Good Thunder by Alemar Cheese

 

We are now offering Good Thunder by Alemar Cheese.  Good Thunder is cheese maker Keith Adams most recent addition to his lineup.  A small format washed-rind cheese, Good Thunder is conveniently sized at just under 8 ounces.  Coming wrapped and ready for individual sale, it’s also one of the few small format washed-rinds available, great for a grab-and-go selection.  The retail sized pieces also mean less labor involved and less shrink.  But all of those attributes would be meaningless if it wasn’t a fantastic cheese, right?  Don’t worry, Good Thunder does not disappoint.

Keith has been developing and fine tuning Good Thunder for a little over a year now, keeping production to a minimum as he perfected the cheese.  He is now at the point where his milk supply is stable and his confidence in the consistency of the cheese is high, and he’s ready to expand his distribution beyond his local Minnesota market.  Here were our in-house evaluations from some recent samples:

– a very creamy paste with a salty and washed funk flavor.  This cheese finished with a meaty flavor along with some lingering salt.  Reminded me of a milder Epoisses.

– earthy peanutty creamy.  great texture.  definitely full washed rind flavor, but not over the top.  no funk.  very nice

– no graininess on the rind, meaty and rich but not overly funky, approachable size

– Very smooth texture and at a great age. Meaty, liver sausage flavor that I really liked.  Washed in Surly Bender, which I like to drink.

– wasn’t any left by the time I got to it… (Gotta be quicker!)

For the time being, we will be offering Good Thunder on pre-order.  Since Keith runs Alemar as a mostly one-man operation, the pre-order approach will give him a better gauge of demand and time to ramp up his production accordingly.  Being such a small operation has had huge benefits for Keith, allowing him to closely monitor the quality of his cheeses or stop production for a few days at a time to step out and visit customers.  But it also means that he has to take a measured approach to growth and make sure that he doesn’t scale up too quickly or overshoot the mark.

For anyone interested, we have a few more sample pieces of Good Thunder available and can always request more.  And for that matter, if anyone is interested in trying a sample of his Camembert-style Bent River, please ask for a sample of that as well!