New cheese maker here. I work with the most primitive of setups. No cheese press - just my kitchen board and a pot filled with water on top, with the cheese pressed in the cheesecloth that I tie up with string. I have made fresh cheese and feta cheese, can be done in room temperature and easy to mature in brine in the fridge. But I also get really experimental. Currently I have two pieces of fresh cheese wrapped in an old fuet (spanish sausage) packaging to develop white mold (Geotrichum) - works very well so far and I can’t wait to try it. A friend brought one of her fresh cheeses that was getting a bit icky outside, and I washed it off and wrapped it into mugwort leaves. It’s now delicious.

I’d say that in the last few months I have eaten all sorts of goat cheese experiments done by me or my friend and find that cheese making is ultimately a very forgiving hobby - it’s mostly just about forgetting milk in creative ways.

I used to make Quark regularly at home, which is a soft spreadable cheese that goes really well with a jam on crackers or a bagel. It’s quite easy to make, and doesn’t require a press, just a cheese cloth that you twist to squeeze the whey out before eating, so should be pretty perfect for making in an apartment.

There’s a lot of different ways to make it, but the easiest/simplest recipes are the ones that just call for milk and buttermilk, like this one.

I only make paneer, Finnish juustoleipää, and the occasional mozzarella. All of which are very quick cheeses, and they require no climate control.

For my paneer I gave up on my fancy cheese press and put weights on top of the molds, I can fit two molds in a baking pan (to catch the whey) on my counter.

I know the most common climate control used in novice cheese making is a wine fridge.

I haven’t done it but I know there a few different easy cheese to make. Mozzarella and cottage cheese are supposed to be simple and don’t require any special temperature control. Ricotta can me made in a few hours as well