It doesn't look good to me. It's possible it just wasn't flexible enough but more likely blowing
In my experience, waxing soon after "drying" is always a bit of a risky business, as while the cheese might seem dry to the touch it's still likely to sweat or react strangely to suddenly being bundled up and not able to release moisture at all. A couple of my earlier cheeses that I did this on just ended up getting moldy and/or a bit slimy under the wax, which wasn't incredibly appetizing. From that point on, I'd typically only wax after a week or two of aging, once I was sure that the cheese had settled down. Also, when stripping off the wax and cleaning it and letting it dry again, because the rind hasn't had any time on its own to really form and harden, it'll crack super easily if it's not humid enough.
Does it have the sweet nutty flavor you'd associate with Jarlsberg or generically American Swiss-type cheeses?
The cracking does look sketchy and I'd very probably not trust the cheese, especially after so many things have gone down. The timing of the swelling seems to fit when the propionic bacteria would be doing their thing, but bloating's also not unlikely and the defects are more irregular than optimal.