Beer Infused Cheese
Adding Beer to Cheese Curds
Q. I made squeaky cheese curds and I would love to somehow incorporate our homemade beer into them. When would be the best time to add the beer?
A. Just add the beer to the curds once they are fully drained and before you salt them. Stir them periodically until they have absorbed enough beer, then drain and salt as usual.
Q. Can this cheese be made with port wine instead of beer?
A. Sure, but not sure about the higher alcohol and how it would affect the ripening. Wine at 12-13% doesn’t seem to affect it but you may want to heat the port enough to drive off some of the %.
Q. Could you tell me what the pH should be when you salt? Thanks!
A. Your final step is the salting with the ph/acidity right where you want it to stop(that’s whey we salt the curd). The final stage should be about 5.3 and expected to drop to 5.3-5.25 because of the lag in salt absorption. I rarely use the ph meter for this and go by taste, looking for the sweet taste of lactose to have gone to neutral and just the slightest hint of acid showing through. Also our pH strips would be a good choice to avoid the overhead of a pH meter and are very effective at the lower pH numbers.
Q. Is it necessary to wax the cheese?
A. This one doesn’t hold up very well as a natural brushed rind due to the dryness of the curds when pressed.
Q. Does the beer get drain off before the salt is added at the end or do you add the salt to the beer and curds?
A. The salt should be added after the 30-45 minute soaking of the curds in the beer. The curds should absorb most of the beer, so there should not be much of a need to drain before salting.
Q. I'm looking to move this recipe from the small mold to the medium mold that I use for the Cheddar's (purchased from here :) ) but am unsure on what the recipe would call for if I upped it by a pound or two-- Help?
A. You can increase any guideline we have by increasing the culture and rennet proportional to the milk volume. If using a mold with larger surface area, increase the weight by the increase in surface area, about 2 to 2.5x for this larger mold.