CURDCRAFT
Make your own cheese — curds, cultures, and the craft of home dairy.
From estimating how much cheese a batch of milk will make and dosing rennet and cultures correctly to planning the cave, tracking acidity, and getting a brine right, CurdCraft pairs free hands-on cheesemaking calculators with practical guides and a richly illustrated museum. Make better cheese, batch after batch.
Cheesemaking Tools & Calculators
Free tools for every batch — milk-to-cheese yield calculator, rennet dosage calculator, culture ratio calculator, aging & humidity guide, pH & acidity calculator, and brine salt ratio calculator.
Milk-to-Cheese Yield Calculator
Estimate how much cheese a batch of milk will make from its fat and protein and your target moisture, using the classic Van Slyke yield formula
Rennet Dosage Calculator
Work out how much rennet to use from the strength ratio on the label, plus a suggested dilution in cool water for an even set
Culture Ratio Calculator
Scale a starter culture amount from a recipe's reference batch size to the milk volume you're actually working with
Cheese Aging Time & Humidity Guide
Estimate the weight a cheese will lose as it dries in the cave, plus typical cave temperature, humidity, and aging-time ranges by category
pH & Acidity Calculator
Convert a titration reading into % titratable acidity and Dornic degrees, and compare it to typical targets for each stage of a make
Brine Salt Ratio Calculator
Work out how much salt to dissolve in your water for a target brine strength, with the equivalent salometer reading
The Cheese & Dairy Museum
Wander an illustrated museum of the cheeses and craft that shape home dairy — long-aged hard cheeses alongside velvet-rinded soft cheeses, the mild fresh cheeses eaten within days of the vat, and the tools and techniques of cheesemaking itself, each in its own wing, so you can get to know the story behind every wheel: how it's made, what makes it distinct, and the craft that turns milk into cheese.
Tour the museum →From the Journal
Fresh guides on milk, cultures, rennet, aging, acidity, and brining, plus practical troubleshooting for your first batches and beyond.
Milk Basics: Fat, Protein, and Why They Drive Your Cheese Yield
Fat and protein are the two numbers that decide how much cheese a batch of milk will actually make. Here's what they mean, where to find them, and how they change your results.
Rennet 101: Animal, Microbial, and Vegetable Coagulants Explained
Rennet is what turns liquid milk into a solid curd. Here's the difference between animal, microbial, and vegetable rennet, and how to pick and dose the right one.
Mesophilic vs Thermophilic Cultures: Choosing the Right Bacteria
Every cultured cheese depends on the right bacteria working at the right temperature. Here's the practical difference between mesophilic and thermophilic starter cultures.
Building a Cheese Cave: Temperature and Humidity at Home
Aging a cheese well means holding a steady temperature and humidity for weeks or months. Here's how home cheesemakers build a cave without a real cellar.
Reading pH and Acidity Through a Cheese Make
Acidity, not the clock, is what actually times a cheese make. Here's how titratable acidity works, and why it matters more than how many minutes have passed.
Brining Cheese: Why It Matters and How to Get It Right
A salt brine does more than season a cheese — it firms the rind, slows spoilage, and shapes how the cheese ages. Here's how to get the strength right.
Keep Learning
Plain-language explainers on milk and dairy science, the cultures and coagulation behind every curd, what happens to a cheese in the cave, and the wider world of cheeses beyond the museum's wings — everything you need to dig deeper into the craft.
Visit the Learn hub →