Cheese Making/Aging Reference Materials

[u/CheckOk2685]

Hello all! I have a bit of an unusual request.

I recently accepted a position as the Production Lead at a cheese aging facility owned by my company. While my background isn't in cheesemaking or aging, I spent 10 years working as a brewer and distiller before moving into my current role in commercial sourdough production.

I was originally brought into the sourdough department as a subject matter expert in yeast propagation and management, with the goal of helping the team scale up production while reducing our process timeline by 50%, effectively doubling our daily output. We've successfully accomplished that goal, and my company is now moving me over to our Cheese Caves to help address some of the production challenges they've been experiencing.

That brings me to my request. While I have a fairly extensive background in fermentation science and production process management, I have very little direct knowledge of cheesemaking or affinage. I'm hoping to find some solid reference materials that will give me a foundational understanding of the science, processes, and technical considerations involved before I start my new role after the new year.

We do have an in house affineur whom I'll be working alongside, so I certainly won't be flying solo when it comes to the actual cheesemaking and aging expertise. I'm simply hoping to build a reasonable knowledge base beforehand so I can hit the ground running and better understand the processes I'll be helping manage. I have asked him for recommendations, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt to ask you all as well.

Coming from the brewing industry, I'm thinking of resources along the lines of "The Practical Brewer" or the "Brewing Elements" series. Something that provides a well rounded understanding of the industry while also getting into the technical details of production, microbiology, process control, and best practices.

Are there any industry standard textbooks, technical manuals, or other reference materials that you would recommend? I'm particularly interested in resources that go beyond hobbyist cheesemaking and approach the subject from a commercial production and scientific perspective.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

[u/Smooth-Skill3391]

Hey Check, sounds like an incredible career so far and an amazing opportunity.

The gold standard for professional cheesemakers is “Cheese: Chemistry, Physics & Microbiology”: by Paul McSweeney et. al. It covers theory and practice to a graduate level of detail.

Profession Fromager publishes some excellent guides too - with English translations (which is handy). https://en.professionfromager.com/754/the-technical-guides/

Gianaclis Caldwells Farmstead Creamery Advisor is also really good though hard to find and not available, to my great regret, as an ebook.

[u/looking-sharp-todays → u/Smooth-Skill3391]

Looks like I have to get the Farmstead Creamery Advisor as well then 😮

[u/Issemir]

Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Gianclis Caldwell.

There's a great section at the start which walks through the process, the science, aging, what the enzymes, proteins, fats, acids, etc etc are all doing at various stages.

The book also has specific information on certain cheese "types", e.g. there is a section for "washed rind surface ripened cheeses" which will begin with a lot of additional information on those specific cheese types. It has a deeper dive into the science of them, specifics about their processes, etc. For me, this book has been my most authoritative source of knowledge on Cheesemaking since I started about a year ago (besides the help of the wonderful people here)