First Colby of the season

[roysha]

Each year we make between 35-40 pounds of cheese using the milk from our goats. In the past we made mostly mozzarella, queso fresco, which I brined and aged to make a sort of Feta, and some yogurt and cottage cheese. I also brine a couple mozzies then lightly smoke them. Mighty tasty thinly sliced on Ritz or Club crackers with a nice homebrewed IPA or Porter.

Two years ago the wife decided to try Colby. We are very glad she did. It is wonderful! Fantastic texture and flavor. Not even remotely like the product in stores. This is what we are concentrating now. It is SO good.

This is a labor of love because by the time the feed bill is figured in and the MANY hours of preparation, from milking to vacuum packing the final product, it comes out to a lot more than what it costs at the store. However, it is ours and we know exactly what is in it.

Anyway, here is a picture of the first wheel this year, 3 lbs. 7 oz. It is air drying for 48 hours then will be packaged to age for 6 months before use.

[MaryB]

What diameter molds are you using? I have been thinking of making my own cheddar to age. I am building a temperature controlled room for beer fermenting so it would be easy to add a cheese aging cabinet and of needed cool that area a bit more. I have a 12x16' shed that is getting turned into my outdoor kitchen/brewery.

[CastingFool]

I like making queso fresco from goat's milk, but I only use 1/2 gallon of milk at one time, and get about 9 oz of cheese.

[roysha]

I made our press and used an 8" PVC pipe "connector" that I set up in the lathe and turned the internal stop out of. The spring pressure ranges from 0 to 30 pounds so it is quite simple to maintain a constant pressure.

We tried the open air aging method but mold was such a hassle we decided to just air dry for 48 hours, or so, and then age in the vacuum package. Really not much different than waxing except a LOT less hassle. Some of the purists pooh pooh the vacuum package aging method but it works well for us. We tried the waxing and other than being traditional and making the wheels look cool, it just isn't worth the effort.

MaryB, lucky you in that you can dedicate a nice sized room for brewing and so forth. We have a beverage cooler that we primary ferment in so we can keep the temperature under control, but after that it is catch as catch can. However, since our "secondary" fermentation is more of a clarification step than actually fermenting, it not much of an issue. The house has central air conditioning so the temps rarely get above 78 degrees and closet where we secondary is quite stable temp wise, usually around 72 degrees in the summer and 66 degrees in winter.

We tried the cheddar, 2 different years, and although it and the Colby recipes are very similar, for some reason the cheddar was not satisfactory, certainly edible, but the texture was off and the flavor didn't really suit us either.

CastinFool, do you press your queso fresco or just hang it and let it drain?

[WebMonkey]

Very nice. We are still just making soft cheeses from our goat milk.

[MaryB]

From what I have read cheddar won't age properly in a vac bag, it needs to breathe and dry. The building I am converting used to house the lawnmower and all the garden stuff but I built a new 24x30 foot garage so the mower and stuff stores in there. Right now that shed is a junk catch all I need to empty. Most of what is in there is scrap materials that can go to the wood racks in the garage where my wood shop is now located. The shed is just off my deck and would be perfect for my outdoor kitchen/brew shed(right now I brew in the new garage). Going to insulate it, put in steel wall liner and ceiling liner so it is water proof for wash down. Haven't decided on a floor material yet, may lay down a new layer of plywood and use garage floor paint to seal it. The brew rig only needs a 2x 4 foot space, plans are a sink, some counter space, a walk in fermenting room(walls will be 6 inches of foam board) with its own compressor/heater setup and space for 8 fermenting buckets plus space for bottled or kegged beer. I am collecting kegging parts, bottling is a pain for my house beer but fine for the specially beers like the chocolate milk stout and IPA I make for variety. Friend just came over and got a 6 pack of my house ale so I go through a lot. Be easier to fill a growler for her.

With the outdoor kitchen I will be able to do cheese making, I will move canning outdoors in summer instead of heating up the house...

[CastingFool]

Roysha, I just strain the whey out and put the cheese into a bowl. Then it goes into the refrig.

[roysha]

CastingFool, we hang ours in a fine nylon bag for 12 hours or so. Another thing we do is, before we hang it, add chopped jalapeno chilis or chopped green olives and pepperoni, makes a very tasty snack.

For what it's worth, we save the whey, freeze 40-45 quarts, to be used in bread making. As far as I'm concerned it makes a HUGE difference in the flavor and texture of the bread plus it keeps us from throwing it out (although we can't save it all) which hurts my soul no end to be that wasteful. When we are finishing out a hog we feed the extra whey to it but, unfortunately, our timing isn't always the best.

[CastingFool]

My source of goat milk makes cheese, too. The whey is fed back to the goats, and they love it, but if they drink too much of it, the goats get the runs. lol. I have some frozen whey, too. I sometimes use it to soak oatmeal overnight before cooking it for breakfast in the morning. Oatmeal is ok, but bacon and eggs would be MUCH better, imo. Would love to bake some bread, but my wife is gluten intolerant.