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Quote from: ArnaudForestier on May 15, 2014, 12:26:45 PM
Oh, just grab a Foster's to water your lawn. 

Best thing for that abomination really. 

Puts it out of its misery, eh?

Well you see: when I became an honorary Pom, there were two requirements. I had to promise to hate the French forever and change my religion to CAMRA.

Oddly, no-one mentioned cricket.

So if I had to back anyone in this argument, I'd have to go for the Italians! 

Quote from: Geo on May 15, 2014, 10:32:23 PM
Well you see: when I became an honorary Pom, there were two requirements. I had to promise to hate the French forever and change my religion to CAMRA.

Oddly, no-one mentioned cricket.

So if I had to back anyone in this argument, I'd have to go for the Italians! 

Man, I don't know what to do with this.  You're neurosis about the French leaves me feeling pity, truth be told, but your embracing of the one true religion of CAMRA leaves me wanting to hi-five you and share a pint.  What's a man to do? 

Ah, hell - easy answer.  Where's that engine? 

Eieiei, my poor thread...

Brought the cheese out of the herb brine last night. Happy to say, it has absorbed the herbs out of the brine very well, taking on a distinct odor and a brown tint.

This cheese will now get a fairly light rind treatment -a dry salt rub, rather than a Schmier
If I wanted to make an appenzeller cheese, I would use Appenzeller Alpenbitter for the wash or, more authentically, rub with Kräutersulz, a special herb mixture, suspended in alcohol.

It is said that there are only 2 people who know the secret to making Kräutersulz

And by the way, Paul, I WIN

Quote from: Alpkäserei on May 16, 2014, 01:10:00 PM
And by the way, Paul, I WIN

In the interest of international peace and harmony, I will allow you to maintain your delusion cede the point to you, my Swiss brother. 

-and yes, sorry for the hijack.  It's a great thread, Alp, thanks for making it.  Very interested in this process.  Cheese to you for the thread, and for putting up with my gallic foolishness.

In other news, my cheese has been visited by my enemy... a mouse. 

Took drastic measures, now my aging shelves smell strongly of cinnamon oil (and so do I, as a side effect)

Quote from: Alpkäserei on May 16, 2014, 06:23:16 PM
In other news, my cheese has been visited by my enemy... a mouse. 

Took drastic measures, now my aging shelves smell strongly of cinnamon oil (and so do I, as a side effect)

I had that same thing happen , went in to check on my cheeses , and all my vacuum bagged cheeses had lost their seal , the little bugger had chewed holes in every bag , he didn't touch any of the waxed cheeses though , apparently he doesn't like wax.

Now all my aging shelves are high up out of reach of mice , and I have pretty much gone back to waxing all my cheese , only bagging open ones that are going for storage in the refrigerator.

Made another batch today, 40 gallons, 2 wheels.

Are you using your copper vat for these?

Quote from: ArnaudForestier on May 12, 2014, 05:44:02 PM
Alp,

One question I've had.  If as I understand it, it's Swiss alpine practice to use these cheeses as a sort of opening round using whey starter, to in essence strengthen the starter and get it consistently performing for the requirements of the hard alpines, how is that done, if the process is different, you know?  Different temps and process will yield a different thermo blend, presumably not as useful for the harder cheeses later in the season as simply doing a bunch of small cheeses, using the same process as the larger, hard wheels - yes?

I have always been fascinated by how they keep a balance of the cultures doing the whey process. I have seen some pretty simple incubation systems for this on the mountain in Beaufort by several different producers on the Alpage but the most interesting was in visiting a family making Etivaz in Switzerland.  She incubated two batches separately at two different temperatures and in the morning titrated each for final acid and blended them according to a target the family had established. The reasoning was that each would focus on particular thermos that she could easily balance according to acid levels. THey felt that this controlled the thermo mix for producing similar cheese throughout the season. It was not clear whether the blend changed during the seasons though .. some thing get lost in the translation

Jay, are you able to go into the L'Etivaz maker's titration process, here?  What were her targets....and reasoning for each temp/TA target?  I'd love to hear more on this...very vital stuff.  Thanks much for your post.

Edit:  also interested in her titration equipment.  I've an old burette and beakers.  The dedicated titration I've seen can really run up there in cost.  Just curious what they tend to use in the alpages.  Thanks.

Jay I came up with a solution similar, where I split off my thermo culture into 2 batches and then re-combine them based on acidity

This gives me a better strain of lactobacilli, specifically (talking to pav, a warmer incubated culture will develop a stronger LB, a cooler one wil grow strep)

I then blend the two back together, yielding a more complex culture than I would get with just a simple strep culture, but better acidification than I would get with the stronger LB culture.

At least, I think that's what I get

A simpler solution is just to add a Tblsp of active yogurt to the culture while it incubates...

Alp, or Jay - what is your acidity target, and why?  I presume you mean, each of the two starters gets its own TA target - is this just an acid optima for, say, LB or LH, on the one hand, and ST, on the other?  Or some other reasoning?

Also, Alp or Jay - the question on equipment.  What do you/they use?  Dedicated TA stuff can get pricey....a burette and a beaker, though cumbersome, dirt cheap.  Just curious.

Edit:  For my part, never mind, fellas, thanks.  Pav generously helped out.