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I have been air drying my Gouda for the last 5 days, and my brother brought up an interesting point yesterday. "How come I wouldn't leave milk out of the fridge for one day and your leaving cheese out for a week?" Any opinions out there?

To me, it's an apples to oranges comparison. Milk is fluid, and has freely available food for bacteria, which can move about in a liquid medium. Cheese is solid, with very limited food and water available, and little chance to obtain new sources of food. Moreover, it has acidified, making it less hospitable for bacteria.

Or more simply, they're completely different mediums, with different conditions for the growth of bacteria.

Awesome, my response to him was that the milk has chemically changed making it not have to follow the same rules as milk, but I had nothing to back that up
Thanks

Yep, we can always rely on Linux to come up with the facts on how & why this all works.  I'm glad because I just have to go on instinct!

and the salting of most cheeses probably adds to the ability to sit around at RT.