u/ncouth-umami-urchin

Hello, general question or couple of questions, I figured I'd reach out here although I'm sure part of the answer lies in data. Entirely tempted to buy a fancy $500 ph probe right now, so any recommendations toward a cheaper one that works well for testing liquid and solids is welcome!!

My situation is this. I've made cheese twice recently with the same source of raw goat milk. Both times I've made cheese with two days worth of milk. My guess is that, while the folks I get it from are attempting to cool it quickly by flash chilling in a freezer for 20 minutes, that it isn't getting cold fast enough and it's beginning to acidify by the time I get it home for cheesemaking.

What makes me think this, is largely that for both cheeses I have made both last week and today, my rennet has flocculated seemingly much faster than it should, and although both times I cut my moisture locking time down based on fast flocculation, even so when I went to check for a clean break and cut curd, it was already cracking away from itself, which isn't something I've experienced a ton before this. Besides this texture at cutting, the curd texture has largely seemed as it should.

The second part of this is that I have gotten some fairly cloudy whey out of both the feta and the tomme that I made, but especially the tomme. And on top of that, my yields have seemed a little low. I know there is seasonal fluctuation based on diet, and animal health, and where in their milking cycle the animals are. As far as I am aware, about 1lb/gallon is average with sheep milk yielding more cheese. My feta batch was made with 3.5-4 gallons of milk and ended up about 3.25 lbs, my tomme however was 5 gallons of milk and made closer to 3.1lbs of cheese.

As previously stated, I know I'm in need of more data, even to ask for help without it seems silly but here I am. I did not add calcium chloride as the milk I'm using hasn't been pasteurized. I did not dilute rennet in water before mixing, the book I've been using most, successful cheesemaking, recommends not diluting unless you're making batches larger than 25L.

Thank you for any solutions, ideas or further questions directed at me. I submit to the mockery I deserve for asking questions without key information 😅.

I made a tomme today. Unfortunately I only have ph test strips which are not hugely accurate for now. Ph meter is on the list. My plan was to make a brine with the whey, however, not thinking very much I assumed the pH of the whey would decrease around the same timeline as that of the cheese, which is targeted to be around 5.1 in the morning. Of course this evening when I checked my brine ph it was already closer to the low 4s as near as I can tell. I immediately thought that of course that makes sense because that's largely where the lactose is so that is feeding the LAB faster. My question is....should I use the low ph whey and add salt to make a brine? Should I dial the ph back by adding distilled water, then make a brine with that once I've gotten close to the ph of the cheese? Or should I just scrap the whey altogether and make a brine from water and some vinegar and salt this time, and maybe make a whey brine in the future. Advice is appreciated. Pictures of the cheese to come in the morning, seems to have turned out well though!

Tldr, should I salvage my acidic whey for brine, or just better luck next brine....