I'm a novice cheese-maker that got into the addiction because... I love cheese. I'm no expert on cheese types but I've always loved cheeses of all kinds. There aren't a lot of commercial cheese makers to choose from around Mill Cove, Nova Scotia (Canada), and even fewer artisan and small production cheese makers. Most of the nice cheeses are imported from overseas and are therefore slightly expensive. My vegetarian girlfriend is from England, and she was a bit distressed by the lack of selection and the rubbery orange-died commercial cheeses available, so I decided to see how tough it was to make my own. I started just after Christmas past, by purchasing a cheese-making kit to get some of the ingredients and equipment I needed to start.
My first cheese was a Farmhouse Cheddar which turned out very nice. I've made 15 batches of Farmhouse, Monterrey Jack and spiced Derby since. I have to say my track record is mixed with several very nice batches, a few rather tasteless (probably needed more aging) and more recently a few batches of wet, sweet-pungent cheese. I realized the problem was with the ph, so I recently bought a tester. I haven't been able to sample any since then (still aging) but I'm confident things will be back on track.
I also fell into a common trap of following recipes to the letter. After purchasing a larger 8" diameter mould, I continued to press at 50 lbs per the recipe until it dawned on me that the pressure per square inch would be much less. After a quick calculation and the addition of double pulleys to my hand-made lever press, problem solved.
I like the challenge of improvising and making any equipment I can, like my crude cheese press. I recently bought what I thought was an old 60 gallon apple cider tank so I can make larger batches. When I got it delivered, I realized it was actually more like 150 gallon! I plan to remove the stainless steel liner from the (leaky) steel water jacket and iron base and wrestle it into my basement. Once that vat is ready to go, no more pot in the kitchen sink!
Looking forward to learning from others' experiences and ideas. It all makes for better cheeses
congratulations on joining the fraternity! From your post it sounds like you are well on your way to understanding how everything interacts during the cheese making process. I look forward to following your cheese making exploits!
Welcome NSC! Can't wait to see you new setup sounds interesting.
Welcome and great intro, 150 gallons, especially larger Canadian/Imperial ones, that's 180 US gallons, yikes!! Have fun here.
Hi NSC, well we can be cheese buddies! I'm about to move to NS. I live in England now but am moving to our small farm on the south shore in about 6 weeks (near Mahone Bay). I've been making cheese, at commercial dairies here, and at home and plan to have goats to have my own milk once settled. I've made a few hard cheeses but am right now focusing on lactic varieties and softer cheeses. I'm about to head to France to get more experience with a cheese maker on these - can't wait.
Anyway, look forward to connecting.
Best of luck.
p.s. Where is Mill Cove?