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For this make, I attempted to follow Caldwell's recipe, with a smattering of ideas from other sources. (Just enough so that I can't blame Gianaclis if anything goes wrong   ).

Ingredients

Milk: 3 gal whole
1 Qt. Heavy Cream
4 cubes Flora Danica
1 / 16 tsp (0.3 g) P. candidum (PC-HP6 strain)
1/64 tsp Geo 15
1/64 tsp. KL71
¾ tsp. Calcium chloride (optional) diluted.
40 drops Rennet, diluted
2% of cheese weight Salt

Steps

Warm milk to 94°F (34°C). 9:45 AM.
Stir in calcium chloride
Culture: Sprinkle cultures on top. Let set for 3 to 5 minutes.
Stir gently for 2 to 5 minutes.

(PH was at 6.55 right after adding bulk cultures, so I added Rennet at this point.

Probably should have waited for another 0.05 pH drop. It seems like I consistently get ahead of expected pH readings).

Add rennet solution, and stir gently with an up- and- down motion, then still milk. 9:48 AM.
Floc time: 12 minutes. Floc Factor: 6. Minutes: 72. Cut time: 11:00 AM.

Cut: Cut curd into 3 / 4 inch (2- cm) cubes, and let rest 15 to 30 minutes. The pH at cut should be 6.45 to 6.50.

Rest until 3 / 4 inch whey covers curds.
Stir: Stir gently to loosen the curds, rest 15 to 30 minutes, then stir again. Repeat stir and rest phases until curd texture is even throughout. The pH at the end of stirring should be 6.40 to 6.45. Do not reheat vat; room temperature should be 73 to 78°F (23°26°C. By the end of stirring, the curd should be 86 to 88°F (30°31°C).

(It ended up taking about 4 hours to meet the pH target. I'm going back to waiting for a greater pH drop before Renneting from now on).

Drain: Ladle into forms. First flip: 30 minutes. Second flip: one hour. Keep flipping occasionally throughout evening. Unmold next morning when pH of cheese is 4.7 to 4.8. Decrease room temperature to 62°F (17°C), and sprinkle top and bottom of cheese with a total of 2% pure salt.

(PH hit 4.8 at 11:00 the next morning. Salted 1% on each side throughout the day).

Ripening and Affinage: Place in ripening fridge at 52 to 55°F (11° to 13°C) and 95 to 97 percent RH. Turn daily. When mold growth is even, you can wrap or pat growth down. Ideally, wrap the cheese and move to a cooler fridge, 38 to 40°F (3° to 4°C

(Cheeses went into a 60°F cave from 4/18 until 4/20 to give the yeasts a head start. On 4/18 there was a nice yeasty smell. On 4/19 they had a nice fruity/yeasty odor and slight slime. 4/20 nice and slimy. Temperature to 55°F on 4/20.

As discussed above, I seem to be consistently getting ahead of where I should be on the pH curve. On this cheese I waited to hit the pH target, which I think might have caused a too firm curd. Time will tell).
Edited to add: Or just follow Mal's pH markers of 6.58 cut and 6.56 drain.
Larry

Which cheese are you making Larry?  Brie and Camemberts normally don't get pressed.  They are made in open ended molds.

These weren't pressed, Al. I just put them in the Reblochon molds because they're close to the correct aspect ratio. They got flipped like a Reb, but with no extra weight on them. I dunno, Brieberts?? Camembries?? They're too big for Camemberts, and too small for Bries, but hopefully just the right size for my belly.

How are your Cambozolas coming along, Al?

Larry

They're getting furry!!   I actually bought those molds to try the Vacherin Mont D'Or in the next time.

Nice!

OK, it's catch up on posting day. I cut open the first Briebert on 5/18. Maybe a little early, but I wanted to compare it to the Cambozola I made a couple weeks before this. I'd like it to be a bit softer, but between youth and the extra time I waited for pH to drop, it's not particularly runny yet. That might also be partially due to the extra cream I added.

Anyway, the flavor is excellent, and I'm really happy with it as a first effort for this style.

Larry

What a beautiful white rind actually your whole cheese is beautiful.
AC4U

Nice looking cheese, tall for a cam but a good job.  My cams have been ripening in the time yours have to the point of gooey but so far I am using neige which is really aggressive.
AC4U, keep it it.

John

Thanks H-K-J and John.

I think lack of gooeyness is probably due to the additional cook time I spent waiting for pH to get to target, and somewhat to adding heavy cream. I just used my Reblochon molds, trying to sort of get into the correct size ballpark. My next batch will be sans cream. I haven't decided whether I'll use time or pH for the make. I'll probably decide half way through

The P.c. I used is HP 6.

Larry

@Larry - There is one thing I would say about my last Cam make where I used the pH meter and that is although they ripened well, have a look at the cut pictures.  One thing I noticed was that the rind is slightly coming away from the paste in the first one - not that many would notice and it certianly didn't change the taste but... I think that try to follow the pH markers might have left the curds too long in the pot and they lost too much whey hence loosing moisture.
Compare the rind in the one where I used the ph meter
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,14002.15.html
to just the time based one.
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,13412.0.html
I'm thinking that I will revert to my original method and record my actual values and then compare those to published pH markers.

On the cream front.  Adding cream makes the curds less permiable which has a couple of benefits.
1. The whey drains more slowly but the extra acid buildup is great for the ripening stage.  This help also as the buffering capacity of the Calcium Phosphate in the curd is reatined a little longer before be lost in the expelled whey.  It really quite neat the way these ripen !
2. Prolongs the ripening stage as the production of ammonia by the culture, as the cheese ripens is retarded, as the pH take longer to rise again from the outside in...

I love these cheeses !

-- Mal

Thanks, Mal. Excellent points to consider.

Larry

I tried to give you a cheese but got my hand slapped by the karma police.  I didn't know you couldn't give a member two cheeses within 1 hr. (gave you one for the emmental) so I owe you one in, roughly, 20 minutes .  As usual for you Larry, good directions, great results.

Too much Geo15 makes the paste super stable

Good first effort, Larry. Nice clear write-up.

Except for a try at Chaource a while back, I have yet to delve into bloomies. Yours is a good example to follow. A cheese for your efforts.

-Boofer-