Hi all, I did an experiment this spring with my first ever ferment. I used this sub a lot to guide me through the process and thought I owed you all a summary of my results and figured while I was at it, I may as well ask any additional questions I might have.

This is my wisteria vinegar, a 100% wild ferment with 3 whole ingredients, made in a ½gal mason jar with not a shred of any specialized equipment. My method was harvesting wisteria, giving it a good thorough rinse, and transferring them to my sterilized jar (about half full, unpacked). I used a cup of sugar and topped it off with warm (not hot) water. I either stirred, swirled, or shook the jar every day for about 1.5 months until activity stopped and then strained the bits and let it mellow with a loose lid for another month or 2. I then seeded with ACV after losing all patience with my flower liquor crisping my nose hairs every week, and then finally filtering and transferring to a bottle a couple weeks ago.

There was never any mold, funky films, or weird growths at any point and the end product turned out tasting like a sour candy, no liquor taste at all (thank GOD).

My questions now that I've done the thing, start to finish:

-How lucky was I? Could this have gone terribly wrong?

-Is there a good way to make sure future bottles are actually ready except tasting and smelling (turning from alcohol to vinegar)?

-Since I didn't have any measuring equipment during the process, is there a way to tell how strong it is or how much sugar is left now that it's complete?

-Are there any other not-so-obvious risks to wild fermenting otherwise safe foods, aside from things like mold or e. Coli

I'd like to do more in the realm of fermentation, so would love any input, advice, well-wishes, etc. Currently have a hot sauce and pear cider vinegar attempt going as well, but with more equipment this time lol

No vinegar added - just local honey and six heads of garlic. Does this look like enough activity after three days? I have lots of experience with lacto ferments and usually after three days I can hear the water sizzling when I open the jar and see much bigger bubbles. There's some foam at the top of the honey and some bubbles coming up but that's it.

Most recipes I see ferment the peppers in pieces first, then blend them and add vinegar afterwards.

Is the vinegar mainly for the taste, or is it important for preservation too? How long does a sauce like this usually keep, and does it need to be refrigerated?

Just trying to understand the basic method before I start experimenting.

Hi everyone!
I'm new to fermentation (Mostly using the Noma book) and since I moved out I've been wanting to start doing it again and build a fermentation chamber. I remember trying to do black garlic in my previous setup, but it didn't work out and grew black mold relatively quickly, which now I'm pretty sure was due to the fact that the heat mat I used couldn't hold a 60 degree temperature consistently (I'm aware of other potential causes such as moisture but still, just to be safe, and also I would like to try garum for which high temperature to kill bacteria is important too). So, if anyone here has a heat mat that served them well for this purpose, please tell me where to get one.

Hi lovely people,

I am so excite to attemp my first ever fermented cucumber tomorrow after thinking about it for a very long time.

After reading post, watching tiktok and stuff. I still would like to ask people on here. This is my first ever reddit post. My apology if I did anything wrong.

What I will be doing

1. I chose cucumber as my first attemp. I aim for a 5% salt solution ( will be using natural sea salt) as I read that cucumber is full of water so it can dilut the brine solution and also high % will make the cucumber crunchy ( Please help confirm if it true )

2. What I will be using is the screw lid jar that i got when i buy pickle in the store. Some post say it safe to use and some say it is not.

Quetions

1. I know that mold happend when the air get inside and the cucumber not fully submerge. If I make sure that the cucumber is fully submerge , will there still be a risk of getting mold with the screw lid jar ? (No rubber)

2. I know that you need to burp it regularly like once or twice a day when the fermentation most active. Some post said sligly twist the lid to losen it a tiny bit can help with the gas? so should I tightly close it to be safe or loose lid is ok ? I'm asking becuz I'm afraid I will forget to burp it due to my work schedule.

3. I know that the key to make sure the cucumber is fully submerge is to use the glass weight thingy but since i don't have one. Just make sure to fully pack the jar full of cucumber will it be enough ? what is your experience on this ?

Thank you so much in advance for anyone who answer my questions and my clumsily reddit post. I hope you all will always surrounded by good thing and only good thing happend to you.

I had some really cooked old wine, and had the idea of trying to make some homemade red wine vinegar. Diluted a whole bottle with 250mL to make a liter, then added back about 1Tbsp of vinegar to make up the acidity. It has been going really slowly for a month now. Decided to add some vodka yesterday as I read the alcohol would be additional food for the acetic bacteria. This growth literally developed overnight. The smell is actually pleasant, similar to fermenting rice wine. So what’s the next step now, should I toss it right away a wait and see ?

Is it typical for a beginner to do numerous projects from the start? I started with honey garlic a week ago. Yesterday I made fermented black bean sauce. Today I used purple/red cabbage to make sauerkraut. It is easy. It is fun. The field is wide open. I fear I have ventured too close to the slippery slope.

I can make it, super easy but I've never learned a good timeline. I have some kraut brewing now, been doing its thing since Sunday in quart canning jars; but I can never seem to figure out a good timeline when I should move it to the fridge. The brew is sitting at 70 degrees F temperature on average. What's the best timeline and format? 1.5% salt with my mix. Don't know if it matters. Everything is a recipie. I prefer a formula.

What I've noticed before is that if I don't keep the cabbage covered in brine after starting to eat it, it gets a bit funny in flavor. Easy fix, save the brine and keep it covered in water.

