WESTBROOK – The basics of cheese-making sound pretty simple – just add milk to a culture, heat, stir and wait. However, the process requires long hours of care to produce a memorable cheese each time.

“You’re working with a lot of unknowns,” said Dorothee Grimm, the cheese maker and dairy plant manager for Westbrook’s Silver Moon Creamery, located at the front of Smiling Hill Farm. “Milk can be different depending on what cows eat or the culture you’re using. Even though the steps are simple, getting from milk to cheese is a learning process.”

Now, the public will get a chance to see how Silver Moon Creamery’s cheese is made and taste some of its 17 varieties, at an open house Sunday, Oct. 13, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

The creamery produces 9,000 pounds of cheese each year and sells to stores and restaurants across the state, including Whole Foods, Duck Fat and LFK. Its varieties include Brie, Camembert and tomme, as well as yogurt.

Grimm and her assistant, Tyler Renaud, 24, spend long days together in their cheese-making rooms in an old barn that once housed Smiling Hill Farm cows. Now, the space is full of large stainless steel equipment used to heat and mix the milk into the culture to produce the cheese curds.

It has come a long way since cows grazed here, but the hours are about the same. Starting at 4:30 a.m., Grimm or Renaud begin by pasteurizing the milk and end work nearly 12 hours later with a clean floor and about 200 gallons of cheese.

But the cheese isn’t packaged on the same day. Instead, it must be either coated with a rind and flipped for three days, or aged in a room until it’s ripe. In either case, the pair must take great care in making sure that the cheese is aging correctly.

Regional products often inspire the variety of offerings. Fresh blueberries from Bar Harbor go into the yogurt, Rising Tide beer is used to wash the wheels of the Town Hill Tomme to create the rind, and the Casco Bay Dulse cheese is made with local seaweed.

After spending the day surrounded by cheese, going home and smelling like cheese and talking to people after work about cheese, one might think the subject would get old, but both Grimm and Renaud insist it does not and that they still enjoy sampling batches.

Grimm’s favorite? The Brie and Camembert, both soft cheeses.

Since opening in 2003, Silver Moon Creamery has won awards for its cheese. The creamery recently earned an award from the American Cheese Society for its provolone.

Grimm started working at the creamery nearly three years ago after learning the craft from local cheese-makers. After her initial classes, she says she’s learned much on the job, and also from other artisanal cheese-makers across the state.

The founder of Silver Moon Creamery, Jennifer Betancourt, was also president of the Maine Cheese Guild, and Grimm wanted to continue the collaboration between her creamery and others.

“Even if we were not [part of the guild], I would have insisted because it’s important to me to have contact with my peers,” Grimm said. “It helps you grow when you work together to make Maine cheese good cheese.”

A CLOSER LOOK

Members of the Maine Cheese Guild, which

supports the state’s

cheese-making community, are holding open houses on Sunday, Oct. 13. Silver Moon Creamery will welcome visitors from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., at Smiling Hill Farm on County Road in Westbrook.

For more information, see

www.mainecheeseguild.org.

Cheese production manager Dorothee Grimm checks the progress of Camembert cheese wheels curing at Silver Moon Creamery in Westbrook, which is hosting an open house Sunday.Tyler Renaud, the assistant cheese-maker, adds flavor to tomme cheese wheels by hand-washing them with beer.