I swear... this place is killing me.

[Rbeckett]

Got the Pepper/Salami in the press. Take it out and dry it before wax in a few days. Plan to age it at least 6 months to develop the Monteray Jack . Went together flawlessly and was so simple to add the extra ingredients. When I added the saly\t I put it in with the processed salami and peppers and let it draw out the excess water from the peppers and dumped it in. Mix well and put in press as normal. Too easy. Hope your Gouda turns out well, it would go great with a dark lager like a doppel or a bass dark ale clone.
Bob

 

[ruralbrew]

I have been thinking about doing some cheese making too. I was a dairy farmer in a previous life so I am well schooled on the first part of the process.
I read somewhere that it works pretty good to use dried milk and just add in heavy cream to get the butterfat content where you want it to be for the type of cheese you are making. Don't have to worry about potential effects of homogenization that way.

One of these days I will get started, but I have too many brewing related projects going to start anything else now.

 

[Rbeckett]

Rural,
I have been using store bought Vitamin D milk and it is doing fine too. The dried milk and heavy cream would definately allow you to make the heavier fat cheeses with less waste. You could bulk up you 1 gallon of milk to have the protiens and fat of 2 and have less whey to use or throw away possibly. That is one thing about doing this at home, we can experiment on a small scale and perfect an item beofre using larger quantities and possibly wasting them with a bad plan. My Pepper-Salami is in the final press phase and coming out to dry this afternoon. I figured since it has to air dry I might as well double the press time and turn it over so that I can get as much excess water out sooner. That should reduce my drying time and I can wax it sooner so it doesn't get mold or bacteria on it that I dont want. So jump in when you finish brewing that batch
Bob

 

[usfmikeb]

I've been brewing for many years, as well as growing and making my own hot pepper sauces, and am now moving to cheese as well. Looking forward to trying something new!

 

[Rbeckett]

Cheese and Sausage is a great way to wait for your beer to age. By the time your brews are ready to drink you can have sheese and snausages to go with it too. So far cheese has been super easy and it goes right into my fermenting chamber at 55 degrees. The fermenting brew keeps the humidity up and overcomes any possible bad smells or off flavors too. Once my Pepper/Salami Jack ages a bit I plan to do a cold smoke on it and rewax it to finish ageing. That should be tasty when it is done. I also think home made cheese is creamier and tastes better than anything you could ever buy in a grocery. A cheese shop would have a hard time keeping several flavors seperated and equally good too. Knowing what I am putting into my food also allows me to control the good, bad and ugly.... Have a great time with the new branch of the hobby tree.
Wheelchair Bob