CheeseForum.org » Forum

First time posting.  Have just been making cheeses since first of year.  Started with some fresh mozzerella a couple times.  Did a couple batches of cheese curds to get the process, temp management, and timing down.  Also to try my hand at cheedaring.  Attached are two makes I did January 22nd and 23rd.  The two smaller wheels are Double Gloucester 2lbs each and the larger wheel is 4lb Farmhouse Cheedar.  Both made from raw milk.  I vac packed after 4-5 days drying.  Tasted after about 3 weeks. Cheedar seemed to be forming good flavor.  Wasn't impressed with Double Gloucester, hopeful time will help this out.  Both seemed undersalted so I dry salted for a few days.  (Was surprised how much moisture this pulled out of cheeses).

In total I have about 20lbs aging in frig-cave. 2lbs Gouda, 2lbs Irish Cheedar (opening for St Patricks day dinner party, I washed this for about 7 days with a salted carmel whiskey.  Have no idea what this might or might not do but I like the whiskey so surely it will be good on the cheese), 3lbs Gruyere, 2lbs Pepper Jack, and 3lbs Butter Kase.   Along with the 8lbs above. 

I have several Alpine style cheeses I want to try but want to wait until I can make a trip to southern Indiana to pickup more raw milk. 

Will update on how Irish Cheedar tasting turns out with friends on St Patricks day.  - Donnie

Your cheeses really look nice.
Go for that alpine !
It's too bad your milk source is way down south.

A cheese for the new guy/gal.  Those look like great cheeses, and based on the post contents it seems you're already deep into it.  Welcome to the forum. 

Thanks Andrew.  I'm an OCD Engineer so the first thing I did was read about  cheese making for a couple of months before I started any real attempts at making cheese. 

Donnie

Mike my wife isn't so disappointed raw milk is 150 miles away!  She is wondering what we are going to do with all the cheese. 

...And a cheese from me.
These are really nice looking cheeses. They are obviously still very young and should continue to improve considerably.
I have had good results with Double Gloucester and hopefully yours will get there in a few months.
4-5 days drying before packing seems a little short to me. I wax mine and find that they still tend to lose whey unless I leave them for 3-4 weeks before waxing.

Interesting...when you are drying for 3-4 weeks what temp and humidity? 

I dried at around 62 degrees and Humidity was 55% and turned 2x/day.  Just used a cool room in my basement. At 4-5 days I didn't have to worry about managing the rind, just wiped with a brine daily thinking I was helping to dry and build the rind.  Nervous about the rind and haven't taken that challenge of managing yeasts and molds yet.  How do you manage the rind when drying for 3-4 weeks?

I keep it in my cheese fridge at about 13C (55F) and turn daily to start with, becoming less frequent after a while.
Humidity is another matter. I aim for 85% but it is often 5-10% below that, particularly during summer. During those times I will keep the cheese in a plastic aging container or wrap it loosely in greaseproof paper. The main problem I find with low humidity is that the rind tends to crack as it dries much faster than the interior.
When moulds show up, as they invariably do, I clean the rind with strong brine, usually with some vinegar added.