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Thanks to everyone who has offered suggestions and advice on making Brie/Cam--I do believe I have it. Many suggestions from all of you have been pivotal--I did not wrap, left in humidified boxes and patted down rind, increased floc time and decreased starter. My seven-week old child...

Looks fantastic!  Thank you for sharing your progress problems and hints along the way (I followed your other posts as well).  Now I am ready to dive in and make some of these.  Hoping for the best!  What floc time did you eventually use?
Susan

Looks Great Brie,
          Love the Rind
                   How does it taste?
                           have you identified any opportunities for improvement?
                                    Love your work!

Thanks all--largest factor was using PH targets, and not wrapping cheese, I leave in covered boxes with high humidity and pat down mold accumulation (great advice from Yoav). I also do not pre-drain, just ladle into molds.
Good luck--it is a finnaky cheese.

Sorry, Susan--to answer your question-I use a 3-4x flocc--at least 60 minutes as I use raw milk.

Hey Brie;
What effect did not wrapping have on your cam?
I opened a 44 day old one last night that was perfect except for a nickle-sized firm spot in the center. I have never gotten my cams to ripen all the way through in less than 7 weeks. I'm curious why that is as all the recipes say they should be ready in 3-4 weeks. I usually wrap at 14-18 days.
Any hints or suggestions?
Thanks,
Pam

Hi Pam:
Mine are never done before 5 weeks. Not wrapping helps relieve that ammoniatic aroma that everyone talks about (also slip skin). I just pat down the white mold and turn every few days.

when do you start patting down the white mold? mine just started getting fuzzy. exciting!

Which recipe are you using Imgu?

Classically this is a 21 day cheese. Depends on the PC type you are using, you should have full bloom between day 5 and 10. When you do, this is a good time to pat down (the same time that you would otherwise wrap it). Patting down is an alternative to wrapping. It keeps the flora height lower but more dense and stable. Do it with clean hands and no gloves.  In this traditional technique your hands help spread the PC all over your cheese and "infect" 100% of the surface with it. Also helps transferring it from one wheel onto the next.

hi, thanks for the quick reply. I'm using likespace (found on this site)'s recipe. it's day 5 and I see furry white on the sides and starting on the tops. I turned them today. I should start patting, ya think?

You can smear to encourage them but try not to knock out young flora that has not yet established well. Nothing urgent.  Do you have a link to that recipe?

whoops, I used his gouda recipe. I used 200 Easy Homemade Cheese recipe, pg 100.

Yea, that's a solid recipe. Just replace the wrapping with patting down.