Aging Gouda

My first hard cheese was a gouda I made a few months ago. Tried it tonight and while the flavor was young and unimpressive, my main concern was a few moldy spots under the wax. I cut them away fine, but if I want to age the other chunks longer, I fear they'll all be moldy.

For one, it was a major b*tch to wax every crevice and lump the first time, probably why it didn't seal well. Any ideas? Should I open them to check then re-wax it?

I don't think you'll hurt it by doing that. While I'm only a few batches in myself, I have read that you can taste along the way so long as you wax over the part you cut into to save. I'd extrapolate from that that it's safe to unwax and check for mold and then rewax. If you have mold, try cutting it away and giving it a light wipe with vinegar before rewaxing.

That's my advice, but I should warn I haven't been in that situation yet.

If you get mold under the wax, remove all the wax, rinse in a brine or vinegar solution, and rewax.

You can re-use the old wax. Just dump it in your wax pot and remelt it.

I used wax once, and it looks ultracoool, but I just vaccuum bag my cheeses now. Easy.

Does it age in vacuum seal?

mendozer said:

Does it age in vacuum seal?

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Absolutely. Cheeses age just fine in vacuum bags. The culture inside the cheese carries on without introduction of O2 from the outside. I just cut into a white cheddar that got very sharp, and it was aged in a bag.

turns out the other three wedges were worse off than the first. I trimmed two a lot and tossed the third. I'll wipe it down and seal it

Aging Gouda was going to be the exact title of my thread.

So, our first Gouda is in the brine now. Next is the air dry in a cool, clean, dry location. No problem. To the beer closet brewery it goes; 74-78F. After that is wax and age for two to six months. Do we do this in the same location and condition as the air dry or do we do it in the refrigerator which is about 45F?

Zuljin said:

Aging Gouda was going to be the exact title of my thread.

So, our first Gouda is in the brine now. Next is the air dry in a cool, clean, dry location. No problem. To the beer closet brewery it goes; 74-78F. After that is wax and age for two to six months. Do we do this in the same location and condition as the air dry or do we do it in the refrigerator which is about 45F?

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Age it at the lower temperature.

Consider quartering it at 2 or 3 months. Eat one, repackage (wax, bag) the others. Cheese is a living food and changes much more then beer over time. You'll want to see how that progresses. The cultures you used will continue to work on the milk sugars, change it. It'll get harder, more pungent cheesey smell. You might find you like it younger. Only one way to know.

It's been waxed since late September. Just took it out the fridge to see if it looked weird. Well, any weirder than this. The cheese cloth was sticking to it when we took it out the press. Kinda tore it up.

About six months. Smells strong. Tastes strong. It's a good gouda. Not the prettiest we've made, but the best tasting.

I have no experience with gouda (though my 2-brother farmer friends I get milk from offer gouda, for one of their products. Awesome cheese. I love gouda. I do a lot of tommes and sometimes I'll do washed curd tommes to learn more on the technique, and get a sweeter paste).

The only thing I can offer is I note you mentioned "crevices and lumps." It may not be this, but those surfaces tend to be murder for molds of all kinds. In fact for my Savoie tommes, I don't care if I don't get a great knit and a pristine, smooth surface, because I want molds, not yeasts, geos, linens and so forth. Not sure that's what at issue for you because I don't know anything about what goes on under wax v. cheeses that age in air. It seems like zuljin has no issue here, so I don't know. I just know from my own experience some valley/hills etc. on the surface at least for rinded cheeses, those can be very hard to fight mold.

I'd also imagine the drying phase after salting is very important, as you'll be trapping any moisture and molds, including blues, love high water activity (Aw) and moisture.

Good luck!