Is It Mold or Kahm Yeast?
I’ve been testing the limitations of open crock fermenting lately, which means I’m getting a lot more experience with a certain fermenter’s foe: Kahm yeast. Kahm yeast, despite some popular claims is not mold and it’s not at all harmful to your health. Kahm can describe a number of yeasts that will sometimes show up on the surface during fermentation.
How do you know the difference between mold and Kahm? Well, at the risk of giving a jerky answer, mold looks like mold. Mold will be raised, fluffy or maybe fuzzy looking. Kahm is flat, except where bubbles form when CO2 is trapped. Most vegetable ferment molds (which are extremely rare, anyway, with basic best practices) are white and can be scraped off. Colorful molds aren’t to be messed around with and ferments coated in bright pink, green or blue mold should be discarded. I’ve had a colorful mold exactly once in all of my fermenty experiments and I did just about everything wrong to get there.*
The bubbles you see are actually bubbles! The CO2 produced during fermentation is trying to escape, as it does, but it’s being trapped by the Kahm layer. Pretty neat looking, huh? Kinda reminds me of the view from a microscope. Or maybe the view from a telescope. If it didn’t stink up the joint, I could sit there and stare at Kahm all day.
So if Kahm isn’t bad for you, why should you care that it’s there at all?
First, it doesn’t always smell so great (the one you’ll looking at smelled like really strong nutritional yeast), and if you’re fermenting in an open container, that can be a bummer. It’s not that it smells exactly bad, but the aromas can range from yeasty to cheesy, and most people don’t like the slightly off cheese scent wafting through the air when they come home after a rough day. Or maybe that’s just me.
Second, in my experience, Kahm yeast can be an indicator that there’s been an issue with your ferment. Maybe you didn’t use enough salt, maybe the temperature was too high at the start of fermentation. There are other possibilities, but kahm can sometimes be an early warning that conditions are right for mold to form.
Third, the off flavors from kahm can impact what lies beneath. If you have a solid protective layer, the off flavors are less likely to affect the product underneath. Tasting is a quick and easy way to find out. Also, veg on the bottom will generally taste fine, even if the top layer is unfortunately Kahm-flavored. There are several ways to create such a layer: professional equipment I’ve seen, mostly in the hands of brewers, can provide an almost solid barrier between the Kahm (or whatever floaty thing) and the fermenting matter, or at least make Kahm easier to remove. Cheaper lower-tech options I’ve seen include a thick layer of cheesecloth underneath the weights or a very thick layer of cabbage leaves (the latter is my preferred method). With the batch pictured here, I actually composted the leaf layer mid-ferment and added fresh layers in, along with some saltier brine after skimming as much of the Kahm as I could.
How To Avoid the Wrath of Kahm
Use small pieces – The more surface area you expose, the better access the microbes have to the vegetables natural sugars. Better access means quicker acidity. With rapid acidification, kahm isn’t a problem.
Ferment at cooler temperatures – Especially at the start of fermentation, temperatures should be what is commonly described as “room.” Something around 70 F (22 C) is best.
Ensure that your equipment is thoroughly cleaned between batches – Sometimes stray yeast can jump over from the last batch. If you do get kahm, that’s a time to use white, distilled vinegar and boiling water to clean your crock, jar, spoon, whatever after each batch.
Use sufficient salt, especially for larger pieces and longer fermentation times – Salt can be adjusted to compensate for other variables. If you’re using bigger pieces, add a bit more salt. If you know you’ll be fermenting something for a long time, use more salt. Salt does not diminish during fermentation so prepare yourself for a saltier end product.
Make sure you’ve submerged everything – I can’t overstate this. Don’t let anything float to the surface and your risk of getting Kahm (or mold) is very, very low.
What to do if Kahm somehow ends up on your sauerkraut (or pickles or kimchi or whatever) despite your best efforts
With packed vegetable ferments like kimchi and kraut, the answer is pretty easy. Skim it off, along with a layer of vegetables. Maybe sprinkle a bit of salt around the edges of the crock. With brined ferments, like pickles, either remove the barrier you included or skim as much Kahm as you can. I have dipped a very clean kitchen cloth into an area that has lots of small bits. They tend to cling when you remove the cloth, so just rinse and wash that cloth thoroughly afterwards.
Once you’ve skimmed, there are a few options. You’ll never get it all through skimming, although the cheesecloth method above does quite a good job. No need to do all of these, just try a couple and see how it goes.
