Used to eyeball my crocks and pray, now I check them with a $9 pH meter from the homebrew store | Fermentation Station - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Used to eyeball my crocks and pray, now I check them with a $9 pH meter from the homebrew store
For two years I just tasted my sauerkraut every couple days and guessed when it was done, which worked maybe 60 percent of the time. After my third batch in a row went soft and slimy in my garage in Boise, a guy at the homebrew store told me to grab a cheap pH meter and stop guessing. Now I pull a sample at day 5 and again at day 10, and if it is not under 4.0 by then something is off with my salt ratio. Turns out my 2 percent salt by weight was actually closer to 1.2 percent because I was weighing the cabbage after it sat and drained. Anyone else weigh their salt against the pre-drain cabbage weight or am I the only one who got that backwards for so long?