Making Cheese in Hot Weather

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Wow it is hot! The 14 day forecast is showing hot weather for the duration, and I am busy typing this up in front of a very hard working fan. Ice in my coffee, jean cut offs, and sheets on the windows, is how I am rolling these days. The only time I plan on putting on socks, is when I pull on my boots to do barn chores, other than that, bare feet is my life plan for the next 2 weeks. 

Summer is a busy season on our ranch/homestead. Zach, my husband, puts up hay all summer long, both on our own land and on leased land. I am busy tending to a full garden; one that will feed us through the winter. Our oldest daughter, Echo, is out of school for summer vacation, and we like to go camping. Life is busy, and full, and fun in the summer, and milking a cow and cheesemaking can be more of a hinderance than a help during these busy days.

Last summer was the first year that I actually milked and made cheese all through the summer. Years prior, as I stole off our nanny cows, their adopted babies born in the spring, had been big enough to drink all of the milk they could offer by summertime. Last year had been the first year of 7, that we had had a cow in house milk through the summer. It was nice for the ice cream, but lame for the twice a day milking commitment and the hot weather cheesemaking. 

Hot weather cheesemaking can be tricky. High humidity and temperatures can lead to increased risk for contamination. It is not necessarily dangerous contamination, but other bacterias and yeasts love a warm humid environment. 

In addition, your added bacteria, works quicker in these desirable conditions. Feeding and fermenting the lactose in your cheese into lactic acid. Once the lactose has been mostly fermented, your good bacteria, are out of food. Their populations become weak, and other opportunistic bacterias and yeasts overtake the cheese. 

It is not impossible to make cheese in the summer, your techniques just need to be adjusted. 

For starters, don’t doddle in the barn. 

By making sure that you are limiting the time between udder and cheese pot, you are going to have more consistent cheeses. It is recommended that milk sit out for no more than 30 min. That is in regular temperatures. Hot, humid temperatures need to have an even speedier transfer from barn to stovetop, or refrigerator. The more time your milk has to sit out, the more time those contaminates have to feed and multiply. This not only starts your milk off, at a different ph, but it also provides a lot more competition for your good bacteria. 

Getting your milk into the fridge, or cultured and into the cheese pot, as quickly as possible is going to give you more consistent cheeses; cheeses that are less likely to be contaminated.

If it is a cheesemaking day, and the temperatures in your home are above normal, I would recommend adding your culture into your milk before even heating it. 

As soon as that milk is cleaned and put into the pot, it should be inoculated with your freeze dried culture. This allows for that good lactic bacteria to start feeding and multiplying the second, that the conditions in the milk are favourable. More of the good bacteria in the milk, means less of the unwanted stuff. 

If your home is very hot, I really recommend choosing to make cheeses that are salted early on in the cheesemaking process. Examples would be cheddar or feta. Types of cheeses that are not going to be sitting in a cheese press or form, unregulated by salt. 

Likewise, if temperatures are extreme, you are going to want to move your cheeses to a temperature controlled environment while they press and dry. Think refrigerator, cellar, cold room. Even salted cheeses, shouldn’t be sitting out above room temperature for any great length of time. 

How do you know that contamination from heat or humidity has happened?

First off, rapid mold growth is a very good indicator of something amiss in your cheese. Cat furr mold loves high humidity, high moisture environments, and it grows really really fast. Though not necessarily dangerous, it doesn’t taste good, and it is telling you that you need to make changes or else your cheese is open to contamination by other unwanted bacterias, yeasts or pests.

If you find cat furr mold growing on your cheese. Rub it off with a bit of paper towel or scrape it off with a knife. Be sure to do it away from other cheeses, as cat furr spores are very contagious. Wash your cheese off with a bit of your salt brine and then ask yourself these questions in this order. 

Was your cheese properly salted?

If no, salt it properly. It may not be too late to save it, but use good judgement and trust your gut. An improperly or unsalted cheese can leave it open to unwanted and even dangerous contaminates. 

If yes.

How hot and humid is it in here? Is it a high moisture cheese?

Move it to a fridge, or temperature controlled environment until it is dry, and then proceed with ageing. 

A cheese that balloons up within a day or two of making, is the victim of something called early blowing. Early blowing can be caused by yeast contamination or coliform contamination. I have a blog post all about early blowing, but the long and short of it is, that you are much more likely to fall victim to it, when conditions are more favourable for these unwanted contaminants. 

In hot weather, I am always very diligent to check on my aging cheeses. I store them in a refrigerator turned to the warmest setting, and it would be a bummer if that fridge were to succumb to the heat as well. Seeing as I bought it for $50 bucks on craigslist, its chances of survival are not guaranteed. 

Before I stored my cheeses in an extra refrigerator, I stored them in all sorts of different places around my house. I ferried them from cool stop to cool spot in warm weather, and yes, I lost some. Though the majority of my cheeses are vacuum sealed and I do not need to worry about humidity control, vacuum sealing will not take care of temperature control. High temperatures in aging cheeses, even vacuum sealed ones, can cause a surgence of yeast or bacteria. 

If you think that a cheese has gotten too warm, open it up and see what’s going on inside. If it is ruined, at least it is a good opportunity for learning. If your cheeses are vacuum sealed, a lot of times in extreme heat, the seal will be broken and the bag will puff up as yeast and bacterias produce gas in the cheese. Sometimes in overheated cheeses you will find something called a yeast split. This is a large split that stretches across the interior of your cheese. It is a pretty sure sign that your cheese has overheated. 

Cheese can be difficult to make in the summer, but it is not impossible. Though the summer comes with more variables to deal with as a cheesemaker, it also comes with green grass, increases in milk production and beta carotene. It goes without saying, that you can make some very rich, beautiful cheeses in summer, you just have to set yourself up for success, but that is with any season. 

As the seasons change on the homestead, so does the cheesemaking, whether it is temperature fluctuations, feed quality, busy times, or all of the other things that go on on a homestead; Homestead Cheesemaking is never just about cheesemaking, it is about making adjustments, fitting it into your life, and learning as you go.

Happy Cheesemaking!

Robyn

Learn some tips for making cheese in hot weather on YouTube.

Want to learn more? Check out my Homestead Cheesemaking 101 Course.  

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