Question about imperial stouts.....

[user 246304]

Could it be the salt of the cheese somehow is drawn in to the crystalline matter as it forms?

That can be the case on washed rind cheeses, but that's on the surface (simply dried crystals, as the wash is a salt brine). I don't know of any mechanism that would do that inside the paste. The white crystals inside the past that give that pleasing crunch in aged "alpine" cheeses from Italy, France and Switzerland, some aged goudas, is tyrosine. Cheddars, more typically, would be calcium lactate and the crystals aren't white like tyrosine.

A couple with tyrosine:

 

[deuc224]

Damn you guys, a great amount of info here! Im really gonna have to try all the methods but pipeline sounds the best. Still gonna make the one posted earlier and see if it works at an earlier time, but it is true, best version takes time, i hate it but its true. I think what ages out to answer day_trippr, is alcohol, it always comes out of solution with time. In barrels of liquor, in mason jars of shine, in bottles that sit capped for a long time, even in kegs, i think the first pour is a lot of alcohol vapor and some co2, then its the mellow(aged) beer. I could be wrong as hell lol its just my uneducated guessing im doing.