Northern Dairy Cheese School, Seminar 2: Starter Culture

Seminar 2: Starter Culture.  8-10 Sept 2025. 2.5 Days
An in depth look at how the starter culture you add affects the end results. The objective is to discuss a bit more the role of starters within the make and final flavour/texture and how different starters can affect that so you can improve your cheesemaking.
The exact same recipe will be made with four different starter strains and their differences observed: how they grow and acidify (bench top), how this affected the cheesemaking, and how they affected the flavour in the final product.  With input from Barbers Maryland Cultures and Standa Cultures we will discuss how better to manage starter and what affect it is having on our end cheese.  Using this knowledge, day 2 features a cheesemaking day where you will make cheese (recipe to your choice) altering the starter (varying potentially type, quantity, low/high activity or using a wild starter) to see if you can manage the process and get your desired results.

Cost to attend: £250*. Only 10 places available.
(Attendees must have previous cheesemaking experience – please get in touch if you want to discuss this).

Detail:

The seminar is designed for cheesemakers to discuss starter usage and how it affects rate and timing of drainage (as well as potentially flavour) by tasting through identical cheeses made with different starters and comparing benchtop acidifications and flavours.
The plan is to make 4 horizontal batches of two different cheese types before the seminar, each made with a different starter (DVI, Barbers MT36, PM39, ML33); then develop a recipe with a new different starter to be executed on day 2.
We don’t promise answers – just discussion!

Format

• Day 1. Arrive by Mon midday for lunch.
  Taste the starters fermented, taste the cheeses made above.
  Discuss briefly -> starter history, Barbers range / alternatives
  Round table on how people/each attendees uses and chooses their starter
  Showcase acidification profiles of the cheeses we made.
  Get presented with a desktop acidification profile for a completely different starter from Barbers that wasn’t used in any of the above tests.
  Curate a recipe based on these starter choice
  Dinner
• Day 2 (Tue).
  Make cheese as a group according to above
• Day 3 (Wed).
  Tie up loose ends from cheesemaking / ideas for next time. Expand on the previous seminar’s discussion on how ‘recipes’ are really shaped by cheesemaker decisions.
  Finish early afternoon.

Minutes of these seminars detailing learning, cheesemaking techniques and recipes used on the day as well as parameters explored and end outcomes provided to all attendees within one week. Finished, matured cheeses to be sent out to attendees at maturity.

A physical copy of findings to be kept in the Cheese School Library with future Cheese School topics and improvements to be documented.

*Course is not-for profit – fee is to cover costs (milk, lunch, cheesemaking expenses, power, dairy assistant, etc.). Surplus funds will be used for delivery of future courses. If you are a small or new cheesemaker and would like assistance with these costs there is a bursary provided by The Academy of Cheese & The Courtyard Dairy – to apply just email

Outcomes, discussion points and findings from the seminars will be made available in the public domain on The Northern Dairy Cheese School website here >

Background Northern Dairy Cheese School

Northern Dairy Cheese School is a series of seminars to increase technical knowledge and understanding for current and future cheesemakers, through hands-on cheese-making sessions.
The school’s core objectives are:

• Spreading & Building Knowledge
• Connecting People
• Creating Industry Strength

Northern Dairy Cheese School is a not-for-profit initiative that runs two seminars a year to look in detail at specific themes within the cheese-making world, combining discussion and theory in a classroom followed by hands-on cheese-making in The Courtyard Dairy’s ‘development’ dairy.