Cheese Curds - Take II

I've had a couple of unsuccessful attempts at making Mozzarella in the last few months that have significantly reduced my confidence in my ability to make cheese.  In a couple cases I was barely able to even get curds to form.  Based on these failures I've decided to take a step back and get another success under my belt with a simpler recipe - Cheese Curds.

I made Cheese Curds once before (over a year ago now which is hard to believe) and found it to be a pretty simple process.  I used store bought pasteurized and homogenized milk which I managed to make work - that's what I'm trying again.  I'm using cheap Lucerne Milk for this.  If it works I think I might stick with this one going forward (I suspect that some amount of my previous failures were due to the treatment of the milk in processing).

Anyway, I'll largely be following the process for Cheese Curds posted on cheesemaking.com.  The one major difference is that I'll be using their Mesophilic Culture rather than the Thermophilic Culture they recommend.  I'll be acidifying the milk in the high 80s/low 90s (rather than mid-high 90s) for this culture.

Hopefully this will go smoothly and turn out to be a good sanity check.  If so, I'll look to try something new next.

Ingredients:

• 2 gal of Lucerne Whole Milk (Pasteurized and Homogenized)
• 1/4 tsp CaCl
• 1 Pack of Mesophilic Culture
• 1 tsp Rennet
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt

Process/Notes:

• Heated 2 gal of milk on low until it got to 90 F - this took quite a while on low but I didn't overshoot which was a victory
• Removed from the heat
• Dissolved CaCl in a small amount of water and then stirred into the milk
• Added the culture.  Let it sit on the surface for a couple min before stirring it in
• Let acidify for 40 min
• Mixed rennet in 1/4 cup cold water
• Added rennet to milk and stirred for 30 s - milk was still about 90 F
• Let it sit for 30.  By the end of this time it had good separation
• Cut a 3/4 inch grid into the curd.  Let this settle for 5 min

• Stirred the curd to break it up - it sunk to the bottom

• Heated the curd up to 116 F over 45 min (had the stove at low to medium low during this period).  Stirred every 5 min or so during this process.
• Cooked the curd for an additional 45 min to dry it out.  Ended up heating it to 125 F.  The curds got firmer and smaller throughout this process.

• At the end of cooking I ladled out the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander

• Tied up the cheesecloth and let drain hanging on the kitchen faucet for 20 min or so when it had pretty much stopped dripping
• Moved the curd back to the colander and applied the weight of a gal jug filled with water to press the cheese
• Pressed for 3 hrs
• At the end of the pressing the curds had consolidated into a good mass
• Broke up the mass into smaller pieces and salted them

Impressions:

• They have a nice flavor reminiscent of the milk used.  The milk tastes very nice to me so I like the cheese.
• I think it could stand to have a bit more salt
• After aging for an additional couple weeks in the fridge the culture has started to have a bit more impact on the flavor
• The curds look a bit more lumpy that what I see on the internet.  I wonder if I dried them out a bit more than is typically done

Lessons Learned:

1. Managing temperatures of the milk is a major pain.  I think using a water bath with a temperature controller like I have with the RIMS might be a much more pleasant and controlled way of doing things.  I think I'll give that a try next time
2. Lucerne Milk works for cheesemaking!!!  I had tried more fancy brands previously.  I will make sure to repeat my prep of the milk with CaCl next time as well.

Single Hop Pale Ale (Mosaic)

I ran out of hoppy beer months ago and have had to sustain myself with commercial offerings.  With that in mind I'll be brewing another hop forward beer.  I really enjoyed my last Pale Ale which utilized Cascade hops only.  For this brew I'll be trying out Mosaic hops which will be the first time for me.

Mosaic hops are reported to bring a complex array of flavors which make them well suited for a single hop beer.  Like last time I'll be applying a majority of the hops as flavoring/aroma additions.  Look forward to finding out what all the hype is about.

I had intended on using US05 yeast but found that my LHBS had a new dry yeast by Mangrove Jack's.  They have a pretty impressive selection of yeast varieties which I might try if this one works out.  I chose their "US West Coast" which sounds similar to the Sierra Nevada strain.  I plan on fermenting it out at 65 F.

I'll be using the same grain bill from last time.  Three base malts and a bit of Crystal malt gave the beer a really nice malt backbone that really helped to balance the hop flavor.  I overachieved a bit on the OG last time and ended up with a 5% ABV been.  Would like to bring this one in a bit closer to 4% this time if I can.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 5 lb Maris Otter
• 3 lb Vienna
• 2 lb Munich
• 8 oz Crystal 20L
• 8 oz Crystal 60L
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 0.75 oz Mosaic (Pellet, 10.6% AA) at 60 min
• 0.5 oz Mosaic (Pellet, 10.6% AA) at 10 min
• 0.75 oz Mosaic (Pellet, 10.6% AA) at 5 min
• 1 oz Mosaic (Pellet, 10.6% AA) added once temp is down to 180 F (stand for 30 min)
• 1 oz Mosaic (Pellet, 10.6% AA) Dry Hop
• Yeast:
• Mangrove Jack's M44 US West Coast
• Water:
• 10 Gal Spring Water
• 1 tsp CaCl
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 156 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• 65 F
• Primary Duration:
• 3 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.044 (Target 1.045)
• Efficiency:
• 68% (Target 68%)
• FG:
• 1.010 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 77% (Target 73%)
• ABV:
• 4.46% (Target 4.33%)

