The owner of a Belfast city centre upmarket fromagerie who manufactures his own cheese has thanked the public for their support following a pre-Christmas mishap.
Mike’s Fancy Cheese on Little Donegall Street warned customers that there may be a shortage of Co Down-made Young Buck (YB) raw milk blue cheese in the coming weeks after the mature room where it is aged appeared to suffer a temperature malfunction.
The cheese is produced in Newtownards by Michael Thomson, owner of the city centre fromagerie.
Produced with milk from a local dairy herd, the Stilton-like cheese is aged for 12-15 weeks under special conditions.
The shop’s Facebook account posted the bad news about the mature room on Monday morning.
“Lads come buy your YB today because there might not be any for a couple of months!” the post said.
“Got up today and mature room was like a sauna.”
It’s unclear what happened but an overnight increase in temperature altered the consistency of the traditionally-made cheese, forcing wheels to crumble and collapse.
The news was greeted with disappointment by fans of Mike’s fancy cheese.
“This truly is a tragedy, so much cheese,” said one Facebook post.
“That is devastating,” said another, “I hope some is salvageable.”
One poster quipped: “Oh, I can just smell this photo.”
In a subsequent post on the social media platform, the Mike’s Fancy Cheese account described the outpouring of support as “something else”.
He urged customers to support the business by buying cheese in the first months of the new year.
“We won’t be able to wholesale any YB until March at earliest,” the post said.
Mike’s Fancy Cheese was contacted for comment.
