Rind development starts this week

Our Rind Development & Washing course opens its Clover cohort today, and the timing is not an accident. Late summer is when a lot of small caves start fighting humidity swings as outdoor temperatures climb, and it is also when the results from this month's national cheese judging tend to circulate and get people thinking hard about their rind program. This year's results leaned heavily toward washed and mixed-culture rinds built in close collaboration between a maker and an outside affineur — a partnership model that is becoming more common in the U.S. rather than staying a European habit. The six weeks ahead are built for exactly that kind of collaboration, whether your "outside affineur" is a contractor two states away or just the more patient member of your own team.

What the six weeks cover

The course opens with rind biology — what B. linens actually needs to establish, why it competes (or doesn't) with the molds and yeasts already present in your cave air, and why a rind that looks right on day ten can still be wrong on day thirty. From there it moves into the washing schedule itself: brine strength, frequency, hand-washing versus mechanical, and the failure modes that show up when a schedule gets inconsistent because someone was out sick for a week. The back half is troubleshooting-heavy — slip skin, ammonia buildup, uneven color development — using photos submitted by past cohorts so you are diagnosing real wheels, not textbook ones.

Instructors keep it deliberately hands-on. If you have a problem rind right now, bring photos to the first live session; several past cohorts have spent a full week working through one member's actual cave data rather than a hypothetical case.

Cave humidity gets its own module, and for good reason. A rind that develops beautifully at 92 percent relative humidity can slip, crack, or go patchy the moment a cave drifts down into the mid-80s, and late summer is exactly when that drift tends to happen — outdoor heat pulls moisture out of a cave faster than a lot of small setups are built to replace it. The course walks through cheap, practical fixes before it gets to equipment upgrades: wet towels and misting schedules first, a dedicated humidifier only if the low-tech options aren't holding.

Who tends to get the most out of it

The cohort mix is usually half newer cheesemakers building a washed-rind line for the first time, and half experienced makers whose rind program has quietly drifted — the kind of thing that happens gradually enough that nobody notices until a judge or a wholesale buyer says something. Both groups end up doing the same core exercise: mapping their current cave conditions and washing cadence against what the course lays out, then identifying the one or two variables most likely explaining an inconsistent result. It is not glamorous work, but it is the kind that shows up directly in your next round of competition entries or your next buyer visit.

If you missed today's opening session, registration stays open through the end of the week and the recorded first module is available on request — email the Education Committee and we'll get you caught up before week two. Either way, the homework for week one is the same for everyone: pull your cave's humidity log for the last month and bring it to the first live session, even if the log is just a notebook by the door.

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