Burped my sauerkraut jar and it sprayed all over my kitchen ceiling

I was in the middle of cracking open a 3 week old batch of sauerkraut from my fermentation station setup and forgot to burp it slowly. The pressure shot the brine straight up, hit the ceiling fan, and now my kitchen smells like a pickle factory exploded. Got any tips for avoiding a geyser next time, or do I just need to invest in a proper airlock?

2 comments

2 Comments

david_hayes7d ago

Three weeks in, yeah that's prime geyser territory man. I had a jar of my own ferment, a 4 week batch of hot sauce base, blow its top all over my pantry ceiling and it took me forever to get the smell out. What worked for me was switching to one of those plastic fermentation lids with the little rubber gasket, but even then I burp it into a big bowl not over the sink. I mean, I still get spray sometimes but not like a full on ceiling shower. Also, if you can, try cracking it open in the garage or outside, that saved my kitchen more than once. The airlock thing is probably worth it if you do big batches, but for small jars just use the bowl trick and you'll be fine.

iris_jones897d ago

Nah, you're overcomplicating it. The whole point of fermenting peppers is to build up that pressure, and burping it into a bowl just lets all the good CO2 escape too early. I've got a three year old jar of habanero mash in my basement that I've never burped once, just a standard Ball lid screwed on finger tight, and the only thing that happened was the lid bulged a little. Tastes amazing. You want that slow, steady pressure, not to be opening it every couple days and letting oxygen in. If you're scared of a mess, put the jar on a plate and walk away, but all that fussing with special lids and garage trips is for people who don't trust their seal.