How We Sanitize Jars & Bottles for Fermentation | Solving Common Problems with Ferments
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- čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
- Learn how to best sanitize and sterilize your fermentation jars and bottles to avoid things like slimy ginger bug! We get a lot of questions about what could have gone wrong with your ferments, and one of the first things to consider is the cleanliness of your fermenting vessels. So, today we’re diving into best practices and sanitizing tips to make sure you have healthy ferments!
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Hi everyone! Welcome to our channel and thanks for stopping by for our refresher course on keeping your fermentation equipment sanitized so that you're ready to make some delicious ferments! 😋😄If you're ready to get into the awesome world of fermentation, you may be interested in this list of our favorite fermentation gear --> fermentationadventure.com/gear/ If you haven't already, we'd love for you to subscribe! Happy fermenting! ❤
If you don't have a bottle brush handy, I can suggest pouring in about a shot glass worth of hard dry rice into the bottle with very hot soapy water.Then vigorously shake the contents removing ferment scale on the hard to reach sides. This can be funneled from bottle to next bottle. Then just compost the rice. ( Bacteria working for me: Ginger Bug, Compost Pile, Brush Pile, Septic Tank, Sourdough Starter, and My Gut! ) Ginger bug fans, save your discarded ginger in a bottle in the fridge. It's fermented and will keep for ages. Use it like fresh ginger in all your stir fries. Yum, yum! If you collect too much, add it in with your fresh ginger to your concoction next time you make ginger ale. My ginger bug has been going for a over a year.
Great suggestions! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing your ideas. God bless.
I found your videos last night and I cannot stop watching them. What a great way to share the information. I am ordering the supplies to start making kombucha. Thank you!
Yay! We're glad you found us and we're excited to hear about your own fermentation adventure! Happy fermenting! 💗🥰
If you guys ever make a book, I would buy it in a heartbeat
Thanks so much Justin!! 💓
Hello, this is my first time here and OMG you're so calming and wholesome! Thank you so much for the info!
Thank you so much for the love Noe! We're so happy you're enjoying our videos. We try to enjoy life and take it all in as much as we can. If you love this channel, you might like our adventure channel "PS Adventures" also! czcams.com/users/psadventures 😊 We're happy you're here!
You guys are like Hal and Joanne in the fermentation genre. I really like your videos, there is so much great information in them. Thanks.
Thank you so much for the kind thoughts! It's fun to teach others and we try to keep it light and fun. Thanks so much for watching! 😊
Thank you so much! I was one of those asking you this question :)
Perfect, hope it helps!!
Star San is your best friend when it comes to any sort of ferment.
Definitely we see that used in beer making and also think it would work well. We just clean our jars with hot water and soap so haven't used it. If anyone's having an issue with a bad bacteria I'm sure star san would help a ton. Thanks for the suggestion!
Great tips! I saw that drying rack at my local brew store and I’m so tempted to go back now!
Thank you! Yes, it's been a life saver because it takes up so little space and they actually dry!
@@FermentationAdventure that’s been my issue! I use a normal dish rack that we j on not use for bottles but it still never dries all the way. Thank you for showing it!
I’m thankful for your videos!
Thank you for watching!
If you don't have a bottle drying tree but you do have a dishwasher, you could also just dry the bottles upside down threaded onto the plastic spokes in the dishwasher drawers, and leave the door open and the drawers pulled out :)
What a great idea Laurie! That's a nice little hack that we hadn't thought of but makes a lot of sense. Thanks so much for sharing! 😊
Thank you for the tips! Enjoying my favorite ginger lemon kombucha! Cheers!
Ginger and lemon go so well together especially in kombucha. Thanks so much for watching and happy fermenting!
Thanks guys! About to bottle my first ever kombucha ❤ Subscribed!
Thank you! We're happy you've joined us and we're excited to hear how your Kombucha is going!
Great tips! Subscribed!😃
Thank you so much for watching Blue Echo! What a great name!
Awesome !!
Thanks !!
Glad you liked it! 😁
Thanks for the info I brought a few jars
Very nice! We hope they help you make some delicious creations! 😊
Just discovered/binged watched most of your channel, I’ll be attempting kombucha soon hopefully. Great source of information on fermenting. I’ve been fermenting hot sauce for over 10 years and I’d always use hot water after scrubbing the jars for sanitation without any issues to date. Would a starsan solution (or a similar brewing sanitizer) work well for sanitizing vessels for brewing kombucha?
