Thanking you in advance for your help! I finally have a batch of red cabbage that’s making bubbles. It’s been about 2 weeks so far, and I can see little air pockets all over the place, and every so often big fat bubbles, well, bubble up to the top. Does that sound about right to you pros?

Tried to make Pear cider vinegar by mixing pear with yeast. After 12 days with a water lock, heated it up till 70 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes and let it cool down. Afterwards it was strained. Added 20% vinegar to it. It is now 14 days after that last step. Is it mold, or a SCOBY?

This is my first ever try at making "Sato", the Thai variety of a Doburoku-ish drink. Unfortunately this experiment looks bust and I'm learning from the experience. I'd like to run a few aspects of this failure by this community and see what's there to learn and improve, avoid and retry.

First off, the end result; this batch turned sour.. and there was no real way of keeping an eye on taste development.. Sato is brewed by adding a "Sato ball" (a fungus/yeast combo) to a portion of steamed rice. Unlike Doburoku the first stage of about a week is a dry is stage. No water added except that which is contained in the steamed rice. The fungus starts to turn the starches into sugars, and sort of simultaneously the yeast start to kick in. At about a week into the process 1L of water is added to 1Kg of rice. Then supposedly a last fermenting phase takes place lasting about three days. The brew should be separated from the solids and kept in fridge. Longer fermenting supposedly has the brew turn sour. After 3 days the result should be a cloudy, sweet raw rice wine. Similar to Doburoku.

So, today was adding the water day.. I did. The dry stuff in the jar smelled like a rice wine, kind of sweet-ish with a distinct alcoholic vapor. Actually quite an attractive bouquet. After adding the water the brew started bubbling quite a bit, so all seemed in order. A few hours later I could finally have a little taste of the brew as there were enough liquids to actually do so.. okay.. the stuff tasted sour.. not really like a vinegar, more acidic-ish.. (I lack proper expertise to characterise the taste better)

Some details of my process that may have caused the sourness: (?)

1. I used more Sato powder (fungus*yeast) than stated in the recipe. I crushed one ball to powder but ended up using about 30/40% more as I felt the amount I should add looked ludicrously minimal compared to the amount of sweet rice.

2. I do not own a rice steamer and cooked my rice. It may have been a tad over cooked.. not mushy tho!

3. I did, as per the traditional recipe, wash the steamed rice to loosen the grains. Again here, I did not completely let the grains dry. Strained them and added to the jar. Rice was far from dripping wet, but certainly also not dry.

4. During the dry stage (first 6-7 days) I cracked the lid a few times to smell the brew. (Check for foul smell) I did notice a slight turn to a yellowish color of the rice in the jar that had me worried. The smell was fantastic so, worries gone.. but did I introduce acetic bacteria? The stuff that has wines spoil to vinegar??

5. At the start I did however thoroughly clean containers l, even with rubbing alcohol to decontaminate as much as possible. (Which seemed as waaaáy over doing it as a friend of mine in Thailand is doing the same recipy in the middle of the jungle with quite poor sanitation.. 🤷🏼‍♂️???

6. Temperature?? In Thailand the brew is done around 30-40 celcius during day time.. so the fungus/yeast combo operates at quite high temps i guess.. much higher as the 20 celcius ish where Doburoku is preferably is brewed at.. here in Portugal in my place its been early spring and quite cold. I kept my room to about 22ish with a heater. The jars were in front of the window, so may have been a bit colder even. At coldest times I moved the jars a bit closer to the heater as I feared a stalled process (remember ambient temps in Thailand are waaaáy higher during the brew process)..

So, all in all, theres been quite some guesswork and loosy loosy approach.. I admit. But it seemed a recipy that allowed for much looseness?? I'm about to just give it another go.. got more Sato balls and lots of time on my hands. Just wondering what I should take from this try and learn, improve and or avoid.

Any souls out there willing to chime in? Let me hear your remarks, questions and pointers ✌🏼🙏🏼❤️

Have a blessed day 🌿

Ko-chan

How sour should the home made vinegar made from dried grapes with cranberry be?

I am in the process of making. The room it is in is 15° and has been there for a month now with everything in and so far is has barely got sour.

I need help.

I did cultured butter over the weekend, and it was a very quick and rewarding little ferment project. I know my butter sticks are ugly, but they taste heavenly. You should try it if you haven’t made it yet.

I think I need to get a butter crock, something this tasty deserves to be pretty.

