OnTap Magazine

MAKING MOZZARELLA IN A BREWERY HOWHARD CAN IT BE? NOT SO DIFFERENT For themost part, much likewithmaking beer, the overall process–regardless of what cheese you are making–remains constant. Milk is warmed up to a temperature that your chosen bacterial culture finds delightful. The culture breaks down the milk sugar (lactose) and in so doing, creates lactic acid, which in turn helps develop the flavour of the cheese. In addition, the change in acidity, as a function of the lactic acid, also helps to destabilize the casein proteins in the milk, causing them to coagulate and form a curd. This process can also be achieved by adding in an enzyme called “rennet,” which is often used to speed up the coagulation. With the formation of the curds, the liquid portion–known as the whey–is left behind and then separated from the curds. What you do with the curds will determine the type of cheese you are left with. Heating and stirring the curds will further drop their moisture content by reducing the whey. Once you take these curds and compress them, you move into the realm of hard cheeses like cheddar. Here at RHBC, we wanted to produce fior de latte which is a high-moisture, mozzarella made from cow’s milk. This is a type of cheese that goes through a melting and stretching process, as opposed to compression. The result is the classic Italian cheese often found flowing beautifully on a pizza. The key to this cheese, which differentiates it from the standard store-bought block mozzarella, is the higher moisture content, softness, a more defined flavour (from bacterial acidification), and the typical shaping of it into a ball. “It all started with lockdown…” So begins many of the stories told over the last few years when it comes to new ventures, business ideas, or hobbies. This was certainly the case for those of us running a craft brewery during an alcohol ban, making a quick pivot to other income streams a necessity in order to keep the doors open. At Richmond Hill Brewing Company (RHBC), one such idea was to make mozzarella. I thought to myself: how hard could it be? There are already several similarities between making beer and cheese: heating and cooling, maintaining certain temperatures, using yeast or bacterial cultures to do your bidding, keeping customers happy with delicious products, and so on. Should be easy enough with a brewer’s background, right? Oh, how we were wrong! But remember: we needed to keep the doors open so there was no backing down. BEER MEETS FOOD By Niall Cook In this edition of Beer Meets Food, we hear from Niall Cook, head-brewer at Richmond Hill Brewing Company (winner of the 2023 African Beer Cup’s Best Beer in Africa!) about the joys and challenges of making cheese–and the possibilities that remain to be explored. BEER AND CHEESE MAKING 30 | Winter 2023 | ontapmag.co.za