- Add a little topper of brine with a higher salt concentration than what you used originally. (Yes, this will make your ferment saltier.)
- Sprinkle a bit of salt over the top.
- Remove weights and soak them in a distilled white vinegar solution for 15 minutes, then rinse thoroughly in very hot water. Allow them to cool before returning them to the crock (or rinse them under cool water after hot).
- Press saran wrap to the top or sprinkle salt. Make sure you’re checking back to see that it hasn’t started spreading again.
- None of the above. Just return frequently to skim some more.
If you’re fermenting in jars, this is much less of a problem. Just skim if it’s there (extremely rare!) and skim more if you see it again after a few days, until you’re ready for the fridge. The couple times this has happened to me, I’ve moved the ferment from the jar into a clean jar with fresh brine at a much lower salt percentage before refrigerating. That generally removes any off flavors that may have come from the Kahm.
So, Kahm isn’t all that bad, but it can be annoying. And, by the way, the pictured Kahm is far and away the worst I’ve ever had. I started this batch of whole head kraut right before leaving for 9 days and without sufficient salinity. So it was giant “pieces” in high heat (we turned the AC off before we left town) and not enough salt. This is how I felt when we got home from vacation and I saw the surface:
*It was a whole vegetable ferment and I didn’t use extra salt. I started it in the middle of an in-home heat wave. I didn’t submerge the vegetables properly. I didn’t monitor the ferment at all during its months of fermentation.
Becky says
But it’s so pretty and pink!
Amanda says
Haha! I know. My real first response is to stare admiringly at it. Then I feel the Shatner rage. 🙂
Lilly West says
I’m glad I found your blog last night. I was thinking of throwing my fermenting pickles out. I neglected to skim the film that was forming on top of the brine for about 5 days and when I lifted the lid last night it looked similar to your photos except the film was white. It didn’t look like mold but it didn’t look like something I would NOT want to ingest. As I skimmed the top it broke apart, reminded me of particles in milk. Still a little concerned as I have only made two batches of crock pickles and am new to fermenting. I did add 1/4 cup of vinegar to my brine after reading recipes on line. Does that kill the probiotic effect?
Amanda says
Hi Lilly,
Sounds like Kahm yeast to me (of course without seeing it, it’s hard to know, but what you describe sounds like what I’ve experienced many times).
As for adding vinegar, let’s just say it’s not the best practice. At best, it will inhibit the microbes that are normally responsible for kickstarting fermentation, and move your ferment to a later stage (not dangerous, just potentially less probiotic diversity in the end, and possibly some texture and Kahm issues). At worst, it will totally inhibit fermentation, and one thing we know is that it doesn’t provide any benefit to the ferment, so i would say to save yourself the extra ingredient in future batches.
I hope that helps!
Marion Sansing says
Myself and several of my fermentation friends had much more Kahm problems this year. It has been rampant in my kitchen, it has even got on things it never got on before like my Jun and Kombucha. I went out of town for 3 weeks and put all my ferments to hibernate hoping it would get rid of my Kahm troubles, but it is still hanging around. I am at a loss, I have tried and practiced what you have mentioned above. Now I am just laying low on fermenting and waiting for cooler weather.
Amanda says
Hi Marlon,
Ugh! So sorry to hear that! This piece is specifically about vegetable fermentation. If it were me, I would toss any SCOBYs that had surface growth of Kahm. It will generally not grow in an acidic environment, and even with just the SCOBY and starter kombucha, Jun and ‘booch should be too acidic for it, and the SCOBY should provide a acid barrier that prevents kahm.
I’m not sure where you live, but heat can definitely be a trigger, as you say! If you’ve had a really hot summer and you don’t have the means or the desire to keep your home below 75F, it could be very difficult to get rid of once you’ve got it.
Remember that there’s no reason not to skim and eat it (again, on vegetables) unless you are finding the flavor negatively affected.
Hoping you find a way! Or at least that the fall comes quickly for you!
Susan Sommer says
Marion, I’m having the same problem! I’m fairly new to fermenting, but know enough to understand the whole process. I’ve had a lot of kahm yeast on my veggie ferments (I’m switching to Fidos rather than open jars), and just now I discovered I’ve got kahm yeast growing on my sourdough starter.
