My sauerkraut brine went cloudy and I panicked for a week

I started a new batch with red cabbage and after three days, the brine looked milky. I thought it was mold and kept opening the jar to check, which probably made it worse. It actually took me seven full days of searching forums to learn that cloudy brine is normal for lacto-fermentation, especially with red cabbage. I just needed to leave it alone. Has anyone else had a batch look weird but turn out fine?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_claire1mo agoMost Upvoted

Tbh I had the same panic with my first batch of red cabbage kraut.

hannah_west391mo ago

Wait, is red cabbage kraut actually supposed to look weird? What even happens?

wader711mo ago

Lmao that week of panic sounds so familiar. So when you kept opening the jar, did you notice a change in the smell at all during those first few days? I'm wondering if letting all that air in actually changed how fast it was working versus just making it look worse.