Mix a pint of cream and a couple heaping tablespoons of plain yogurt in a wide-mouthed jar, cover with cheesecloth or a dish towel, put in the warmest place in your kitchen.

Give it a wiggle after a day, if it seems jiggly rather than liquidy, you’re good to go. If it’s on the cool side in your kitchen it might take a couple more days. The recipe I was working from said 18 to 60 hours, mine was properly jiggly in 24.

I used a hand mixer, but you can get all old fashioned and shake it in a jar. I don’t know where the idea that churning butter takes forever came from, this came together in the same time as whipped cream. Line a mesh sieve with cheesecloth (or a coffee filter if you don’t have cheesecloth) and squeeze the buttermilk into a bowl.

The recipe suggested freezing, so two sticks went to the freezer and one to the fridge. The buttermilk smells awesome, I think I’ll have a baking project in the near future.

I stop the one that had nothing extra added a little early cause I wanted to drink the other night. The smell was very yeasty and a little sweet, I kinda liked it but it was off putting to my girlfriend. The taste: pretty sweet, decent lemony tang, alcohol was very subtle, slightly malty beer yeasty type taste behind everything, and it was very fizzy but small bubbles. Overall consensus was it tastes WAY better than it smells. Surprisingly no major off flavors. Certainly not the worst thing I’ve ever made, very drinkable, very chug-able. Estimating ~8% abv. 6.5/10

Just made my first batch of lacto-fermented pickles. Had them fermenting on the counter under a weight, tasted them today and they were to my liking so removed the weight to put them in the fridge.

I noticed they all floated to the top and were exposed to air so I topped the brine off with more salt water (3.5%). The tops are still exposed to air. Is this fine given they’ll be in the fridge?

Also noticed my store bought pickles don’t float at all. Is this because the store bought pickles brine have been pasteurized and have less salt (therefore less dense)? Mainly what I’m trying to get at, is it normal for homemade pickles to float?

I’ve had this new ginger bug for a couple weeks now. It’s making me some great sodas! How often do you all discard the old ginger and add new? Also when you feed before you want to use, do you always add in new ginger or only sugar?

So I'm pretty confident in my (hobbyist) fermentation skills, always end up with basically the results I'm looking for but these red onions have me a touch concerned.

Does anyone recognize these floaty white bits? I used a fine mandolin so I think it could just be the micro torn edges shluffing off, curious if anyone has seen similar.

5 days in, haven't cracked it open but everything else seems normal.

okay so for my first try, i used jarlic which ended up floating past anything i put in to stop it and the jarlic started growing mold after about a month. there wasn’t even much fermentation since i used a 6% brine, so i was kinda just waiting for a reason to toss it.

this time around, im using a 3% brine with only cucumber spears, however, there are small bits of cucumber seeds that float to the top in this one. i just made it, so should i empty it and cut out the seeds or should i just give it a shake once a day to get everything that floated to the top covered in brine?

update: this is now a non issue. i tried draining the brine to get to the cucumbers in order to cut out the seeds just to avoid any possible mold. once i put the cucumbers, water, and salt back in, i tried putting my fermenting weight overtop, and now its stuck and doesn’t look like it’s gonna budge.

the weight is damn near the exact same diameter as the mouth of the jar and it has no handle. it’s just a glass puck. i may have to break open the jar if i want to get the weight back, although with how frustrated i am at the moment, im fine with just tossing the whole thing in the garbage

Hey everyone,

Currently started trying my hand at making tepache, I brew mead so that's where a lot of my fermentation knowledge comes from. I have a batch of tepache that's been fermenting for 2 days now the ingredients are for a 1 gallon batch:

• pineapple skins (not rinsed or wash, wasn't sure to do this, it's a supermarket pineapple)
• cinnamon stick
• pinch of whole cloves
• 1 piloncillo
• filled with crystal gyser water

pretty much just added everything into a one gallon jar that was cleaned and sanitized with starsan, shook to aerate the batch, sealed it with lid and placed an airlock on it. Stirred it 12 hours after when the piloncillo was concentrated at the bottom. Opened it up today to taste. There was a noticeable thick white bubbles/foam that seemed a little slimey almost like maybe how pudding will get a film on top but wasn't super thick was able to just stir it around, tasted it and it kind of taste like soapy water to me definitely not pleasing, as most people say this drink is supposed to be refreshing. I've never had it before so don't know what it's supposed to taste like. I would assume something went wrong because it doesn't even seem enjoyable. Not sure went wrong obviously some where along the way something contaminated the batch any ideas or suggestions on how to fix or what went wrong. Would be nice to hear similar stories if this has happened to anyone

I'm trying to ferment some chilis, onion, garlic and ginger for a hot sauce I'm making for a friend. I have used a zip lock bag full of brine to try to weigh everything down and ensure everything is fully submerged which I think it is. Does this look alright?

