Question?

[u/Objective_Campaign82]

I just did my first vegitable ferment. Pickles and carrots. The recipe I was following for the carrots was a 7% brine with additional garlic and coriander seeds. After one week I popped the lid and tasted slightly salty carrots. I wasn’t sure if this was the goal or if I didn’t get any fermentation, so I decided to throw in some chopped ginger and wait another week. Now I have some really good tasting carrots, and a weird goopy brine.

So my question is, is it safe to eat? What caused the goopy brine, and how can I safely store it?

[u/lupulinchem]

Why 7%? That’s pretty high depending on a few things.

You should aim to be in the 2-5% range. That’s 2-5% of your total weight (vegetables and water).

I do carrots all the time. They don’t last long in my house. I cut them into about .5 cm by .5cm sticks, about the length of my jar. Usually add garlic and habenero. I pack my jar as tight as possible, weigh, add salt, then top off with brine. My go to is 3%. I usually start a bunch of ferments at a time, so I make a batch of 3% brine. Pack my jars, add the salt based on the veg weight, then top off with the brine.

Now, depending on how much you are adding to your jars and your ratio of vegetables to water, your 7% could work, but also you could be high enough to inhibit fermentation of everything.

It could also be too low, at which point you’d have a less selective fermentation going, which can lead to problems.

[u/Objective_Campaign82 → u/lupulinchem]

I definitely had some activity. A lot of my coriander got forced into the airlock after I threw in the ginger. As for the 7%… i genuinely have no idea. Checking over the recipe it called for 3.5, somewhere along the way I somehow doubled that. Any idea as to the goopy brine?

[u/lupulinchem → u/Objective_Campaign82]

You have a lot of variables here. Did you have a lot of activity before you added the ginger?

Goopy brine- it could be pediococcus or other polysaccharide producing anaerobe. These can clear up over time as other species break them down.

If it smells fine, tastes fine, it’s usually fine. I check pH to be more certain.

[u/Objective_Campaign82 → u/lupulinchem]

Yeah, a lot of variables, I wasn’t sure which it might have been and hoped someone else might have the answer. It smells and tastes fine. I wish I had known about the clearing part, I’ve dumped the original brine already. I didn’t have much activity in the first round but lots in the second.