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Shane: Nice solution. :-)

Thanks. Well today I came home to a mouldy mess in day 2 of the warm phase. This photo is before cleaning with a 3% brine solution. I haven't rubbed it aggressively. Should I do anything different? I had already rubbed it with olive oil, but this has been washed off with the brine.

Thanks.

Shane

I think Al does a 3% brine with 1/3 dry white wine and 2/3 water. Hopefully he'll be along soon to confirm or deny.

What is your humidity running?

Larry

You can wash it off with straight white wine and then go to the wash Larry described.

Thanks Guys. I'll do that this morning. I'm not an alcohol drinker but do have an old bottle of white wine that has been sitting around for years. I hope it's still okay. I'm not 100% clear on the daily wash. Is it 1/3 wine and 2/3 3% brine or just water and a separate brine wash?

Thanks.

Shane

I forgot to answer the humidity question. My sensor was maxing out at 99% this morning when I got up. I've cracked open the container and it is now 85%. Is that too low? The recipe calls for 92-95%.

Shane

It should be fine anywhere above 80 and below 95, I think. The 99 is probably why you have blue mold.

Thanks for that. I just went and bought a bottle of dry white wine and have done a wash. I'm assuming that I'm just wetting the mould to kill it, not get rid of the visual sign of mould? I'll keep a close eye on the humidity.

Shane

I'd suggest brushing the mold off lightly, and get as much off as comes easily... it's not like the stuff benefits your cheese any.

Okay. Yep agreed it is certainly not what I want taste wise. I just wasn't sure whether the alcohol in contact with the mould would just make it visually disappear over time. I've scrubbed the top as aggressively as I can with the pathetic brush that I have right now. I'll have to get something with stiffer bristles. I'll tackle the underside tomorrow morning.

Thanks for your help.

Shane

I doubt the blue'd disappear. Most likely the alcohol kills it, and it might go away with washing, but it doesn't disintegrate the moment it dies.

Thanks for the help. The wine is working nicely. I did a 100% wine wash on both sides yesterday. Today I washed with 1/3rd wine + 2/3rd 3% brine. I've uploaded a couple of photos from today. Ignore the stray bristles. I'll try and get them off when it dries a bit more.

Shane

Salt should be 3% by weight of the total weight of wine and water. For example 165 G wine, 335 G water, 15G salt all mixed together. You could probably go to 5% salt if you wanted to.

Larry

Thanks Larry. I'll add another 3.4g of salt to my wash bottle to get it to 3%. If I have problems with that I'll go to 5%.

Shane

I've woken this morning to my Jarlsberg having a bump on its head and stretch marks on its behind. I take it the propionic  bacteria is having fun now. I've included a couple of photos of the stretch marks (I stupidly turned it over before taking a photo of the bump). I take it humidity is too low now? Unfortunately my hydrometer is rubbish. It doesn't seem to read above 80% well. It just saturated at 99%. So how do I handle humidity without knowing what it is? Should I just bag the cheese now and forget about the natural rind?

Thanks for your help.

Shane