Monarch - Beer washed Cows milk cheese

Monarch Wheel at 2 weeks

We have just released a pair of new cows milk cheese that I spent September and October working on.  The first is called Monarch and is a trappist style cheese which we are washing with a brown ale from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery.  This style is a semi-hard washed curd cheese, meaning that we pull some of the whey out and add hot water during the cook, reducing the rate of acidification and creating a softer cheese, Monterey Jack has a typical washed curd texture.  These trappist cheeses originated in Bosnia but are made in Hungary and Germany as well, and the style we base Monarch on are those made in German Trapppist monasteries, which generally also make beer.  This subset of the Trappist family is typified by washing with beer, and the growth of a b. linens smear, lending a pungency and softening of the paste through proteolysis.

Five Weeks

 The milk for this cheese comes from the Schoch family, who have a ranch near by in Salinas.  They bring us the milk still warm from the morning milking, It dosn't get more fresh than that.  Monarch is made in wheels smaller than our sheeps milk cheeses, It will ripen after only 2-3 months that way.  It is also softer than our other cheeses, and is washed regularly with first a brine to stimulate the growth of B. Linens, then with beer to add a distinct flavor and keep molds off.

9 weeks, ready for sale