Hi Folks,

I am happy to find this message board. When I was a newbie making beer, the forum over at Northern Brewer was most helpful, and I’d be grateful and appreciative to anyone who might chime in here to help answer some of my newbie cheesemaking questions.

I got my kit for Christmas. It looks to be the exact kit made by Rikki Carrol, but distributed through Lehman’s, which is who my wife bought from. We left for a nine day trip out west the day after I got it, and I didn’t notice right away that the cultures should be put in the freezeer, so that didn’t happen until I got back. Will those be OK? And it wasn’t even until much later than that that I read that rennet should be put in the fridge. Will that be OK?

I requested the hard cheese kit, not knowing that it is harder to make hard cheese, and that it is best to have a cheese press. I can’t afford that right now, and while I gather there are ways to get around having one, I have yet to find anywhere where such a workaround is adequately explained. Any advice?

I’m concerned about maintaining proper temps during the process, too. I have read some on this, but the advice seems to be too general, and I was wondering here if anyone has any thoughts on this.

Also regarding temps, I have read, for example, that cheddar needs to age at 55 degrees F once it’s done. I am concerned about how I will maintain that temperature.

I am having similar pangs of anxiety over this like I did before I attempted my first batch of beer. I’ve done 25 now, and they’ve all been tasty, and in homebrewing, there is a saying coined by a homebrewing guru that says “Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew”. I found that to be helpful, because in the end, brewing beer is a fairly forgiving process. Can the same be said about cheesemaking?

Thank you all for your consideration.

Best Regards,

Michael Peter
AKA Travellin’ Slim

well the cultures should be fine unless they wer in a hot place, stick em in the fridge and see what happens.
The press u can make your own, get a cylinder that u can place an object on top and weight. look at all the posts and read what they have said and check out thier websites if they have one.
If u dont have a specific temp then just place it at the bottom of the fringe, the crisper i thingk its called, closs enough.
get a decent thermometer, 15$ gets a nice digi meter. the thing about hard cheeses it takes a long time to ripen 4-6 months pending what u making.

I agree with Neil’s advice. Just try it and see how it goes. What I’ve found is that a recipe for a specific cheese may have some exacting requirements in terms of pressing pressures, temperatures, aging times, etc. And, that may be required if you are trying to authentically duplicate a specific cheese. But, if you can’t or don’t follow all those exact procedures, you will still get a cheese—one of your own invention! So, don’t be afraid to experiment. And, cheese making should relieve anxiety, not create it!

In the future, store the cultures in the freezer and the rennet in the fridge.

You can easily improvise a press like Neil described.

I have a couple of mini-fridges connected to thermostats that control the fridge temperature by turning the A/C power on and off—made by Johnson Controls, I think—Rikki sells them but not cheap.

Otherwise, use the crisper.

Good luck.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the advice and encouragement. Indeed, in time, I believe that cheesemaking will relieve anxiety instead of causing it, just like what happened after my first batch or two of beer.

Regards,

Slim

making cheese is like having Christmas, pain in the ass to wait, but a joy to open them up to see what u got