Thanks for the question! Starsan is supposed to work since it's used in the beer and winemaking process but we haven't tried it yet. We like to just sanitize everything and not use chemicals. Let us know if you try it and it works out though! Happy fermenting!
If you've ever had a funky ferment, we really hope this video helps answer your questions about how to get a healthy fermenting going! If you're looking for more answers about the bottling process, check out this Q&A video: czcams.com/video/Z0fnIcakwnM/video.html
Love you videos keep producing them. I purchased the bottle brushes recommend in your list but I think they may have started using another vender, each brush has an odd ninety degree loop bend at the end, And they do not fit in the bottles.
Oh no Ron! We've heard from others that had a similar problem. They said they used a pair of pliers to either straighten the end or flatten them to fit into the bottles. We'll have to see if there's another brush that would work but hopefully that helps!
Have watched a few of your videos. Realized I wasn't subscribed, done! On my way to the grocery store to get ginger so that I can make the bug👋🏽
Thank you so much for joining us on the journey Lamont! We hope your ginger ale is tasty! 😊🍺
You two are so cute together! Thx for tips!
Thank you so much for the kind words Jhezrel! We hope your ferments are doing well! ❤️❤️❤️
It does fit right in there
Good info
Glad it was helpful!
Love your videos. What your saying is "sterilizing" like dishwasher or boiling water is actually sanitizing. What your saying is "sanitization" is really just washing. I don't believe you actually mentioned a process of sterilization. You said at the beginning that sterilization is killing everything and that is correct. Boiling water or dishwashers do not kill everything. Endospore producing bacteria for instance like Clostridium botulinum can be pretty serious. Beer, wine and fermentations in general do not require sterilization but it might be worth knowing the difference. If you ever worked with lab cultures in petri dishes growing gourmet mushrooms you would learn fast what sterile really means.
Thanks for the comment! Definitely a big difference between the two. Good info!
You have mentioned tester bottles in several of your videos. Could you elaborate on that a bit? Are they newly purchased for that purpose, or are they repurposed soda bottles? Is the ferment in the tester for consumption too, or do you toss it? If you squeeze the bottle and it has some give, does that mean you don’t have to burp the sealed glass bottles at that time because the carbonation is low? Thank you so much for your answers. I really want to do this, but I like to know as much as I can to be successful (and safe)😊.
Thanks so much for your questions MamaT! Some people buy brand new plastic bottles that have never been used but we just reuse those green plastic seltzer bottles. After we ferment what's in the plastic tester bottle, we drink the ferment but some people don't like having ferments come into contact with plastic. For us it's so brief that we don't mind and soda bottles are made for acidic sodas. If we squeeze the bottles and it has some give then we don't burp our glass bottles since it's telling us that it's not very pressurized. It gets rock solid once it builds up pressure! Good luck and happy fermenting!
You can also sterilise glass jars (without any metal components) by rinsing them and microwaving at 1000W for 2 minutes whilst still wet. Unfortunately, pouring boiling water over things doesn't "sterilise" them. To do this properly, they'd need to be fully submerged in continuously boiling water for at least 5 minutes.
Thank you so much for the suggestion! The microwave one is new for us but definitely sounds like a good one for the toolbox. We appreciate it! 😊
A note on the issue of chlorinated water in homebrewing and fermentation;
I'm not a resident of the U.S. but I know that several municipals in several states have been using chloramine in chlorine's stead to chlorinate the water. Chloramine is apparently more persistent, in that it doesn't evaporate or dissipate over time even when heated. I take it they use chloramine because it is cheaper and requires less maintenance. Granted, not every place has the same water quality and clarity. I suppose it would be safe for some to use tap water that is stabilized in room temperature for an hour or so, as it was done in the past, or use spring water. Here in Turkey, most municipals still use chlorine, so it's possible to use tap water in a pinch by just charcoal filtering or boiling the hell out of it. I've had some success with adding small quantities of degassed mineral water into my brewing water, but I don't expect it to work for every brew. Some brews and long ferments like dry ale, stout, mead, wine and such are probably less sensitive toward the taste and mineral content of water unlike short ferments like kombucha, sparkling sodas and beer. DYDD, however, as the contents of each mineral (or enriched) water are different. Most will have trace amounts of chloride in them which I'm sure is not harmful to the brewing process.
