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Hello from New Jersey! I am new to home cheese making. I have made 2 batches so far (1 farmhouse cheddar and 1 Colby). I have some previous dairy experience in college. Penn State Food Science grad. But it has been quite a while.

I have had a limited success with the first two batches. They do seem to have an open texture and too much acid development. I am going to try another batch this weekend with less starter culture and maybe a few other modifications.

If anyone has some ideas for help, I am all ears. Thanks!!

Welcome to the forum. Open texture could be a pressing issue among other things. Give the details of your process and I am sure someone will be able to help. This is a great group to learn from. Your food science degree should come in handy. Good luck.

Welcome!

A small amount of open texture is not bad, a lot is as location for unwanted micro-organisms. Do you have excessive syneresis and your curds too hard? A picture would help.

Also why do you think your cheeses have too much acid development?

Texture, looks like there are many holes in the cheese, kind of like the curds did not come together.

Too much acid, cheese has a sour taste to it. It does not have a strong acid smell, so I thought it might be over development of lactic acid.

I am making a new batch of Colby right now. I am going to try a little less culture and a little shorter ripening time.  I think I will check the pH next time, to keep an eye on things.

I might not have cut the curd fine enough.  There seemed to be more curds than would fit easily in the mold that I have.

Pressed with 20lb, then 50lb for 12 hours.

I am welcome to any help that people can offer.

Thanks John and FarmerJd for your thoughts so far.

Hi,
Usually for me, too much acid is the result of too little salt.  Salt will slow down or almost halt the acidification process, depending on the cheese. 
cheers,
Sue

Hi dhenninger.  I think I have seen you in another unrelated forum

Besides that, I am also starting with some cheese and I think I encountered the same issues as you.  My first pressed cheese (Colby) was more open textured than I would have liked and more sharp tasting than I expected (but still very edible).

I went to start a batch of Gouda yesterday. I bought 4 gallons of milk, got home and the power promptly went out. NoOOOOoo!! No room in the fridge for 4 gallons of milk. Luckily i had a big Omaha Steaks cooler that i could get the milk into.  Eventually we got power back and I made the Gouda. We will see how that comes out

Happy Cheesemaking and Geocaching!

Well, Welcome!   There is a wealth of information and plenty of people willing to share!

Poor meshing + sour taste is usually from curds that were heated to quickly sealing in the whey. When the cheese starts to dry they leave little open pockets or holes. While the whey sits it goes sour. If you heat the curds to quickly no amount of pressing will fix it.