Hi I'm Mike, but I generally go by FastDogBrewing. I have been homebrewing beer for about 7 years now and have been really involved in the homebrew community, including being president of my local homebrew club for the last 2 years. Lately I have been pulling back from the overt involvement in clubs and online forums because of work and because I have found it takes away too much time that I could be spending brewing.
So now I am looking at cheese making, along with doing more BBQ/smoking with my newly built UDS(Ugly Drum Smoker). I got a cheese making kit this last saturday in a gift exchange for my homebrew club. One of the guys in the club owns the local homebrew shop and has been looking at adding cheese making supplies so he picked up some kits. I made my first batch of Mozzarella last night, and while it wasn't great it was cheese. So now I am excited about this, my wife WILL say I am getting obsessed.
So here I am looking for information, advice and more people to get to know that are "obsessed" about food and drink hobbies like I am.
;D
Good morning Mike and welcome to the forum. You will find that many of us have several hobbies, and brewing is a common one. One of the members here also has a forum for smoking and preserving meats, so you should fit right in.
What cheese are you hoping to make next?
Quote from: Tea on December 14, 2009, 08:29:27 PM
Good morning Mike and welcome to the forum. You will find that many of us have several hobbies, and brewing is a common one. One of the members here also has a forum for smoking and preserving meats, so you should fit right in.
What cheese are you hoping to make next?
I'm going to use up the ingredients in this starter kit I have and probably make some more Mozzarrella. At least try and get some practice on techniques and setup. This is how I broke in my All-Grain setup, I brewed a lot of simple Blonde Ale batches. I still do when I make mods or upgrades.
After that, I will see what I want, and work out a schedule of cheeses to make and when. Since I know some will take some time I want to look at how long I need to age stuff and try and work out a schedule around my Beer, Meade, and Cheese. Last batch of Meade I made took a year, and I did not make any in between so when it was gone in a weekend I was kinda pissed.
Howdy FastDog, welcome to the forum, I used to make beer as a kid but that is a long time ago.
I like your term
Quotedrink hobbies
^-^.
Welcome to the forum FastDog. I am sure you will find a lot of information about cheesemaking on this forum.
I have heard that beer brewing and cheesemaking can go hand in hand. Jim Wallace @ cheesemaking.com who is doing home breewing and cheesemaking at the same time says that bacterias are sometimes get into a fight in the cave but they are usually OK :)
Quote from: GurkanYeniceri on December 14, 2009, 11:53:43 PM
Welcome to the forum FastDog. I am sure you will find a lot of information about cheesemaking on this forum.
I have heard that beer brewing and cheesemaking can go hand in hand. Jim Wallace @ cheesemaking.com who is doing home breewing and cheesemaking at the same time says that bacterias are sometimes get into a fight in the cave but they are usually OK :)
That would probably depend on the used or other bugs you are using in the beer. I haven't done any sour beers yet, but I have a nice spot in the back of a closet under the stairs that is just begging to have a Flanders red put there and forgotten about. Most of the sour beers will have Lactobacillus, or brettanomyces, or a combination of them. I don't know how these guys would do with cheese.
Lactobacillus family used in the cheese but possibly different strains. We have cremoris, lactis, biovar diecetylactis from the Lactobacillus family. They must be cousins anyway...
Well Hello there Mike and welcome to the new obsession!
I am also a brewer, smokeaholic and sausage maker. I'd have to say smoking, sausage and cheese are my biggest obsessions though. This is every bit as addictive as smoke!
ENjoy!
Quote from: DeejayDebi on December 15, 2009, 04:51:21 AM
Well Hello there Mike and welcome to the new obsession!
I am also a brewer, smokeaholic and sausage maker. I'd have to say smoking, sausage and cheese are my biggest obsessions though. This is every bit as addictive as smoke!
ENjoy!
Sausage making is on my list.
Hi FastDogBrewing
Welcome to both you and me to this forum and the art of making cheeses. I am myself a obsessive compulsive brewer, and maker of other things fermented, like cured/smoked sausages and meat, cider, bread and sauerkraut. Add them all together and life is good.
Once you graduate from Mozarella (which is to cheese what extract brewing is to beer) you will find that the skills and techniques are similar to all-grain brewing. After you pick your base milk (grain) you convert it with enzymes and temperature control (mash), then you drain your curds (wort), add your molds (yeast) and then you wait.
