This is the "Ramp-Chego", the first aged cheese to come out of this West-by-God HOtel.

RAMP-CHEGO

Rampchego. 6 week cows milk, manchego style. Ramp ash covered... local WV ramps. This cheese came out excellent. Nice dry texture with a creamy finish. It has the stylistic manchego mild bite. The same batch produced another larger wheel without the ash. Now its just a matter of waiting 4 more weeks.

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A door in the floor

Well, it just so happens that there was a door in the floor of the closet. Ah... interesting. The door was heavy, had two locks on the top, and makes quite a thud when closed.









This is the top of the stairs. The pins hanging down are supposed to lock the hing mechanism to keep the door from slamming shut. I'll have to remember to put those in, I don't think the cell phone will work down here if it shuts on me.








This is it. It might not look like much, but its a start. The plan is to have the shelves lined with hardwood and humidity and temperature control added. Right now it is about ground temp. I thought finding a place to age the cheese was going to be the hard part, but it looks like finding un-pasteurized milk it going to be much harder thanks to our ever so concerned government. If they started worrying about quality instead of taxing everything under the sun, we might be in a much different spot socially... enough of the politic-ing... This is The Cheese Hole

Who would have thunk it...

I've been around here off and on for about 8-10 yrs, when I started to inquire about making aged cheeses, one of the maintenance directors asked if an old wine cellar would work. Sure, Only this place would have a spare lying around not used. To make it even better, this one was quite hidden. An inconspiquous doorway that looked like a small closet with a light in it. Not what I imagined a spare wine cellar would look like.