Cheesemaker

We're looking for a Cheesemaker to join the production team in our friendly, family owned dairy, Village Maid Cheese, in Riseley village.

You'll be working alongside our small team of cheesemakers and dairy assistants to produce our award-winning Spenwood, Wigmore, Waterloo, Maida Vale and Heckfield cheeses.

You will be responsible for leading our cheese makes as well as keeping our production team organised throughout the day.

Your day will start with culturing the milk for the day's make, as well as ensuring the cheeses from the day before are ready to be brined.

Once they're ready it's full steam ahead on cheese brining with the rest of the team, while keeping an eye on today's milk before it reaches the right temperature to rennet.

It's fast-paced moving between these jobs in the morning and we have strict time limits to work with, so we're looking for a quick worker with good time-keeping skills.

Once brining is complete and the room has been cleaned you are then responsible for organising time schedules for the day, preparing equipment, making cheese, and ending the cheese make with more cleaning in the production room.

Each day you'll be responsible for recording information about our cheese makes on our log sheets and updating our spreadsheet with cheese numbers and milk volumes.

We like our team to be versatile and adaptable around the dairy so other jobs outside of these daily tasks may include rind-washing Maida Vale, turning cheeses in the maturing rooms, helping with customer orders, seeing in milk deliveries, running the pasteuriser and working alongside management with product development.

This is a very exciting year for the business with dairy extensions underway as well as cheesemaking workshops launching later this year.

We have lots of ideas on the cards for the business which we would love to be able to work on with the help of a likeminded individual who will be excited to be part of this journey with us and share our passion in growing the business.

There will be the opportunity to work overtime throughout the year, particularly between October - December when we are in full swing with Christmas production which is our busiest time of year, as well as when holiday leave needs to be covered.

• Measuring the acidity of the cheeses each morning.
• Managing our starter cultures for the cheese making.
• Coordinating the cheese brining schedules and setting up the brine tanks.
• Making all of our soft and hard cheeses from start to finish. This includes renneting, making, maturing and rindwashing cheeses.
• Coordinating the daily schedule for our dairy assistants based on our rotas.
• Recording all cheesemaking details in our daily log books.
• Liaising with the management team about cheese schedules, rotas, product and team development, and general dairy updates.
• All of our cheeses are made by hand so your arms will be submerged into the curds and whey during production. Full uniform is provided and we require all our cheesemakers to have a high level of personal hygiene and cleanliness.
• Cleaning. Lots of cleaning. We clean the cheesemaking and brining rooms at least once a day, as well as our maturing rooms and wrapping areas weekly. These jobs are shared out between the team however daily cleaning is a main part of this job and dairy life.

• This is a role which requires leadership qualities, confidence and the ability to make sound decisions.
• Team player. Someone who is friendly, helpful and is happy to take the opportunity to help the rest of the team when needed.
• High attention to detail. All of our cheeses are made by hand to specific recipes. On top of this there are lots of other important details in the dairy that constantly need to be monitored during the cheese making process.
• The ability to multitask and prioritise is a must.
• High standards of cleanliness and hygiene.
• Fast learner. You'll learn most of this job along the way so ideally you can pick things up quickly.
• The dairy is a fastpaced environment and cheese making is a very messy and physical job. You must be able to stand for long periods of time and clean up with the rest of the team at the end of the make (i.e. scrubbing walls, floors, ceilings, etc). Some people compare cheesemaking, including the cleaning elements, to a full workout
• Due to the location of the dairy you must be able to drive to work or be able to travel on the hourly bus that stops outside the dairy.

• Ideally you like cheese, and if you know anything about artisan cheese that's a bonus
• Experience in a cheesemak