My kraut bubbled over in the pantry and made a real mess

I was in my kitchen in Denver last fall and heard a pop. The airlock on my two gallon crock got clogged and it pushed brine all over the floor. Anyone know a good way to keep the airlock clear with really active ferments?

4 comments

4 Comments

blairm773mo ago

Ugh, been there. Had a beet kvass explode once. Try a bigger airlock or just a loose lid?

taylor.brooke3mo agoMost Upvoted

That beet kvass story is rough. Instead of just a bigger airlock, I started using a blow-off tube. You run a tube from your crock's lid into a jar of water. When it gets crazy active, the foam and stuff shoots through the tube into the jar instead of clogging a tiny airlock. Saved me when I did a big batch of garlic honey that went wild.

riverb133mo ago

My Denver pantry still smells like pickles from a similar sauerkraut geyser last year. I started using a blow-off tube into a half-gallon jug for the first week of any ferment now. It looks like a science project gone wrong, but my floor is grateful.

danielowens11d ago

That blow-off tube setup you mentioned @taylor.brooke is basically what saved my buddy's kitchen last summer. He tried fermenting a 5 gallon batch of hot sauce with habaneros and pineapple and the airlock shot off like a champagne cork at 2 in the morning. He rigged up a tube into a empty milk jug after that and said it looked like a weird medical experiment but nothing exploded again. I've been meaning to try that ever since but my lazy side keeps telling me my current setup is fine.