Smoked Drunken Burt

Smoked Drunken Burt is the brain child of Claire Burt and Tom Partridge. It starts out life in much the way same as their other well-know cheese; Burts Blue, which was Claire’s first cheese. 

Claire Burt started making cheese in January 2009 in Altrincham, Cheshire. It was a career in the dairy industry, that inspired Claire to follow her passion for cheese-making which started as a hobby on her kitchen table. After winning Gold for Burt’s Blue Cheese at the International Cheese Show in Nantwich in 2010, she decided to pursue the business full-time.

The pasteurised cows milk is inoculated with the Penicillium Roqueforti bacteria.  This allows the bacteria to develop on the surface of the cheese, however, the cheese isn’t pierced during ripening, this means that the paste doesn’t develop the blue veins found in the Burt’s Blue cheese. (Though, the paste may occasionally develop small pockets blue).

The cheese is ‘washed’ in Gwatkin’s Cider, which is bought from a small family owned cider house run by the Gwatkins family in Abbey Dore, Herefordshire. This process encourages other bacteria to develop on the surface which results in a surface mould that tends to be paler, often ‘sandy’ in colour. 

The cheese is then cold smoked over oak and beech chips allowing the distinctive but not overpowering smokey flavour to develop. This process of cold smoking is where the wood chips are burnt in one chamber and then the smoke is piped into another chamber, thus the smoke envelops the cheese rather than heating it. 

The younger cheese will have a chalky centre (or paste) which carries with it the fresh ‘apple’ acidity from the cider. As the cheese matures the acidity softens and the flavours become more rounded and subtle, the cider ‘notes’ become less ‘appley’ and more ‘oaky’ from the aged cider barrels. The paste softens to become silky smooth and almost Brie like at times.