Heard a guy at the farmers market say his sauerkraut was 'too active'

I was picking up some carrots in Portland last weekend and the guy at the next stall was complaining to a customer. He said his latest batch of kraut was bubbling over after just two days on the counter, calling it a 'live wire'. It made me stop and think about my own process. I always just followed the basic 2% salt rule and hoped for the best, never really checking the temperature of my kitchen. My place is usually around 72 degrees, but his comment made me realize that's probably why my ferments are sometimes sluggish and other times explosive. I went home and moved my current jar of kimchi to the cooler basement closet, around 65 degrees, and the fermentation slowed right down to a steady, manageable fizz. It's not just about the salt or the veggies, it's about controlling the environment. How do you all manage temperature swings in your fermentation station?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylorellis14d ago

My old apartment in Chicago had radiators that would turn my kitchen into a sauna. I started using a seedling heat mat with a simple thermostat plug, setting it to 68 degrees for kraut. It sounds like overkill but it made my batches so much more predictable, especially in winter.

barbarah1914d ago

That's a really smart fix for radiator heat. My kitchen gets weirdly cold drafts and it totally messes with fermentation timing. A steady temp makes such a difference.

felix_black13d ago

Oh man, my buddy had the same issue! His garage sauerkraut went totally wild during a heat wave. He ended up moving the jars into a cooler with some ice packs, just to chill it out for a few days.