First hard cheese

Here we have two wheels of Monterey Jack. The one on the left is slightly larger due to increased yield from adding calcium chloride to the milk. I'll be adding calcium chloride to all non raw milk cheeses from here on out.

I can hardly wait for them to ripen!

That looks pretty great.

I had never thought about making cheeses before, but this forum has peeked my interest.

I really have to find time to put my handmade cheese press to work. I got some cheddar culture that needs a home!

I have 4gallons of raw milk that is getting made into farmhouse cheddar today. Its going to be a big wheel! Go go gadget cheese press!

This is what the final product looks like off of 4 gallons of farm fresh milk. This is from a double batch and the cheese is pressed into a 6 inch wheel. Weighs about 3 pounds.

I did skim most of the cream for ice cream (almost a gallon from a 5 gallon bucket) and made ricotta afterward from the whey (got 2 cups +/-). I used the farmhouse cheddar recipe out of Ricki Carroll's book.

The next monthly tech meeting for our homebrew club is going to be on cheese making so I thought about doing a pictorial walkthrough as I took pics of the whole process.

I wanted to just link back to the tutorial for a reference piece but we're making mozzarella due to time constraints instead. The cheddar takes quite a while to complete, like 6 hours (sans pressing time).

Maybe I'll do a separate thread for posterity anyway just to show off the process a bit.

I used a really poor cheesecloth and didn't fold it really that neatly. The block didn't look quite as a smooth as I wanted it to. Doesn't affect the taste though.

I'll age it for 6-12 months in my cheese fridge before popping the cherry on it ,unless I just can't wait.

Any suggestions on what beer I should brew to complement a cheddar?

That looks awesome. I've only made cottage cheese so far, but soon I'll move on to Monterey Jack and cheddar. I have to get my press built first.