I’m doing a pepper jack this morning.  Jack is a cheese that has never been very unreliable for me.  Sometimes its good, mostly its dry and crumbly.  Does anyone have some suggestions born of experience that might help me out?  What pH marks have worked best for you?

If its dry and crumbly then good chance is that its too acidic, so maybe speed things up when your cutting the curds and draining.

Out of the press late last night and it looks good at this point.  Of course the proof is in the tasting in a couple of months.

I made sure I had a really good set prior to cutting; an extra 5 minutes and the curd was really, really firm.  Then I cut it slightly larger than the 1/4” called for.  More like a 3/8 X 3/8 X 1/2.  I was careful during the cook to not overly agitate the curd.  Cook time worked out to almost exactly 5 min per 2 degrees.  I drained the curd at pH 5.9 and pressed a 6” mold at 10 and 24 lbs actual weight. 

I now have a firm but still slightly spongey wheel, which did not sag much at all during the night while on the drying rack.  I’ll keep y’all posted on the outcome.

Hope it works out for u, Looks great.
Temperature is dropping now so soon will be back into cheese making.