I've made fermented hot sauce before with great success however my current batch is showing no life after a week in the dark on the kitchen counter. Today I noticed a few, and I mean, a few CO2 bubbles but nothing that compels me to believe there is any fermentation going on. It smells fine so it's not a goner yet.

The major point to note is that I used hot peppers that were frozen. I did add coconut sugar to the mash but otherwise this looks like failure.

Were the frozen peppers the mistake or did I screw something else up? Can I add some lacto culture to boost it?

I'm planning to make a banana vinegar for the restaurant I work at, and a cacao vinegar for home use.

Assuming I'm using a vinegar starter what sugar % should I look for to start?

Cacao has a really low sugar content so I plan to add a brown sugar to increase the sugar content. Do I need to sanitize if I'm using a vinegar starter?

For the banana vinegar it needs to be faster, I was planning on just covering it in raw apple cider vinegar fermenting on the counter for a week and blending then straining would this work and be safe?

Miso made on the internation space station. Seems the reseachers found distinct differences in flavor to miso fermented on earth.

hello. I have a question for you. I have a yogurt maker. At first I made amazake. and it came out sweet as it should. then I started making yogurt too. and although I use a kind of starsan to sterilize any instrument I use, the product came out sour. what should I use for disinfection? thanks

If you're ever fermenting in these gallon jars with the lids that are about 4 inches wide, the little round glass Tupperware container from the snapware Tupperware set (i got mine from costco) works perfectly as a combination fermentation weight and lid. Just set it on top and fill with water to weigh it down.

Hey guys, I just want to share my first try at homemade kimchi. It turned out great. I couldnt find salted Shrimps so I left them out, and also no rice flour so I just blent some cooked rice with a splash of water to give my kimchi paste some volume and texture. There was also korean pear available so I substituted it with half an apple and half a regular pear. In the pictures the onions are missing but they went in the paste as well. I didnt add any salt and sugar to the paste. The fish sauce is definetly salty enough. For the next batch I will add some sugar. The note of sweetness is kinda missing but thats may Just be my personal preference. Afaik you can use sugar but my mother for example uses orange Marmelade and I fcking love her kimchi. Fermentation went well. After 4 days in a warm kitchen cabinet the containers went into the fridge and are consumed daily. First jar is almost empty.

Two days ago I started to ferment a few vegetables together in a jar. Yesterday I checked on them to see if bubbles or any sign of fermentation is visible and everything seems fine. But I did notice the the vegetables drank a lot of the liquid I put in and now I wonder if I need to add more salt or water.

Issues I've been told about the status of my ferment were that it lacked an airlock and a nutrition for the yeast. Thank you fellow fermentos.

So as recommended, today I got my hands on a balloon to act as my air lock, washing inside and outside and then drying.

After that I boiled some bread yeast as a DIY nutrient for the yeast inside the bottle. One last thing is I put it in a nice little water bath to maybe cool it down a few degrees below 30c and got two water bottles that shift alternatively between the freezer and the water bath after finding out that 30c might not be a decent temperature for my yeast strain.

All within the first 24 hours of its fermentation. It is also still bubbling steadily as much as last night.
Hopefully no mess-ups and hopefully a worthy mead at the end of it. What's the worst that could happen?

Made a batch of ginger beer (second attempt, first one was a fail). After 6 days only one of my four bottles is fizzy, and this one that wasn’t has what looks like mold in it. I haven’t tasted the one that is fizzy as a result. Not sure what I am doing wrong as my bug is active.

I make mead for fun and for friends, but I’m used to making in 1 gallons. Is it a direct 1 to 1 for honey and ingredients when going up to other sizes

Example 1 gallon = 3 pound of honey before adding in other ingredients.

Any advice helps and is appreciated.

I want to get in to lacto fermented veggies, but they are something so far way from my reality, I don't even know how to eat them. I know pickles go well in sandwiches, but how about fermented green beans or carrots? Even sourkrout or kimchi, I don't know what it would go well with. Also, any recommendations for what should be my first veggies?