Amanda says
Susan,
If you have white stuff growing on your sourdough, that’s a different issue. I would probably start a new starter if it were me. Any surface growth (except black, which indicates it hasn’t been fed enough) on sourdough starter also indicates that you aren’t stirring frequently enough for the temperature in your home, so maybe give that a try, or store in the fridge between feedings.
As for your vegetables: Make sure you sterilize “infected” containers between use. Clean with distilled white vinegar and fill with boiling water. Wash in the dishwasher on the sanitize cycle.
Cheryl Stegman says
Making sauerkraut for years and firmly believe and checking my Kraut every 3 days I’ve never had a problem. Last year I put up 1750 lb of kraut. Easy way to avoid all of that mold after you have your Kraut made lay a fine piece of clean muslin over-the-top putting your plate on top of the muzzle one then your weight on top of the plate I let mine ferment for the first 3 days I remove it and replace it with a clean piece of muslin washing the plate off. I then do this once a week in between fermenting. Great grandmother used to see if your Kraut turn pink that means you don’t have enough salt in there the key measure for me is I weigh each head out so I have 40 lb to begin with I cut the heads in half and I have my salt all measured out for 40 lbs that’s fine but you have to make sure that you are using the Morton canning and pickling salt regular salt doesn’t work. Fall cabbages what you want to use to make sauerkraut if you use the summer crowd it tends to be more mushy for cabbage. Fall cabbage has a higher sugar content because it gets cooler out and it activates the fermentation process faster. I hope that helps you
Branden Byers says
I want kahm that looks that pretty!
Petter says
This looks similar to a Brettanomyces pellicle.
Amanda says
Yup! There are a variety of yeasts that can make up a Kahm layer and the same is true for a pellicle, from what I’ve read.
kate says
Thank you for the info! I was having trouble with kahm, but didn’t know what it was. I ended up tossing out my ferments cos I was afraid to eat them. Glad you explained about it so now I’ll try another batch of fermenting:)
Tim says
I’m fermenting some chili peppers to make some hot sauce and what do you know… I’ve just contracted my first case of kahm. Thanks to your excellent pictures I’m quite certain of the diagnosis. I’ve only been fermenting stuff for a couple years now and only very sporadically. I think it came from the last batch of sauerkraut I just did but the sauerkraut didn’t have an obvious layer of kahm on top. It just has some yeasty looking bubbles on top that looked a bit odd. I used some of the juice from it to kick start the chili ferment. I’m guessing that its from not enough salt? Temperature range of the ferment is around 70-75F. I’m also not using an airlock on it whilst the other two jars of chili ferments have an airlock. So, I’m not really sure how Kahm got released from cryogenic suspension. Not really sure if I should care but I won’t be mixing the jars after I blend their contents. I’m thinking that the sauerkraut may have gotten some yeast in it from the chipotle peppers that I put in it at the beginning of the ferment. Yes, I’m flavoring my sauerkraut with chipotle peppers and I must say its worth trying.
ethan says
I actually don’t mind kahm yeast on already-mature batches. You know, the stuff that’s been sitting around for a while, fully-fermented, maybe in an already-opened container, half-eaten, exposed to oxygen. I really like cheddar cheese, and have found that the kahm yeast adds a cheesy complexity to the ferment that I appreciate. I deliberately let a batch of fruit-based kimchi develop a layer of kahm yeast, and it tasted like mature pepperjack cheese!
So the order of fermentation seems important. I haven’t liked the flavor development of kahm yeast on immature/beginning stage ferments.
I appreciate that this article dispels a lot of the FUD floating around about “contaminated ferments.” I feel so bad that so many people are led to stress and throw out so many batches of perfectly fine ferments because they think they keep creating something poisonous!
Katie says
So… I had this grow on the top layer of my sourdough starter. I smelled it, it didn’t smell bad, so I stirred it and it looked good as new. Then I fed it and of course it’s come back. Can I just keep stirring it in, or do I need to toss my sourdough starter? (sad face!)
Amanda says
Hi Katie,
That is pretty odd on sourdough, in my experience, and I would actually recommend tossing a sourdough batch that grows a yeast layer. That may sound odd, given that sourdough is the gathering of wild yeast, but the things that happen more generally with sourdough are a blackish liquid (which is fine, it’s just alcohol that indicates your starter is underfed) and a kind of hardened darker brown crust that forms over the top and can be peeled off to reveal the happy starter underneath.
Making a new starter is easy as pie (I’ll have a day-by-day tutorial coming very soon) and it’s just not worth eating something questionable in my opinion.