Povl
Quote from: plasbo on December 15, 2009, 08:25:57 PM
Hi FastDogBrewing
Welcome to both you and me to this forum and the art of making cheeses. I am myself a obsessive compulsive brewer, and maker of other things fermented, like cured/smoked sausages and meat, cider, bread and sauerkraut. Add them all together and life is good.
Once you graduate from Mozarella (which is to cheese what extract brewing is to beer) you will find that the skills and techniques are similar to all-grain brewing. After you pick your base milk (grain) you convert it with enzymes and temperature control (mash), then you drain your curds (wort), add your molds (yeast) and then you wait.
Povl
Nice analogy.
That was a very good explaination Polv! liked it a lot!
I too am an avid home brewer. The main difference between brewing beer and making cheese is that it is still cheaper to brew beer than to buy it. Also, the empirical learning curve is way longer; I started making cheese earlier this year and don't know yet if I'm any good at it (at least for aged cheeses).
I'm interested in making cheese because I'm fascinated by old-world food preservation techniques that have given us such wonderful, unique flavors -- yet we have largely ignore them in the US, opting to place quantity and price over quantity.
For me, it started with my first taste of jamon serrano -- and wondering why it couldn't be made in the US. But my wife won't let legs of ham salt in the basement or rolls of curing meats hang around :)
I am currently curing some salmon for my Christmas party Friday. It is so easy, and worthwhile -- I think you all know how amazed people are when you make cheese and let people try it. The same with the cured salmon (gravlax) -- and soooo much cheaper.
"Wild Fermentation (http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Fermentation-Flavor-Nutrition-Live-Culture/dp/1931498237)" has been a big hit this year. My favorite book, though, is Michael Ruhlman's "Charcuterie (http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393058298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260980028&sr=1-1)". I've read it like a novel (especially since I don't have access to a smoker, and can't make everything I would like). I do need to make bacon at some point, though.
The only sausage I have made is a turkey breakfast sausage -- which is easier because it doesn't require stuffing it into a tube.
Quote from: Micah on December 16, 2009, 02:36:12 PM
I too am an avid home brewer. The main difference between brewing beer and making cheese is that it is still cheaper to brew beer than to buy it. Also, the empirical learning curve is way longer; I started making cheese earlier this year and don't know yet if I'm any good at it (at least for aged cheeses).
That kinda depends on the beer you are making and the availability of good local beer. If you are comparing the price to bigger breweries(Bud/Miller/Coors, Sam Adams, New Belgium, Sierra Nevada, etc.) you are going to have trouble copying their beer for less(especially the crappy watery stuff). Here in SoCal we have access to REALLY good beer and some of the best stuff is really hard to duplicate at a reasonable cost, some of it is nearly impossible to duplicate at all. Homebrewing is barely a money saver, but in the end it is not necessarily about saving money, it's about making it yourself, having variety, and having quality.
Quote from: Tom Turophile on December 16, 2009, 04:17:04 PM
But my wife won't let legs of ham salt in the basement or rolls of curing meats hang around :)
A cheese cave and a sausage cave run at nearly the same temperatures and humidity levels. I have shared space with sausage and cheese in the same cave without problems.
My favorite book, though, is Michael Ruhlman's "Charcuterie (http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393058298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260980028&sr=1-1)".
[color=redThat is an excelent book![/color]
I do need to make bacon at some point, though.
To make great bacons you need to smoke it! Do you have a grill? That can be used as well. Bacon needs cold smoke and time.
The only sausage I have made is a turkey breakfast sausage -- which is easier because it doesn't require stuffing it into a tube.
MOST sausages can be made into patties or loaves and don't require casings. Lunchmeats and fermented sasages are a definate exception but in those cases you could even sew up a muslin bag to stuff it into until it's cooked, smoked or aged.
I am afraid that you guys gonna put me in sausage making one day :)
I need a second kitchen :(
Sausage is one of my many passions and if you don't have a grinder or stuffer you can just buy ground meat from the butcher mix in some spices and make patties.
Remember hamburgers are just flat sausages with limited spices. If you can make a hamburger you can make a sausage! ;D
Bienvenue Mike! Cheers! :)