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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from Austria, Upper Austria

Schlierbacher Schlosskäse (Schlierbacher Käse)Schlierbacher Schlosskäse

Milk from local organic farms is pasteurised, pre-soured with lactic bacteria and set with rennet the next day. The cut curd drains in moulds for about 12 hours, is brined, then sprayed with red-smear bacteria and ripened at 12–18 °C. The Schlosskäse, the dairy's first cheese, is a finely spicy soft cheese ready in about two weeks. Made in 8 steps over 15 days. The longest step, ripen, takes 14 days (Austrian Federal Ministry (BMLUK) 2025) and runs at 12–18 °C (Austrian Federal Ministry (BMLUK) 2025). Salt is 20 % (Austrian Federal Ministry (BMLUK) 2025). Lactic acid bacteria and Red-smear culture bacteria on the rind do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step14 daysReported[bmluk]Ripen
Temperature12–18 °CReported[bmluk]Ripen
Salt20 %Reported[bmluk]Brine
Fully documentedCheese15 daysnone (Austrian register of traditional foods, no. 116; word mark "Schlierbacher" since 1956)Family: Washed-rind (smear-ripened) cheese family (Munster and Époisses as templates)More washed-rind cheesesMore from Austria

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe dairy's process as described in the Austrian register; not a fixed recipe. About 7 litres of milk make 1 kg of soft cheese.
About 7 litres per kg of cheeseMilk, pasteurised and centrifuged[bmluk]
Lactic acid bacteria · To pre-sour the milk before it is made into cheese the next day[bmluk]
Rennet[bmluk]
Brine of about 20 % salt[bmluk]
Red-smear culture (Rotkultur) · Smeared or sprayed on before ripening[bmluk]
Starterlactic acid bacteria for pre-souring, rennet, and a red-smear surface culture

Total time across the recorded steps: 15 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: raw milk from organic farms around the abbey

Step 1 of 8
Collect the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

A tanker collects raw milk from the farms every second day. All the dairy's cheese has been organic since 2004.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Schlierbacher is a monastery red-smear soft cheese made without a break since 1924. Unlike long-aged washed-rind cheeses, the Schlosskäse is brined, smeared and sold after only about two weeks.

Milk per cheese
About 7 litres of milk per kg of soft cheese
Final salt
1.5–2 % salt in the finished cheese
Output
About 2,000 tonnes a year across the dairy's range; about 700 tonnes of red-culture soft cheese in 1991

Related ferments

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Brother Leonhard Kitzler founded the abbey dairy in 1924 with recipes from the Benedictine abbey of Sankt Ottilien in Bavaria, and the Schlosskäse was its first cheese. Five varieties were made by 1931. A supply agreement with the Upper Austrian dairy association followed in 1956, when the "Schlierbacher" word mark was registered. Austria's first show dairy opened there in 1994–95, the farmers' organic cooperative was founded in 1999, and the dairy went fully organic in 2004.

  1. [bmluk] Austrian Federal Ministry (BMLUK), Traditionelle Lebensmittel register no. 116, «Schlierbacher Käse» (revised February 2025 with the HBLFA Francisco Josephinum food-technology centre and the dairy)gov
  2. [ooe] Oberösterreich Tourismus, tour page «Dem Käse auf der Spur» (Schlierbach Stiftskäserei)web