Loading…
1
The week my kimchi turned into a science experiment gone wrong
Last Tuesday I opened a jar of kimchi that had been fermenting for 10 days and it smelled like a burnt gym sock mixed with soap. Turns out I used tap water instead of filtered water for the brine (big mistake). Has anyone else had a batch go totally sour from water quality?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
paul_taylor215mo ago
Maybe it's just me but I used to think tap water was fine for ferments because the chlorine would just evaporate. But after my own batch turned into something that smelled like my uncle's old wrestling gear I tried distilled water and it made a huge difference. The thing is even small amounts of chlorine can mess with the good bacteria. So yeah water quality is way more important than I gave it credit for.
7
hollyl255mo ago
OH MAN the gym sock comparison is too real. I had the exact same thing happen with my first batch of sauerkraut - used tap water straight from the faucet and it ended up smelling like a sweaty jockstrap that had been left in a locker over summer break. The worst part is I read all these fermentation blogs and they're like "just let the water sit out for a day to offgas" but honestly even doing that didn't save my batch. I switched to distilled water and my ferments have been coming out perfect ever since. The chlorine really does mess with the bacteria way more than people realize. Now I just buy the big gallon jugs of distilled at the store for like a dollar and it's totally worth it.
4