Thanks in advance for the tuneup, I need the help. I can make it just fine I just need some help on the finish side if things ...

Thank you in advance

2.5% of water + garlic weight.

I used it in cooking ( in Daal) and gives a really nice flavor.

Eleven days at 82 degrees. I cannot get my house any colder (southern Mexico).

I'd like to make some chicken wing garum in this bread proofer in the next few weeks. To make sure the temperature is accurate (not looking to poison myself), I put a mason jar of water in there for a few days (plastic screw top not shown, but it was on there the whole time) and let it come up to temp.

My expectation was that the water would read 140F, but instead the thermometer read 118F degrees while the proofer is set to 140F. I double checked with a second thermometer and got the same reading, so we can rule out a broken thermometer.

Is the machine broken, or am I missing a step somewhere? Should I set the proofer to something higher so the liquid reaches 140F?

For those of you who own one of these and may have a ferment going, what temp does your liquid read and what temperature is it set at?

It looks like beer!!

Hi Guys,

Myself and friend are about to try some raw milk from a local farm, coming on Tuesday. He has also ordered some kefir from them. Is possible for me to make my own kefir from his, if so what would the process be? I'm not new to fermenting, I've made Sourdough, gingerbug, kombucha, beer, hot Sauces etc but never milk kefir. Im assuming i can just take some of his kefir and mix it with some milk and let it ferment? Thanks!

Hi all. New to the water kefir game. I made a water kefir soda the other day using a pink grapefruit cheong syrup I made and the result tasted strange and medicinal. I've had this once before when I've made gingerbug sodas the past. I've had great success (insert Borat) with all of my other flavour sodas since, and have also made another one with the same cheong syrup and it turned out really well. Does anyone have any idea what might be causing the strange medicinal taste? The obly ingredients are the syrup which i made myself using just fruit and sugar, filtered water, and my water kefir culture

I recently made tepache from pineapple scraps for the first time. A few days later I was eating a watermelon and I thought, well, what if?

I chopped up the rind, threw it in a half-gallon jar with about 3/4 cup sugar and water to cover. Then I noticed some used ginger from a ginger tea (so basically just boiled ginger, it was not "alive", I was adding it for flavor) and threw a handful of that in too.

Within a day I noticed an odd viscosity when stirring the mixture, within two it was pretty much snot.

I don't mind (and it's actually turning out to be fun in cocktails, think egg white replacement) but it's sort of interesting. I suspect it's actually the fibers in the ginger, because I also put some of the watermelon rind in some water kefir and that's turning out quite nice.

Edit to add: I'm actually on my second batch of tepache from the same pineapple scraps - I felt like they had more to give when the first batch was done. I might get crazy and attempt a third.

Hi to all!! I'm plenty of tomatoes and peppers from this summer and I want a good stuff to initiate in the world.

Could any recommendate me a jar brand?

Thanks a lot!!

i started this mead ferment like an hour ago and the OG seems very very high but i’m just letting it chill if it ferments dry i’m fine with that if it stops sweet that’s fine too (actually would kinda be preferred)

i know the yeast tolerance goes to 18% which i think 1.130 comes out to around 17% or 19.31% depending on calculation method

the pectinase is so the berry doesn’t add pectin haze and such

do yall think i should add DAP in the morning once i see visible signs of fermentation? if so how much?

im leaving town on the 5th for maybe 2-3 weeks so wont be able to check on it again until then

i started this mead ferment like an hour ago and the OG seems very very high but i’m just letting it chill if it ferments dry i’m fine with that if it stops sweet that’s fine too (actually would kinda be preferred)

i know the yeast tolerance goes to 18% which i think 1.130 comes out to around 17% or 19.31% depending on calculation method

the pectinase is so the berry doesn’t add pectin haze and such

do yall think i should add DAP in the morning once i see visible signs of fermentation? if so how much?

im leaving town on the 5th for maybe 2-3 weeks so wont be able to check on it again until then

400g reaper, sweet, dragons breath, habanero mix
5 cloves garlic, 1/4 onion, tbsp Course salt

Will add sweet after fermentation. Any advice?

Cheers

I've tried bay leaves, grape leaves, still mushy.

It is quite hot maybe that's one reason ?

What can I do ?

this is my first time trying at a ginger bug and making soda from it. this is what my ginger bug look like so far. any suggestions or help with next steps?

First picture is where this all started 10 months ago!! We had family over this week and the room where the ferments were got too hot from the door being left open still smelled great, so we started processing!!

One massive jar down and one to go next weekend when I will make a roasted garlic and cracked black pepper hot sauce and one more flavor that I haven't decided yet!

Any thoughts on what I should do with the brine, for now I stuck it in my fridge, was thinking maybe pickling some eggs or brining a chicken with it?

While making fermented hot sauce I decided to leave the seeds to float at the surface while pressing the peppers down with a weight.

Everything was going well (good smell and bubbles) until the black spot spot started showing this morning. Every recipe I've seen says it doesn't matter, but I suspect this could be why the batch failed. How is your experience on this?

I've dabbled in fermentation experiments of late (kimchi, cucumbers and apples so far). Apples were a bust, but the other two were great. Totally addicted to homemade kimchi and pickles now!

What got me started was the vinegar-y smell in my yard waste bin after my apple tree dropped all of its apples. Felt like such a waste and I don't want to do that again next year.

Do you have a person you follow on YouTube, instagram, etc that you swear by?