Talked to a guy at the farmer's market who said hot water kills fermentation quicker than cold brine

He showed me his batch of pickles that he started with 140 degree water and they were dead flat after 3 weeks, so I guess I've been wrecking my ferments by not letting the brine cool down first.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_laura3d agoMost Upvoted

Are we sure the water temperature was the real problem here? I've used warm brine before, not quite that hot, and my pickles did fine, just took a little longer to get going. Seems like if it was truly 140 degrees, that's hot enough to kill off a lot of the good bacteria right off the bat, but I wonder if the jar wasn't sanitized well or maybe the salt ratio was off. Might be worth trying a batch with luke warm water before declaring all warm temperatures are a disaster.

the_cameron3d ago

Whoa, I gotta respectfully disagree here. 140 degrees isn't just warm, that's getting into pasteurization territory for a lot of the lactobacillus we rely on for fermentation. I've done batches at 110-115 and they were totally fine, but 140 is a whole different ballgame. The yeast and bacteria that start the ferment start dying off around 120-130, so you're basically cooking the brine before it even gets started. I think the salt ratio or jar sanitation might be a factor, but that water temp is probably the main culprit here.

michael8033d ago

@"the_cameron" said "cooking the brine before it even gets started" and that pretty much nails it. But I'm curious if you've ever tested the actual temp of your brine after pouring it over room temp veggies in a jar? Seems like the heat would drop fast once it hits the cold glass and produce.