Armfield Cheese Vat

The Armfield Cheese Vat is designed to provide practical training in the production of cheese by the traditional method. The vat is designed to be hygienic in use, manufactured wholly in stainless steel and is bench mounted. It has a removable paddle agitator of stainless steel, driven through a guarded linkage system by a variable speed drive motor. Water is circulated through a vat jacket at a preselected temperature by the circulator contained in the separate control console.

This console stands adjacent to the vat, and incorporates:

Chart recorder for continuous printout of pH of vat contents
Digital display of pH of vat contents
Digital display of temperature of vat contents
Two analog output ports for computer monitoring of vat temperature and pH
Agitator stop/start and variable speed control

The 10 Litre capacity jacketed rectangular vat can be used for the manufacture of all well-known cheese types. Typically, the following processes may be undertaken in the vat:

Heating and agitating milk, holding at an exact temperature for addition of starter culture and rennet
Holding at temperature during coagulation
Cutting and healing the curd
Heating and agitating gradually and accurately to ‘scald’ the curd
Maintaining the higher temperatures and agitating for a further period
Settling the curd or ‘pitching’
Drawing the whey
Cutting the curd
Cheddaring the curd (when making cheddar type)
Milling
Salt addition