Spring is in full swing!

Well, first and foremost, I nailed down the recipe for the washed-rind cheese and they took their first dip in a beer bath the other day…
”

The choice to make a washed-rind cheese was an easy one. Having spent many a years living in Wisconsin, it was a state requirement that I love both cheese and beer! It was only natural that my love of these two things would lead me to unite them in casein bliss! I may be jumping ahead of the game here. Why, might you ask, am I washing cheese in beer? The primary culture of washed-rind cheeses is Brevibacterium linens or simply B. linens. It is an orange growth on the outside of cheeses such as Munster, Epoisses, and Livarot and it stinks! As far as cheese cultures go, B. linens is a prima donna and while the star of the washed-rind show, needs a supporting cast to really bring the house down (or make it stink). She needs a neutral PH to thrive and yeasts, which breakdown proteins and subsequently decrease acidity help her to shine. Yeasts are what Pavarotti was to Renata Scotto (a quintessential prima donna) in il Lombardi. Lombardy is ironically the home to Taleggio cheese. OK, if I haven’t lost you yet with the opera/cheese analogies, I’ll get back on track. Yeasts are not something we generally try to encourage in the cheese room, so the yeast needed for our stinky cheese must come from somewhere else. Beer, which the cheesemaker has an abundance of (at least this one does) is the natural choice. I chose Ayinger’s Celebrator because it is a bock beer. Bock in German, roughly translates to billy goat and I thought I’d really drive home the point that this is a goat cheese. Bock beer’s are typically dark with lots of sweet malt, chocolate and dark bread. How these beers became named after billy goats is a mystery to me, but I plan to name this cheese TITAN after our beloved billy goat whose own stench gives washed-rind cheeses a run for their money
” alt=”" />