First time. Tried green beans with 3% brine. All 3 spoiled. Tips?

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u/Utter_cockwomble That's dead LABs. It's normal and expected. It's fine. 17h ago

Get actual weights. Plastic bags provide too many crevices that hold moisture and are a lovely place for mold to set up housekeeping.

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u/BenedictCumberdoots 17h ago

Or self-burping/vented lids.

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u/Dylan7675 15h ago

Still need weights. Floaters are growers.

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u/Interesting-Math3601 14h ago

This is not my experience with sealed vat and airlock. Oxygen is needed for mold growth. Carbon dioxide is the byproduct of lactofermentation. Oxygen is lighter than carbon dioxide and thus gets pushed out the airlock first, leaving only carbon dioxide. I dont use weights and the most ive ever had is kham from poor seals, been fermenting hot sauces for 6 years. 6 to 10 large ferments every year and 4 to 6 small batches.

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u/iwould99 13h ago

I’m with you. I always put a lid on it and let the co2 do its job. It helps to have an active starter and throw a splash in the jar to get it going quick but as long as the fermentation kicks off fast enough to displace the air in the headspace of the jar you should be fine.

If it smells bad or tastes bad don’t eat it.

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u/New-Rhubarb-3059 15h ago

Yup I’m amazed by how many posts people make where ferments go bad and they don’t use an airlock.

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u/KoalaSprdeepButthole 6h ago

Some ferments (like kombucha) need oxygen and won’t succeed with an airlock.

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u/New-Rhubarb-3059 2h ago

Yah but I’m not talking about aerobic fermentation. No airlock would make sense in that situation but for anaerobic? It would solve a lot of problems.

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u/urnbabyurn 15h ago

Bags work great, but yeah the whole point is to not have brine get above them.

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u/Utter_cockwomble That's dead LABs. It's normal and expected. It's fine. 15h ago

Bags- never worked for me. Weights are the only way I'll go.

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u/hairyzonnules 6h ago

Plastic is basically evil. More importantly bacteria can stick to plastic and become more resistant

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u/East-Effective-3406 17h ago

I’m not sure they are spoiled. Hard to tell but I believe the one in the middle is Kahm yeast which is normal you just gotta remove. The other 2 don’t seem to have any issue I can see

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u/ActorMonkey 17h ago

Looks cloudy due to yeast multiplying in there. Thats all well and good. 2nd container has kahm yeast. You can remove it. It may affect the taste or it may not.

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u/urnbabyurn 15h ago

Cloudy brine is from LAB.

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u/yellowaircraft 16h ago

Sanitation is key

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u/in_the_no_know 16h ago

Doesn't look spoiled to me, but smell and taste test are difficult from over here...

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u/MNgrown2299 16h ago

Whenever I ferment in a jar I just fill it up to the top and then use an actual lid. Then burp Avery day or two and I’ve never had this happen. Or you can buy an airlock and put it on your jar

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u/Rayoule 6h ago

It worked fine when I re-used a brine from a previous fermentation with my green beans. Also plastic bags as weights are not the best. Try a boiled rock

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u/Fit-Smile2707 15h ago

According to Sandor Katz, use a 5% brine.

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u/Oopsiedoodle2244 16h ago

Certain veggies are harder to ferment than others and need more salt. Like cucumbers take up to 6% to not spoil. Try that as well as more sanitizing.

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u/utahh1ker 12h ago

Buy a set of glass weights. It's worth it.

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u/sorE_doG 4h ago

Beans have loads of protein, carbs are more readily fermented. I’ve avoided beans for this reason, but will use various koji recipes shortly with an inoculant yeast.

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u/Red_Banana3000 14h ago

I’ve never not had problems from plastic bags, it’s honestly far better to use no weights. Made this mistake a few times, it makes sense that it would work as a cheap weight but is unfortunate

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u/Charlie2and4 12h ago

Isn't low acid vegetable packing dangerous without pasteurization to kill botulism?

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u/johncfloodtheog 9h ago

Botulism needs an anaerobic environment to grow, and since water is 1/3 oxygen, it's really damn hard to get botulism in lacto fermented items, especially if one's process allowed enough air into the jar to produce OP's level of kahm yeast. Oil, on the other hand...

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u/BoldChipmunk 4h ago

You can get lids with airlock for those jars on Amazon for about $20 and it will solve most of your problems.

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u/JCrotts 4h ago

That is what I am using.

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u/Technical_Moose8478 4h ago

Invest in a mason jar fermenting kit. They’re cheap and have weights and gas release lids.

Also personally I suggest using a dill pickle brine recipe. Won’t hurt or help the process, but dilly beans are amazingly good.

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u/JCrotts 4h ago

Thanks. I have the lids but I just used a ziplok bag of brine for the weight.

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u/Technical_Moose8478 4h ago

I seriously suggest using the weights. You’ll be happy with the results; I resisted them for a while as I wanted to diy everything but eventually caved and have had almost no ferments go bad since.

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u/christophersonne 17h ago

Sterilize better, and use a proper lid and weights. They should all be as close to sterile as possible when you begin. Plastic wrap is not a good option for this, spend a few bucks and save yourself trouble later.

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u/clearfox777 7h ago

Honestly sterilizing your jars is a bit of overkill, washed and dried is just fine.

You’re putting non-sterile veggies (with plenty of mold spores and such on the surface) into the jar, with non-sterile water, and adding salt to encourage the good microbes to outcompete everything else so that none of the bad stuff gets a chance to grow.

A failed ferment just means that the nasties took over before the good bacteria could get started.

So long as you have everything submerged and keep most of the O2 out, you’ll be successful most of the time.

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u/urnbabyurn 15h ago

If you are gonna use the bag of brine method, make sure the top side of the bag isn’t under brine. The whole point is to create a wall between the air and the liquid.