I’m sorry!
Jenny says
I just had Kahm yeast on two batches of kraut and one batch of fermented sweet potatoes. I skimmed every day (wow, sick of that!) and finally decanted into quart jars and stuck them in the fridge. That seemed to end it. I had used large containers with Ohio Stoneware weights, which I wanted to decontaminate. I washed them with very warm water and then placed them in a 300 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Will this do the job? Have I ruined my weights?
Amanda says
Hi Jenny,
I don’t think that you ruined your weights, since they were probably fired at 2200 degrees (or maybe even higher) when they were made. You could tweet at Jeremey Ogusky, the potter who started the Boston Fermentation festival (@Bostonpotter) to find out for sure, but I would be very surprised if that caused an issue.
As for whether or not heat will kill yeast, it should, but you could also wipe them in a 50% bleach solution and then rinse very well. I haven’t had mold in a crock yet, but I have had Kahm. Although scientifically my method doesn’t actually make sense, I soak them in distilled, white vinegar for a few hours and then rinse well. I have not had recurring yeast after doing that.
Sorry I can’t give you the definitive answer, but Jeremy is very friendly and I’m sure he’ll know.
Best,
Amanda
Annie says
Thank you for this very useful and encouraging piece. I myself am beginning to feel discouraged that Kahm Yeast feels inevitable (and am particularly bothered when I want to make good use of brines that have turned yeasty). I see though that actually some good sterilisation with vinegar and boiling water is in order….
Heidi says
I’ve had an epidemic of kahm on my sauerkraut the past few weeks, but I just noticed it on my kefir! I know you said to ditch kombucha SCOBYs and sourdough starters, would you also recommend throwing out the kefir grains? (My grains float on top of the kefir, so they were covered in kahm as well.)
Chad H says
Do you find that you get more issues with kahm and/or mold with certain vegetables over others? I have major issues with kahm and mold when fermenting beets in brine, for pickled snacks or for kvass. (As a part of krauts, it’s usually okay.) Kahm and mold love the beet pickls, even when I’ve upped the brine strength. I have formulated my own guesses as to why, but was wondering if you had a take on the matter.
Thanks!
Amanda says
Hi Chad,
I don’t have a ton of practical experience with Kahm or mold, but I totally agree! Some veggies are definitely more prone to those issues. For beets, I can tell you why it’s more likely. For sweeter vegetables in general, yeast activity will be more likely to come up, strictly because of the higher sugar content and Kahm is yeast.
You can mitigate that by making your pieces larger (aka don’t shred beets or carrots if you want to avoid Kahm). That makes the sugars a bit less available to any yeasts lurking around the top of the brine. I do beets in whole slices and chunks mostly. In beet kvass, you have the added problem of an “unfilled” vessel. This, I have no explanation for, but I can definitely tell you that regardless of what’s in the jar, if it’s mostly water or brine with a lower level of veg, Kahm will be much more likely. I tend to give my kvass vessels a little daily swirl to break up anything that might be trying to form on the surface.
My repeatedly Kahm-stricken veg is snap peas. I don’t care, though! They’re a forever favorite! 🙂
I hope that helps!
Georgia says
I’m so glad I found this! I recently had a jar of fermented sweet onions that developed a thick layer of white stuff. I really don’t know why I didn’t throw it out! But instead I skimmed off as much as possible, dumped the top inch or two of vegies, and then used the remainder in a pot of soup where it would be boiled thoroughly. The odd thing is that it was powdery, not cottony puffs like mold. So it fits your description!
Paul Ellis says
I have something that looks like this on the surface of my homemade blackberry vinegar. The method used is similar to the method used for apple scrap vinegar. The liquid and the blackberries went through the fermentation process OK so I filtered it off at the end into a clean jar, added a mother of vinegar and some previously made vinegar. It was then kept in the airing cupboard.
A few days later a thin scum like film appeared on the surface. Five days later and it hasn’t developed any further and there are no furry bits or mould of a different colour.
Would kahm grow in these conditions?
Amanda says
Hi Paul,
Are you sure it’s not the Mother forming on your vinegar? Kahm yeast tends to spread and thicken or at least develop quite bit more.
Susan says
I’m trying to make vinegar for the first time. What I was hoping was a mother forming is what I now think is kahm yeast. How do you tell the difference early on? I probably left in my ferment much longer longer than I should of, just hoping it would actually be the mother.
