Well I started to unmold the Colby/Jack tonight and have decided to keep it in the press for another few hours.
Although this cheese has knitted together nicely and is feeling nice and firm, there is still some softness at the sides that I don’t like.
I’ve been pressing for the last 10 hours at 100# and just upped the weight to 140#. The reason I’m going to a higher weight and pressing longer is because it is still expressing quite a bit of whey.
I do have a question for anyone who is in the know…..
Will pressing for a longer time than stated in the recipe cause any problems with the cheese like causing the acid content to be way off?
I’ve had this one in the press for a total of 24 hours and am considering leaving it in for another 12. I just don’t want to undo all of the work that I’ve done on this wheel.
On the bright side, this is a very pretty cheese and what I consider to be a monster size wheel. It is 8” diameter x 5” tall and probably weighs a little over 6#.
If someone could advise me concerning the longer pressing time I would really appreciate it. I’d like to make this wheel a little more firm but like I said before I don’t want to mess it up by doing so.
I"ll add some pics here by tomorrow evening.

Thanks in advance.
Dave

I seriously doubt that further pressing will adversely affect the cheese in any appreciable way.  However, the 140 lbs sounds pretty extreme, given that Jack is usually pressed lightly.  Just how soft is it?  After all, Jack is supposed to be a somewhat soft cheese.

Rich,
Since this is a cross of colby and jack I decided to go with the colby pressing weights which is 20 lbs. Since I am using an 8” wheel this translates into 80 lbs.
Even with 80 lbs. the cheese was still not expelling the whey as I would have liked so I upped it to 100 lbs. This started the whey moving nicely so on this final press I decided to up it a little more.
One problem that I’ve had with my colby cheese is that is is softer and more moist than what I have bought in the store. I’d really like for this cheese to have a more solid texture so that’s why I’m pressing it more like a cheddar. I guess time will tell if this was the proper course of action but with all of the manipulation this cheese has seen, I figure it can’t really hurt.
Thanks for the advice and reply.

Dave