Sauerkraut… Fail!

This is what an epic Sauerkraut fail looks like.

Smelled pretty bad, too. You can see the bubbles forming in the biofilm on top of the liquid.

Oddly enough…

The kraut underneath neither looked nor smelled bad once the brine was drained off.

It is possible the mold was only on the surface of the water, since it was obviously an aerobic mold (or bacteria) and that underneath, in the anaerobic environment under the plate there was normal lacto-fermentation going on (lactobacilli are facultatively anaerobic).

It is also possible the mold (or bacteria) was sending strands down into the cabbage and munching on that as well, or leaching yucky stuff into the brine.

We will never know.

The steers thought it was delicious, and so far do not seem to have suffered any gastro-intestinal complications from it.

So, what went wrong? There are several possibilities. Colonization be mold or bacteria spores from the air certainly played a part. It is also possible the bowl was dirty although it should not have been, still, I didn’t run it through the dishwasher first so you never know. Contamination from the cabbage may have been a source, but less likely, we washed and cleaned that pretty thoroughly. I am most inclined to lean towards airborne contamination, probably catching a foothold on the small scraps of cabbage that escaped the plate and floated to the surface. This was exacerbated by not having a one-way seal on the top of the bowl, so air was free to diffuse in and out of the space above the water.

I should probably try smaller batches in mason jars with silicone seals, and then if we decide to do a large batch invest in some proper crocks.