Amanda says
Mothers are primarily transparent (they may take on a little of the color of the liquid they’re on) and smooth, if you haven’t been agitating your container a lot. Even if you have, it will have large divots or be a bit “hilly” at most. Kahm has texture/patterns and is generally white or beige.
If you get Kahn on vinegar, that indicates that you haven’t stirred frequently enough, or that the ratio wasn’t working for fermentation. You can check out a couple vinegar recipes here for more help. This post primarily refers to ferments that commonly have Kahm issues (veg ferments, sometimes dairy). Kahm is generally not a common issue in vinegar in my experience.
André Haasbroek says
Wow Im perplexed now about thus growth on my chilli pepper ferment..how does one know if it’s bad or not
I have the creamy white layer in top, bubbles and black spots a little deeper down
It doesn’t look good, but I just left the layer on top without stirring
My first batch i stirred in in and eventually it all disappeared and the whole batch became “wet” and once i strained it, removing the solids it was fine and no-one got sick..but just how does a very in experienced person know?
mila schukin says
For years, my fermenting adventures were limited to apple cider vinegar and tibetan kefir. Then I decided to try a beet kvass recipe (“all the goodness of beets without the sugar”) and stupidly bought some off-season beets that were soft and very dusty. On the 4th or 5th day I noticed a white layer on my ferment. Google said it was Kahm and perfectly OK. I tried the vinegar-wash routine on my implements and jars but it got into everything anyway. I had two 5-liter jars of filtered ACV from months earlier which I decided to re-filter. Both had thick ‘mothers’ floating at the top, which I plunked back into the re-filtered vinegar. They sat for 2-3 months with an air lock, and I noticed after a while that in one of them the mother had shrunk to almost nothing, while in the second jar the mother was very thick, as usual. I opened and tasted both. The jar with the mother had the usual tangy, clear acv taste. The one that was motherless tasted musty, bitter and had low acidity. It also had a weird grainy surface layer. Despite all the assurances I read that Kahn is harmless, I’m not going to consume anything that has the power to kill apple cider vinegar mother. I finally got completely rid of the kahm yeast in my kitchen by freezing my jars, spoons, sieves etc for 2-3 days before using them. The kahm even got into my tibetan kefir and completely ruined it (it turned grainy with a lot of whey on top). Kahm yeast contains a lot of water in its molecules and is destroyed when it’s frozen. I store my fermenting equipment in the freezer now, and freeze my tibetan mushrooms between batches. So far so good.
Amanda says
Oh no! What an ordeal! I’m so sorry to hear that happened to you. Thanks for sharing how you dealt with it as well.
For any others who may be afraid here, I would like to say that your experience is definitely not typical. I also applaud your common sense at not consuming food that seemed off, visually and by smell, but again, for any worries, I would think that Kahm may not have been the issue there.
It is possible that the Mother and the Kahm yeasts were in competition and the Kahm yeasts won, thus keeping your batch from properly acidifying. Definitely not to be consumed, but a very strange case, indeed.
Susan says
I am a bit confused by the process to ferment vinegar. Most directions dont say to have the fruit submurged, instead, they say to stir every day or so to prevent mold. So far, I have had kahm yeast develop in every batch. Also, if you stir the mixture every day or two, how does the vinegar mother form (the mother like a scoby, not the debris on the bottom)?
Amanda says
Hi Susan,
Yes, this post primarily refers to ferments that require submersion. I have at least a few vinegar recipes here. If you search Cherry Scrap vinegar or wine vinegar you can see the process I recommend for vinegar.
If you’re stirring daily, Kahm will not be able to form. You stop stirring after a few days to 2 weeks, so the mother can form.
Brooke Parizo says
Hi, wondering if kahm can change colors and still be safe? My lid got left open all night and this morning the kahm is greenish grey?
Amanda says
That sounds like mold. Kahm is generally white or beige. Green, black, blue, etc are generally mold.
Farrel says
I got a Montier Pilon fermentation jar for Christmas, and started a batch of dill pickles the very next day. I have never done this, it is all very new to me. After about 10 days it was very very cloudy and had a lot of the yeast on top. I ate two of the pickles, and although they were good, the yeast really grossed me out. In the end, today I removed the pickles, the whole garlic cloves, cleaned the jar according to instructions, rinsed the weight with white vinegar, and put clean, new brine in the jar. Added the pickles and garlic cloves and fresh peppercorns. I don’t think I ruined them, I hope not. I will probably put it in the fridge soon, as I prefer pickles that are chilled. What an adventure this has been! Your blog has been very informative, by the way.
ann says
Kahm yeast is hit or miss with my ferments. For me, I find that ferments with any type of pepper (nightshade) tend to develop Kahm more readily. If it’s problematic, I just drain the brine, rinse the veggies in a very salty brine, drain, rinse, and re-brine. There’s enough of the lactobacilli in the existing vegs that it won’t hurt the lacto-fermentation. You’ll still reap the rewards!