Brewing Notes:

• 6/18/2017 - Brewday - 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM - Including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10 gal of spring water and cycled through the Mash Tun, Grant, and RIMS until the system was at about 158 F.  Ended up with 7 gal in the system
• Cycled water through Mash Tun, Grant, and RIMS as I added the grain.  Stirred well to eliminate dough balls.  Seemed to settle out to about 154 F.  Took about 45 min to get to dough in.
• Cycled RIMS at ~2 qt per min at 156 F
• Stirred after 10 min and then again at 30, 45 and 60 min.
• Heated 3 gal of sparge water to 185 F
• Added sparge water at the end of the Mash and let cycle for 5 more minutes.

• Drained into the kettle until I'd collected 8 gal
• Started heating after collecting 3-4 gal.  Had it close to a boil by the end of the sparge
• Added bittering hops as it came to a boil
• Added Irish moss with 15 min left
• Added flavoring hops as planned at 10 and 5 min
• Put the wort chiller in to sanitize with 5 min left

• Chilled the wort for a minute or so prior to adding the hop stand hops - chilled very quickly down to 170 F.  Let it sit at this temp for 30 min.  Was down to 140 F by the end of the hop stand
• Transferred to the fermenter.  Ended up taking all the cold break and most of the hops during the transfer

• Added the dry yeast directly to the wort during the transfer.  Sloshed it around at the end to mix it in.
• 6/19/17 - Airlock was bubbling vigorously this morning
• 7/1/17 - It has been about two weeks since making this beer so I'm starting the dry hop.  Put the hops in a sanitized hop bag weighed down with two stainless steel nuts.  Chilled down to 45 F and removed from the chest freezer to make room for my Barleywine which will be cold crashing over night.
• 7/2/17 - Moved back to the fermentation chamber to chill down to 50 F
• 7/7/17 - Cold Crashed to 32 F and added gelatin for fining
• 7/9/17 - Bottled this batch today with 3.5 oz of priming sugar.  Got 54 12 oz bottles.  The FG came in at 1.010.  The beer has a really lovely fruity hop character.  Can't wait for this one to carb.  Will try the first one next week.
• 7/26/17 - Tasting Notes - Very drinkable beer with a lovely hop character.  The Mosaic hop is very nice.  I think any characterful hop would probably make a very nice beer in these amounts.  Right now the flavor profile is slanted towards the hop but it will get into more balance as it gets a bit older.  As is there is enough malt character to establish a really nice balance of flavors.
• 12/19/17 - Drank the last one of these.  The hops had fallen off quite a bit but it still had a nice balance between the bitter and malt flavors.

No Knead Raisin Bread

I've made the fantastic New York Times "No Knead" bread probably a couple dozen times since my original post.  I feel like I've really started to nail down the process.  Given my level of comfort with the recipe I decided to modify it into a raisin bread recipe.

I stuck pretty closely with the original recipe and used a fairly conservative amount of cinnamon and raisin.  Seemed to hit a pretty good balance on my first try.

I've made it a couple more times since and am pretty comfortable declaring it a success.  It makes amazing toast and probably the best French Toast I've ever had.  Strongly recommend it!

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups of Flour
• 0.75 cups of raisin
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 0.25 tsp Bread Yeast
• 1 5/8 cup cool tap water

Process Details:

• 6/3/17:
• Measured out 3 cups of flour with a measuring spoon (measuring by weight doesn't seem worth the effort I've decided).  Added salt,  yeast, and 1 tsp of cinnamon and then mixed.  Added the raisin and mixed some more (had to make sure they weren't clumped together.

• Mixed in the water until the dough was a uniform sticky consistency

• Put plastic rap on the top and let it ferment on the counter over night
• 6/4/17
• After about 18 hours of fermentation the dough had increased in size significantly:

• Transferred to a floured cutting board, flattened, and then spread 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of sugar over the surface.

• Rolled the bread up and then formed it into a ball

• Moved it to a floured proofing basket and let it rise again

• After an hr and a half of proofing I put my Dutch Oven into a 475 F oven to warm up 
• After two hours of proofing the dough had risen quite a bit (it's in the high 60s in the house so just about perfect for fermentation) I turned the basket over onto a board with parchment paper.  It stuck a little bit to the proofing basket which is an issue I've been having.  Slowly comes unstuck with just a bit of patience.  Cut a couple slashes into the top with a serrated knife.

• Moved to the heated Dutch Oven using the parchment paper as a cradle

• Baked for 30 min with the lid on and then 15 with it off

• Let the bread rest for a couple hours

• Eat some bread with some nice homemade butter