My whole batch of sauerkraut in a Brooklyn apartment turned pink overnight and I panicked.

I was using a basic 2-liter crock, but the cabbage must have been too old, so I scraped off the top layer, added fresh brine, and it fermented fine for another three weeks-has anyone else saved a batch that started to look weird?

3 comments

3 Comments

rosebarnes11d ago

Oh yeah, pink or red kraut is usually a sign of yeast, like a pink film yeast. I read that on a fermentation blog once. It can happen if the salt percentage is a bit off or if there's not enough brine to keep everything under. Scraping it off and adding more brine was exactly the right move, it just needed that barrier fixed. Glad it worked out for you, I had a batch go a little pink around the edges once and did the same thing, turned out totally fine.

daniel47411d ago

That blog post was probably from Wild Fermentation, they talk about pink yeast a lot. I always add a cabbage leaf as a cap to keep everything submerged.

the_nathan4d ago

Honestly, scraping off the pink layer seems to work but how do you know it's just yeast and not something actually bad? The color change is pretty alarming to see. Just curious what the real safety line is for salvaging a batch.