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So on Tuesday I made the Brew-Curds Cheddar from Mary Karlin's book. And I only messed a few things up!

-2 gallons milk
-1/2 tsp. Meso II
-1/4 tsp. annatto
-1/2 tsp. CaCl2
-1/2 tsp rennet
-1 12-oz bottle dark ale or stout
-1 tbsp kosher salt

• Heat the milk to 88ºF, got it so far.
• Put in starter, ripen for 45.
• Annatto, calcium chloride, and rennet; 45 minutes. I was going to do the floc bowl, but didn't remember to check in time, so I went by clean break.
• Cut the curds to 1/2 inch and let it sit for 5 20 or so minutes
• Slowly raise the temperature to 102ºF over 40 minutes, stirring.
• Leave them at 102ºF for 30 minutes, without, and I emphasize without, letting the temperature getting up to 140ºF.
• Drain the curds for 10 minutes
• Let them become a slab over hot whey, flipping every 15 minutes for an hour.
• Cut them up into 2-inch by 1/2 inch strips...
• Soak them in ale for 45 minutes...
• Be unsure how much you're supposed to break them up so break them up a bit more every ten minutes or so while they're soaking.
• Break them up small, drain and place in brick-shaped mold (it fits in the small ripening containers) and press with ten pounds, more or less according to the recipe...
• Curds don't seem to be knitting well, so check Cheeseforum and up weight to 30 lb, hoping that letting the temperature get too high won't ruin the cheese completely.
• The cheese seems to be coming together more, but up pressure to 40 lb and finish pressing, for a total of 14 hours or so.
• Seems to be acceptable apart from a few small cracks and bits that can be waxed over, so out it goes to dry.
• After 13 hours seems dry enough, and gets a half coat of cream wax.
• The next morning the other side gets cream wax.

The drying time seems a tad short in retrospect, but it did feel dry to the touch and I'll be going out of town tomorrow, so there really isn't too much leeway.

Hi Stinky.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post and you deserve a cheese for it's entertainment value .  It looks like you had a tough time wrestling this make to the ground but from the looks of it you succeeded.  I did this same recipe a year ago but my make was much more boring!  Please let us know how this comes out!

Oh, and for clarification that half-gallon in the reduced fat jug is whole milk, but placed there during a previous make as it takes up less room.

Welcome to the boards, Stinky! Nice cheese! I really like the seeing the progression of your pressing.

Well done!!!

Thanks, Anonymous.

So I got back from vacation today and there seems to be some room between the wax and the cheese, maybe because it didn't get flipped enough. Would you recommend stripping off all the wax and rewaxing again?

Picture is from after it was newly waxed.

Very entertaining post.   I was especially touched by the Rube Goldberg pressing setup and the engineered cheese form. Have a cheese for getting it done...whatever it took.

Questions:

• Did you use cheesecloth when pressing your curds?
• Did you keep the curds warm during early pressing? It helps to consolidate the curds and form a smooth rind.

13 hours is a bit aggressive for drying time. You'd be surprised how much weepage a cheese might do.

-Boofer-

Quote from: Boofer on November 30, 2014, 02:45:16 PM
Very entertaining post.   I was especially touched by the Rube Goldberg pressing setup and the engineered cheese form. Have a cheese for getting it done...whatever it took.

Questions:

• Did you use cheesecloth when pressing your curds?
• Did you keep the curds warm during early pressing? It helps to consolidate the curds and form a smooth rind.

13 hours is a bit aggressive for drying time. You'd be surprised how much weepage a cheese might do.

-Boofer-

Thanks.  The brick mold makes cheeses that fit in smaller ripening containers, and I can use more wait than I can with the standard cheese press, which you can only crank so far.

• Yes, as you can see in the photographs.
• I'm not completely sure how to go about that best, doing it under whey sounds a bit messy...

It is, but then again I also didn't want to have something I've had before which is weeping liquid cream wax out of holes... Next time I'll plan it a bit better, okay? 

Quote from: Stinky on November 30, 2014, 03:38:09 PM
The brick mold makes cheeses that fit in smaller ripening containers

Agreed. I've used a little different take on your action. Another example.

Quote from: Stinky on November 30, 2014, 03:38:09 PM

Quote from: Boofer on November 30, 2014, 02:45:16 PM
13 hours is a bit aggressive for drying time. You'd be surprised how much weepage a cheese might do.

It is, but then again I also didn't want to have something I've had before which is weeping liquid cream wax out of holes...

Sorry, I don't think I phrased that correctly. I meant to say that limiting the drying to 13 hours was a tad short of typical. In a lot of cases the drying might extend for several days.

-Boofer-

Quote from: Boofer on December 01, 2014, 01:58:51 PM

Quote from: Stinky on November 30, 2014, 03:38:09 PM
The brick mold makes cheeses that fit in smaller ripening containers

Agreed. I've used a little different take on your action. Another example.

Quote from: Stinky on November 30, 2014, 03:38:09 PM

Quote from: Boofer on November 30, 2014, 02:45:16 PM
13 hours is a bit aggressive for drying time. You'd be surprised how much weepage a cheese might do.

It is, but then again I also didn't want to have something I've had before which is weeping liquid cream wax out of holes...

Sorry, I don't think I phrased that correctly. I meant to say that limiting the drying to 13 hours was a tad short of typical. In a lot of cases the drying might extend for several days.

-Boofer-

Nice. 

No, it makes sense. I didn't have much time; next time I'll make sure not to leave that soon after making it next time. 



Yesterday I decided to strip off the wax and rewaxed today, hopefully won't have to do that again.

I cracked it for a mild occasion, cut off under half, and rewaxed. It tasted quite good, a bit too mild, the ale was overpowering at this point. Really looking forward to it being more aged. It has a reaaally open curd structure, 'coz of the overcooking.

Looks good... :-)

I missed some more beer flavor in my beer infused cheese...

Stinky, I love your "loaves" .  You are a cheese maker with great imagination so a cheese for you for your love of discovery. 

Quote from: Danbo on January 23, 2015, 06:47:06 PM
Looks good... :-)

I missed some more beer flavor in my beer infused cheese...

Thanks!

Quote from: John@PC on January 23, 2015, 11:16:09 PM
Stinky, I love your "loaves" .  You are a cheese maker with great imagination so a cheese for you for your love of discovery.

Thank you.

I'm doing a "standard" cheddar today, and everything's rolling around great. It's the first cheese that I'm sure I've gotten the pH right, as a lot of the cheeses when they come out of the press show up as over 6.1 on the test strips. But here I just kept cheddaring until it looked right, and boom. So squeaky and everything.

Mm, I was waxing a Caerphill so I'd have more space in the cave and decided to check in on this again at four months. It's not much different than at two months, but the alcohol has a very distinct bitter flavor. Do I just try to use it up fast, or keep aging it?

AC4U just for your ingenuity!   In the future you may want to allow your cheeses for dry for several days until the outside actually starts to form a bit of a rind.  If they aren't totally dry you will get the whey between the wax and the cheese most times.  If you do, you have to strip and re-wax as you did with this one.  I would however, allow it a day or two to dry before waxing again.