Homemade Cheese: 2 1/2# Hot Habanero White Cheddar

I love the Cabot Hot Habanero Vermont Cheddar. See my love thread here.

Here's some pics from my attempt to make it myself. I just put it in a vac bag and sent it to the cheese cave (also known as my fermentation fridge) for a month to develop some nice cheddar flavor.

If it turns out edible, I'll slice it into a bunch of wedges, wax them, and put them back into the chamber to get nice and sharp. Woot!

Updates in a month.

What temp do you keep the fridge?

65 during ales, 50 during lagers

it's at 65 now.

What's your thoughts there?

I had read that cheese should age closer to lager temps than ales, which discouraged me from using fermentation chamber to age cheese. It is mostly at ale temps. If you're getting good results, its time for me to buy some molds and give it a shot.

Looks great! My cheese cave was at 50 degrees, with 90 % humidity but I didn't vacu-seal mine.

I never tried at 65 degrees. Let us know how it comes out!

markstache said:

I had read that cheese should age closer to lager temps than ales, which discouraged me from using fermentation chamber to age cheese. It is mostly at ale temps. If you're getting good results, its time for me to buy some molds and give it a shot.

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I had a wine fridge that someone gave me. I kept it in my attic because I didn't have any real use for it. Gave it away a year ago and I could kick myself now. It maintains the perfect 55F. I've looked at them on craigslist - it's pretty cheap to pick up a used one, I might look into that.

Humidity is also a concern if you go with the natural rind, or if you wrap in a bandage. For waxed or bagged cheese, humidity doesn't matter.

I'm just getting into this cheese thing, so I don't really know what to expect from aging at different temps.

This cheese ended up very hot! It has a great flavor though, but it's a bit dry. I'm working at getting a smoother texture on my cheddars by cutting larger curds, watching the acidity, and I've changed milk source.