I see some posts regarding failed cheese attempts and the natural solution leans towards the purchase of a different brand of milk.
How is it that one dairy’s milk is different from anothers? I’d think that here in the U.S. anyway, the production standards would all be the same. What is available to me is whole milk, 2%, 1%, 1/2%(?), skim.
Now there is an issue of age and going by the best used by date. When I go into the store dairy section there are carts containing gallons of milk pushed up to the glass doors. Open the door and grab a gallon.
Now one can also see carts behind those full of milk ready to be moved forward as the front carts empty.
It would seem justified that the store would put there older milk forward to get rid of first and then move the next fresher cart forward. Thus rotating the stock.
Do you think a few days difference in freshness would make that much difference in outcome?
To be honest, I’ve never looked to see what the expiration date on a gallon of milk gives me and how many days I have to use it by. Interesting!

Are you getting a clean break? If you are not sure how to tell or what to do if you are not, have a look at this from Fankhausers Cheese Page….
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/clean_break/Problem_getting_a_clean_break.html
If the milk is over ripe either because it is old or it had been stood too long after culturing and before adding rennet it becomes over acidified. This happened to me once when I cultured ten litres of evenings milking and left it overnight at ‘goat’ temperature in an insulated vat. Instead of a normal break the curd dropped straight to the bottom of the vat in a dense mass leaving a lot of whey on top. when I cut and drained this curd it went like rubber and was hard to knit in the mould. also it was light indicating loss of butterfat.
  I know nothing about the type of milk available in the u.s. but It is pasteurised and therefore you must use the calcium chloride before you add the rennet
  I think you should use the full fat milk unless you are making a cheese that specifically calls for semi-skim or skimmed mild eg edam.

In the US, milk is not all the same!  Some is ultrapasteurized, and some is pasteurized at
a lower temperature.  And best of all, the information is apparently it is not necessarily on
the label.

Milk is notoriously under labeled, depending on the company they normally ultra pasteurize the milk with out telling u, also farmers are not allowed to label their milk organic so depending were all the milk empties depends on if the company over processes it. I went with triel and error and found better to use 2% then add 10-18% cream to it to build up the fat content. I thingk also its far worse in the US then Canada. Their is organic milk here in the store but its 3 times the price and no guarantee it will work, not going to try either. My 2% and 18% mix works well for me. So you will have to experiments with your own neighborhoods milk.

Despite about 8 attempts at cheese (5 successful), I’ve YET to achieve a clean break as anyone depicts it.

U may not be waiting long enough for the acid to build up or not enough rennet. 2 possible probs.

two full tabs of Junkit and waiting up to 3 hours.

I could blame the Junkit except that a friend in Mass has success with it (he gets fresh cows milk).

the best the raw milk i use which u do not have he he he

Guess your going to have to try dif brands till one works.

Sticking tongue out at Nabil icon goes here….

Try adding a little Calcium Chloride to the milk before adding the rennet.

I tried that, Rick - to no avail.  But I have the feeling the milk is ultra pasteurized.

I wonder if my neighbors would notice a few milking cows and goats in the back yard….

I have a source for raw milk. From all my reading, I understand that with raw milk one does not have to use Calcium Chloride. Does this sound correct?

Yse, its the homogenization that wrecks the milk.