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RE: Homemade cheese press

MrsKK — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:15:01 GMT

So simple and inexpensive - I really love mine.

RE: Homemade cheese press

brezzonico — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:35:16 GMT

I made a single one very similar and use the barbell weights from a yard sale also- has been working great!

RE: Homemade cheese press

MrsKK — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 07:53:33 GMT

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to reply - I haven't been out here for awhile with Christmas and all.

I haven't used this to press two cheeses yet. My cow has been dried off as of a couple of weeks ago and won't freshen again until mid April or so. I'll try it out with two molds in it at that point.

With using one mold, I have no trouble at all with applying enough weight - I use barbell weights stacked on the top board. In order to make sure everything stays level, though, I have to make sure that everything is centered. Not too tough to do.

RE: Homemade cheese press

Tobiasrer — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:00:47 GMT

So with a press like that do you have issues reaching the pressures? Especially if you were to try 2 cheeses at one time?

Homemade cheese press

MrsKK — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:34:39 GMT

I made myself a new cheese press yesterday, using 1 x 12 pine and one inch pine dowels. 1/2 inch x 1 1/2 inch fluted birch dowels became the feet for the bottom board, so now my press won't be sitting in whey.

I bought a dish drainer board to funnel whey over the edge of the bottom board and it works quite nicely. I sit the whole thing in a boot tray to catch the whey.

The dowels are a bit tall, as I cut the 4 foot sections in half, but I think I will leave it as is. I made this press wide enough to hold two of my 6 inch cheese molds - thinking ahead to when she is fresh and giving me 5 gallons of milk a day.

I put 9 feet on the bottom board, wanting to give it lots of support.

The one thing you need to be watchful of with this press is to make sure that the cheese mold is centered, otherwise you can end up with the cheese being a bit lopsided. If that happens, though, just turn the cheese over, make sure everything is centered and press with some heavy weight for a couple of hours.