Howdy blokes

[Pilchard]

New here but have played with beer wine and spirits over the years, still make cheese a lot. Never seriously brewed as I usually got crap results and got disheartened or ran out of time at crucial stages so I am here to learn how to do it the right way. With my lifestyle at the moment I have a few days off a week to do things for me. Brewing good beer is something I have always wanted to do. It looks like I am in the right place to learn a bit.

Cheers.

 

[manticle]

Don't want to say hello to the ladies?

 

[Pilchard]

And ladies, I would have thaught brewing was a male dominated hobby so hello gals as well. It's refreshing to see women involved and not stereotyped out of this sort of thing. Well done and glad to hear gals love beer too!

 

[rbtmc]

IS there actually girls on this forum Manticle? I don't think I've ever seen one.
Welcome Pilchard. Maybe you can school us in the art of cheese-making sometime...

 

[Spiesy]

Welcome aboard mate. The path to good brewing is certainly made easier with resources such as this forum and it's members.

 

[TimT]

Welcome Pilchard! There are lady members! Though there's a definite tilt towards the chaps on this site. I do a bit of cheesemaking too - would you say there tend to be more lady cheesemakers than brewers? I kind of suspect that might be the case.

 

[manticle]

IS there actually girls on this forum Manticle? I don't think I've ever seen one.
Welcome Pilchard. Maybe you can school us in the art of cheese-making sometime...

There are and there have been. Also female commercial brewers and beer geeks. A good friend of mine who is heavily involved in the organisational/management end of good beer week is female.
Definitely the tilt is towards males and many might be put off by the perceived blokiness of sites like this but they're out there, brewing and whatnot.

 

[fuseo]

From one noob to another. Welcome Pilchard!

 

[etj101]

Hi Pilchard. I got a book recently called The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz. Have you heard of this one in your cheese making travels?

 

[Pilchard]

To those interested in cheese I can definitely help. Brew wise not so much. Thank you all for the welcome.

 

[Pilchard]

I would definitely lean towards many more fems in cheese, opposite to chefing as it is also a male dominated trade.

It's a shame same ratios are not presented in many of the home arts.

Cheers.

 

[TimT]

Heh, well my currently cheese making problems are - 1) got a Colby that's developed a healthy brevibacterium linens bloom on one side, an unhealthy mold infection on the other. Wondering if I should just vinegar the lot of it and wax it (as the plan wasn't originally to let some brevi take over one side - it just sort of appeared!) or if there's anything more I can do to encourage the brevi, and 2) Know any good Cornish cheeses?

What sort of cheeses have you got on the go, Pilchard? Aside from the Colby, I have a Gloucester and two Cheddars, with plans for a Wensleydale tomorrow.

 

[TimT]

PS This is the forum I use for most of my cheesing - heard of it? It's not as good as AHB for various reasons but there are some very friendly and helpful people on both sites.

 

[Pilchard]

Not used forums for the cheeses but I'll check them out. I would just vinegar the infected side give it a day and salt water rinse and see if it recovers, re sterilise yr cave to remove all of the infection. I check most stuff daily or every couple of days and spot out unwanteds as they first start to grow. You could also cut the wheel and wax the good side. Then treat the problem. You will have saved a good cheese out of it. Did you culture the brevi or was it naturally formed? Brevi are too heavy for wifeys delicate pallet (I think it's the smell more than anything she hates) have you been washing it to spread it around? Colby is not a traditional washed but I think it will add a nice flavour. If you do wax you may kill the brevi so I would wrap instead in something breathable to tet it continue culturing.

I have a cave full of soft and blues atm and combinations of like blue Brie. We don't eat a lot of the hard cheeses but will be working on a salt cheddar (crunchy salt pieces throuout) in the next few weeks. Have to make the missus happy somehow.

I have really been enjoying a hard blue with the addition of 2l of goat. Seems to give it a lot more character. We seem to eat the hard blues younger before the blue overpowers it.

Cheers

 

[TimT]

Yeah, I've been keeping a good eye on it. Turning every day and all that. I've got the mould at bay. I had been intending to wax it but the brevi developed quite spontaneously - it may have been left over on the cheeseboard from last year, when I made a few Munsters, which I'd sprayed with Brevi. I just thought I might go with the flow and let the Brevi keep forming over the cheese.

I had been hoping to keep the mould at bay just with regular salt baths - it may be doing some good but there are some persistent spots that don't necessarily want to leave. I have little/no temperature control - just keeping them in a room with no natural light and relying on the mid/late autumn temperatures to provide a satisfactory environment. I had been using a cheesebox with a sponge to try and make the environment happy for the brevi but of course the mould loved it too! And of course we went away for Easter, which really gave the mould a chance to go crazy. I think I've got it almost under control again, so after that I may just follow your suggestion and wrap in something 'breathable'. Got plenty of cloth for that

 

[TimT]

I've been avoiding blues so far, partly because my wife has a penicillin allergy and so isn't very attracted to cheeses with penicillium in them. I love my cheeses and I want everyone to love them back May do a lot more brevi culturing soon though - more smelly cheeses! Smelly cheeses for all!

 

[Pilchard]

Please let me know how it turnes out as it sounds like an interesting combination.

I will be doing a few washed rinds next month after my taste buds got the better of me reading your posts. I need to clear up some space to get them in. Keep an eye out at the salvos etc for a cheap wine fridge you will pick one up for less than $30 and it makes everything go a lot smoother.

 

[Pilchard]

Your other option would be to just cut out the persistent bits and give the brevi a chance to colonise over.

 

[TimT]

Oh, and you may find these worth checking out: AHB cheese thread here, and the AHB yoghurt thread here.

 

[Pilchard]

I just had another thaught, obviously this cheese is now a washed rind, we can't go back a step and remove it. I was at work making sour cream when it hit me.

You should cut it to keep the good un effected area.

When you are washing are you discarding the wash, if you have contamination you should be. And not really washing with contamination. I really think you should cut it in half and keep the good wash in your cave. to continually seed the good half and cut out the bad bits on the bad half. Keep a small bit of wash each day and use this on the bad half to seed its skin. You will never get a good soft centre like a purpose made washed but you can help what is hapening by using a diff method to achieve edible results. I will guess a softer skin layer with a nice hard Colby centre. Not a bad combination when you think about it, flavour with some bight. I would treat the cheese from now on as a washed and keep the every other day washings up to keep the infection at bay. All in all it should eat ok, maybe diferent with the amount of salt inside but good just the same.