I am thinking in a subject i wanted to share with you here guys:

yesterday i was thinking to make a small cheese vat, around 30-50L (10-15 gallons) size , double jacket cuboid from stainless steel, the outer is 1-2 inch thick to be filled in water, with good thermostat and electrical water heater.. the inner side is the vat. i will make the string cutter so i can cut the coagulated cheese in less then 30seconds.
The warm around water will keep the milk during ripping and even during cooking at targeted temp, starting from 20C-65C (65C is for i ever wanted to pasteurize the milk for 30 mins). and of course water in and water out if i wanted to cool the milk rapidly.  so from 20C to 65C all what i need….

now it comes to the mold size, i will make one big stainless steel mold that can fit all the curds from this vat… so i made

some calculation:

The following three wheels are all 6” (15cm) bottom cylinder diameter:
i made Cheddar wheel out of 20L milk and i ended up with cylinder 15cm X 9cm ended up with volume: 1590cm3
i made Gouda wheel out of 14L milk and i ended up with cylinder 15cm X 8cm ended up with volume: 1413cm3
i made Swiss wheel out of 14L milk and i ended up with cylinder 15cm X 7.5cm ended up with volume: 1320cm3

equation is: heightX3.14X((diameter/2)X(diameter/2))= cylinder volume

Every 14L gave me 1413cm3 of Gouda
so every 50L will give me 5050cm3

now if i used 9” (22.5 cm) mold , i will have wheel with 12.7cm height from 50L of milk
now if i used 10” (25 cm) mold , i will have wheel with 10.30 height from 50L of milk

what do u think ?
is it ok to have 9"X5” wheel
or 10"X4” wheel ??

or shall i make the vat bigger?

PS: sorry for combining METRIC and US units, because i use metric only and i tried to help u with some US units.
to convert between English and Metric units use: http://www.metric4us.com/calculator.html

Thanks for the info. When I make the cheese my main concern is thickness, if its too thin then it dries out faster. I try and not go below 4cm thickness with my 20cm diam. wheels, so I like my 16L batches for the mold size I use (cake pan)

so u recommend 9"X5” wheel
or 10"X4” wheel ??

or , what is the best percentage (height X width)

Rick , Neil, guys ?

Nabil, sounds like a heck of an idea! I’d go with the 9x5 wheel. Just for the reason you mentioned, drying out.
You have something in mind for a heater?
https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=35_69&products_id=377

Rick

if i make 60L milk batch, i will end up with Gouda Wheel : 9” X 6” (22.5cm X 15.25cm)
if i made 60L of milk i will end up with Swiss Wheel of 22.5cm X 14.2cm

Do u think that it will look good?

Look good ? u entering it into a beauty contest I thingk as long as it is uniform and easily movable (no crane) then it will be fine, as I said, the thicker it is the less it will dry out so 9x9 would be just fine. I thingk the Camembert/Brie are the only exceptions because if its too high and u cut it it will run out and u got a hollow shell LOL

Nabil, you never said, but I hope you come from a large family! With the amount of cheese you’re making, you could feed a large gathering on a regular basis!
Also remember, eating too much cheese can have an adverse effect!

i made cheese and i give all relative and friends , i made a stand in the street and i let the neighbors taste it once, i start to fall in love with this hobby ....
and , who knows , i will quit the IT banking business, and open my small hand made cheese workshop , and sell for gourmets and fancy local restaurants ...

i will make Stilton, Cheddar, Swiss, mozzarella, and Gouda as all are imported ,  not locally made…

Any way , i love cheesemaking, so much .... every weekend i can not prevent myself from not doing 20L raw milk cheese… by the way i know a milk man who owns 40 goats , and soon they will be milked after they get birth (new small baby goats),,, that time i will go to make a lot of Saint Maure cheeses ... the best

Thats real nice to hear, If u have the passion then it should go well. I know how the bug feels, filld my fridge to cap, so ive been working on making a dent in to that.

Has anyone used the immersion heater that the link in Rick54’s post points to? Or for that matter any sort of heating device? I’ve been looking for something like that and am curious how well something like that works. I’d really like to improve my temp control a little better. Also, I’m really wanting to find a metal tub of some sort to put my pots in so that I’m not confined to the kitchen sink.

sorry, but i never used it, but i was thinking that it could help