how much whey is usually pressed out from a cheddar?
Depends on how big a cheese and how it was made. Just cheddar or cheese in general?
That is a tough question to answer. I think a lot depends on what you are going for in terms of Cheddar moisture. This also depends on process factors like acidification, renneting others.. This also depends on raw materials such as milk type.
For me I used a stirred curd method using off the shelf whole milk with a desire to keep my curds as moist as possible by controlling pH.
My last batch started with 206.4lbs of milk.
My yield was 23.8lbs of cheese.
That would means I lost 182.6lbs of whey.
88.4% of my starting weight was tossed out as whey. (I don't know how much whey weighs per gallon.....)
Wayne - what are you doing with all of that whey???
I make Ricotta with every drop of whey I generate and average about 6 ounces per gallon of whey. I sell it to friends for $6 a pound (packed in 30 ounce containers). That's higher than the prices at the grocery store but everyone knows it's super fresh. I do 3.5 gallon batches, so that's around 21 oz or around $8 a batch. I pay $6 a gallon for milk ($21 a batch) so the FREE Ricotta pays for about 38% of my milk. So my net cost is just $3.72 a gallon for my milk. I get around 1.2 pounds of hard cheese per gallon so my net cost is around $3.10 a pound.
So, for your 25 gallon batches, that would yield around 150 ounces or 9-3/8 pounds @ $6 would generate $56.25 a batch for you. That's over $2 a gallon in quick return.
From a commercial point of view, that's pretty significant.
One caveat though. I am using really high quality raw Jersey milk, so I get a great yield. I also add a little more fresh milk back into my whey to boost the yield. Your yield might be lower depending on your milk, but it is still bonus money.
I do not like Ricotta Cheese, and really, i don't know anyone that does.
So I dump my whey.
My milk costs are 1.89USD /gal
from start to finish pressing i get ( guessing) 4 to 6 ounces of whey