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I need a bigger cave or maybe a second one. I have been trying to decide on what my next make would be so I was reading the different makes on the forum to see what sounded good. As I am looking over the different boards I kept running across Boofer's "My Baby Is Swelling Up" I must have come across this thread a dozen times, so a Baby Swiss it is. Below is a picture of her out of the press before her bath in the brine and a photo of an almost full cave.

Even with having very little knowledge of cheese so far, I have to say that one looks really good, Devon.   

If that Rubbermaid tub is your brining tank, you could buy back some room in your cave by putting it into a 6 or 8 quart cylindrical container that'll fit in your regular fridge.  I've got that same container, and I'm using mine for drying a cheese right now. 

That's a good point, I do need to take the time to locate better brining containers. I do not always have it in the cave, it is just there cooling down for the baby's bath in the morning. If anyone has ideas on better brining containers for 8 inch wheels please share.

I use the large brie mold from www.thecheesemaker.com, with a follower I cut from a cutting board. It fits perfectly into a square 6 quart restaurant supply graduated container for brining.
I finally made the decision to turn the upright freezer into a cheese cave/curing room with a Johnson controller. The two power outages we had this past year in Connecticut convinced me not to rely too much on a freezer.

Quote from: Devon on May 11, 2012, 01:02:39 AM
I need a bigger cave or maybe a second one. I have been trying to decide on what my next make would be so I was reading the different makes on the forum to see what sounded good. As I am looking over the different boards I kept running across Boofer's "My Baby Is Swelling Up" I must have come across this thread a dozen times, so a Baby Swiss it is. Below is a picture of her out of the press before her bath in the brine and a photo of an almost full cave.

I'm afraid I can't take credit for "My Baby Is Swelling Up"...that would be Sailor's baby.

Looking at your overflowing cave, I would say that you do need some shelving or something to support the cheeses so that they are not stacked on top of each other. I would suspect too that you are not turning them regularly with that setup, correct?

-Boofer-

Boofer,

I do pull all of them out, rotate and flip them at least once a week. I plan on building wooden shelves to place in the cave, I just have not had time lately. It came with glass shelves but the condensation was a problem, so I removed them.

I stand corrected, it was Sailor's post I was referring to, I just happened to be reading one of your post while I was writing this one.

I ran into the "full" problem in due course and had to bite the bullet and add a second cave. It does help a lot. I got some raised eyebrows from my wife, but she understood my "obsession".

If you have any minicaves (ripening boxes) in use, they chew up a lot of shelf space. But they are essential to maintaining humidity and/or isolating blues, Geo, PC, linens, etc.

As you can see, in these pics I had four minicaves in use. Sometimes it's tough to find enough shelf space. 

-Boofer-

Boofer, do you have both of yours on the same circuit? My wife told me to buy a full size frig, but I like the idea of two small ones. One for cheddars and one for blues. Plus space is a concern.

Yes, same circuit but different temperature controllers, hence, different cycling schedules. They don't pull much power anyway. If I could have found one at the time without the useless, tiny freezer space, I would have bought that instead. The freezer eats up space that could better be used to store cheese. All it does is generate condensation that needs to be periodically mopped out.

-Boofer-

Absolutely, I agree but short of buying a wine cooler or beverage cooler getting by on the cheap we must live with what we can get and modify.I have a freezer in mine as well no way to eliminate it without damaging the refrigeration. So we add temperature controllers to achieve what we need. Brings me to my wife's point, I spend 7.50 per gal for raw milk to make cheese but I will not invest in a cooler at 800 or more to store it. I think it is more the principal that I can build my own cave for less to achieve the same result. I do however find the temperature varies a great deal between the door storage, the top shelf and the bottom shelf.  Maybe she has a point.

My Danby DAR440BL pulls 1.3 amps max.  That is very low, and it only comes on for a few minutes two or three times an hour.   (That's a guess, I haven't actually timed it.)  I wouldn't hesitate to put two on the same circuit.  You will need a separate temp controller for each.  I use a Ranco ETC-111000-000 for mine.

A low speed fan inside the fridge, like a PC fan, would help equalize the temperature in different parts of the fridge.  There are DC and AC models available.  I haven't added one yet to my cave, but I plan to. 

I think in my next house I'll buy a surplus walk-in refrigerator for aging my cheeses and install it in my barn.  That should eliminate space problems.   

I bought my cave very cheap on the Dutch version of eBay. It missed some shelves and I replaced them with glass shelf's that were cut exactly on size AND: I put a special plastic foil at the bottom. If something happens with the glass, it sticks together due to the foil. The most expensive part of the cave was the external thermostat.
About saving space: Salt is very cheap. With every make of cheese you will have whey. So why store brine in your cave when your space is so limited?

Quote from: Caseus on May 12, 2012, 06:34:48 AM
My Danby DAR440BL pulls 1.3 amps max.

There I go again...being envious.    If I had seen that model way back, I would have bought it. Good choice.

Quote from: Caseus on May 12, 2012, 06:34:48 AM
A low speed fan inside the fridge, like a PC fan, would help equalize the temperature in different parts of the fridge.  There are DC and AC models available.  I haven't added one yet to my cave, but I plan to. 

I put a laptop cooler in one cave when I started. I have another one coming for the other cave. You really need something to equalize the temp & humidity. There is a pretty big difference in both between the top (near the bogus freezer  ) and the very bottom of the cave.

-Boofer-

I've got an old 12 cm computer fan in my cave. The power range it can handle is quite wide, so I found an old loader with an output of 9V and it's working now for almost 2 years nonstop. If I have to rise the RH in the cave, I put a saucer with some water in the airflow...

Here's the cave I own:  http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1260093&navAction=  I got it at Sam's Club last year for $109 - I see it has gone up $5.  It does not have a freezer compartment in it and it easily stays between 50-53 degrees Fahrenheit.