Amanda says
Let me just say that there are a million ways to ferment and a million ways creative fermenters find to deal with any challenges that might arise and I totally love and respect that. I do want to respond to this, though, in case other fermenters read this comment.
1 – Kahm should be extremely rare unless: 1) You aren’t sufficiently submerging your veggies in brine or 2) it’s extremely hot and humid in your fermenting environment. I know fermenters in tropical climates who will end up with Kahm pretty frequently, even with proper submersion, unless they use a few drops of grapefruit seed extract on the surface. 3) You’re using a starter/brine from an old batch/whey/etc to kick things off. Studies have shown (and I get enough email from people to have anecdotal evidence to support the studies. Don’t use a starter!).
2 – Some vegetables are definitely more prone to Kahm, but it is generally still preventable, even with those, by working really hard at submersion and sometimes fermenting them at room temperature for a shorter time. In my experience those include hot peppers and beans (peas in pods, green beans).
3 – When you rinse, you do lose some of the probiotics, and you lose all the probiotics that were in the brine, which include a variety of LAB, some of which won’t come around again in late stage fermentation (which is all you’ll get with pre-inoculated veggies).
4 – Adding more salt at a later stage is going to make your veggies extra salty, half the salt you add is going to go into the veggies and half will stay in the brine. If you add more brine when your veggies have already absorbed 1/2 the salt of the previous brine, they’re still going to absorb half the salt of the new brine, so you’ll end up with something much saltier than you intended, assuming you weren’t planning for Kahm. (This practice is most common with evaporation issues in very long ferments, but those folks generally predict that they’ll have to add more brine and formulate the salt levels in their starting brine accordingly)
None of this is for the original commenter, since this method obviously works well for her, but for any others reading, I would still generally recommend skimming and fridging over starting with a new brine.
Luke says
I started fermenting banana juice that I strained from bananas that I let sit in a warm climate to break down most of the starch into sugar. It’s been about a week now (probably should have added a little vinegar to it to start with).
I first got a small layer a few days into the fermentation process (I have skimmed it off as best I can a few times now). After making sure it wasn’t mold, I decided it had to be yeast. About an hour ago I decided to look up about fermenting bananas because it seemed to give off a bit of an odd off smell and tasted a little unique. I’m going to try skimming it off again, adding a bit of vinegar, and leaving no room for air.
I plan on making a completely new batch sometime soon, but speeding up the conversion process of the starch by putting it on the stove with a lid on low heat.
Here goes another journey into fermentation!
JnotJ says
I think you must have closed comments for such an old article, so I’m replying to another poster….
I know it’s been a few year since your post on this subject. I’ve just recently started canning produce from our garden, I’m familiar with fermenting in the form of sourdough starters, and have made a handful of fermented pickles in the past few years.
I just wanted to thank you for this post in particular. It’s the first informational post I’ve come across pertaining to a problem I’m having with a couple of jars of cucumber pickles (from our own garden) I started a little over a week ago.
This white film has appeared, but the odor isn’t off-putting and there’s no visible fuzzy or colored mold growing on the surface. But it doesn’t smell so great. But I definitely know the smell of ferments gone bad when I first started building sourdough starters. And this isn’t that.
I saw kahm yeast mentioned in a couple of other articles which led me to here. It gives me some confidence that my pickles may be able to be saved. If not, I’ll try again soon. I tried to keep everything really clean when I started, but the tips in your article are helpful. Since I’m making cucumber pickles, extra salt isn’t much of a concern so I’ll try that first. And I’ll also be sure to better monitor the temperature. I live in Florida, so generally temperatures are way above 70 degrees F, but we’re coming into winter and have had much cooler days as well as normally maintaining a “room temp” of 76 degrees F or lower when we run the air conditioner.
Sorry for the rambling, but again… Thank you for making this post. I look forward to researching more about kahm yeast, but your tips and insight were very helpful.
Happy Thanksgiving! : )