Microcheesery models microbreweries.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: Attitude/Atltitude - Brief Article

"THAT'S WHERE ALL OF OUR MONEY IS," SAID KRISTI JOHNSON, MOTIONING to a stockpile of aging cheese wheels in the cooler at Fort Collins' Bingham Hill Cheese Co. LLC. "Sitting on the shelves getting moldy."

It might not sound all that appetizing, but in the case of Bingham Hill's scrumptious Rustic Blue, mold is definitely a good thing. Since the first batch concluded its five-month aging cycle in March 2000, the unique cheese has garnered acclaim from the folks who really know, nabbing a blue ribbon at the American Cheese Society's annual conference last year and earning a spot in Dean & Deluca's exclusive gourmet catalog. As both retail and wholesale sales have boomed, Bingham Hill has increased its production by more than 600 percent since the company's late 1999 startup. It now crafts an average of 1,000 pounds of cheese weekly. "Now we're at a level where it's self-sustaining," Kristi said.

The brainchild of Kristi and her husband Tom Johnson, Bingham Hill took the philosophy of a microbrewery and applied it to cheese -- creating a "microcheesery."

A patent lawyer and an environmental engineer, respectively, prior to their cheese careers, the Johnsons are "big fans of regionally distinctive products," Kristi said. "We wanted to do something community-based. The microbreweries around here definitely inspired us."

Eschewing French recipes in favor of something that could be inimitably Coloradan, the Johnsons developed Rustic Blue with their eyes on both cheddar and blue recipes. The result: "a drier cheese," with subtle overtones of nuts and chocolate. "At the farmer's markets, people will try it and say, 'Oh, this is really good! I'm surprised -- I didn't know I liked blue cheese,"' Kristi said.

The Johnsons buy as many of the ingredients as...