Some maniacs out there will probably continue to think they need reverse osmosis water for their first or every brew. You do you. I like this channel, so here is a KISS for Keeping It Simple and Stupid (in a good way). If the lockdown continues, I'm expecting this channel to experience a boom towards the end of summer. Good luck!
www.epa.gov/dwreginfo/chloramines-drinking-water
Thanks so much for the great information Ave! I'm sure a lot of people will find it useful. Much appreciated and so glad you're enjoying our channel! 💕
You guys are really natural on camera. And what kind of camera do you use?
Thanks so much! Really we're just who we are and we hope it comes across the best we can. We actually use a Samsung Galaxy phone along with a Rode Videomicro microphone. In our latest videos we've been upgrading our camera gear to make the quality better. We hope you love our videos. Thanks!
Greeting for both of you. keep going. I like your lovely channel so much. It has a lot of information about fermentation "The Fermentation Adventure" so lovely. The best you did the ferment without any addition. I would like you to present three things. When you can measure the alcohol content daily in "Tepache" during the fermentation and for all fermentation in the future. The second, when the drink is dangerous and I should not have it because, taste, smell or after period of time. The last, could you present the equal unite like 1 cup = … grams so on. Please, always keep smiling 😊
Anyway I'm not good in English writing ☹
Hi there! Thank you so much for your lovely words and we're so glad you found us! To measure the alcohol content of a fermented drink, you can measure it any day, but you'll need to be able to pour the liquid into the hydrometer tube. For something like Tepache where there are pineapple chunks in it, that means you'd have to strain it every time you check the alcohol content and that's pretty annoying. Luckily, we already measured the alcohol content of Tepache and it doesn't get very alcoholic. After 3 days it was only 0.3%, and then after 5 days of fermenting, it still only reached 2%. You asked about signs that it would be 'dangerous'. As long as you keep everything submerged below the water line and there is no mold on top, you should be fine. We've never had a problem with out ferments if we follow those two rules. It will last a long time in the refrigerator, if you can keep from drinking it! Ha! Thank you also for the idea about the grams conversion. Phew! That was a long comment. Hope that helps!
@@FermentationAdventure First of all, I really appreciate you 💓. Yes, that was long comment 😊. Also, it is very helpful 👍 "Thank you". I still have more questions but because of the long comment, I will postpone them for next video. I visited your website. It is very nice and easy. I have just one suggestion. Could you add link for (Q & A) that make it easy to collect all your answers in all comments.
Hi! We are happy to get questions, so feel free to post them here. Also, thank you for the great suggestion for the website!
How long can tepache be refrigerated ( in general ) ?
I’m very new to kefir and really appreciate these videos so much. I’m not sure if you mentioned this in other videos but what type of cloth do you guys put over the mason jars? Is it cheesecloth? Thanks!
Welcome to the fermentation adventure Kara! You could use cheesecloth for water kefir, but we prefer to use a more tightly knit wash cloth or kitchen towel just to make sure no bugs can get in, like nats or fruit flies.
@@FermentationAdventure thank you so much!!!!
😃
Coffee filters also work great, be sure to use a rubber band to hold it on .
When you sanitize them in the Instant pot, do you include the silicone caps, or do you remove them? Just asking since I'm worried that the silicone might degrade over time.
We just wash our silicone lids in the dishwasher or soapy water. You should be able to sterilize them in the instant pot also though since silicone can take high heat. I'm sure over a long time they don't last forever though. Thanks for the question!
Hi yall. I make berry & herb flavored vinegars using white vinegar. I bought bunch of clear glass bottle @ Target like ur brown ones w/ metal closure attached to a stopper & the bottle. Dont kno if stopper is silicone or not. So how would u prep- sterilize or sanitize- them for their 1st use please?
Thanks so much for the question Bertha! We would probably just wash them out with hot soapy water the first time. Then rinse it out with some non-chlorinated water. That's what we would do. We hope that helps and thanks for watching! 😊
Hello I had question , when you sterilize in hot boiling water pot do you take off the seal from the beer bottles ?
Hi! If you plan on dunking the entire bottle in hot water and the seal is made of silicone, then it would be fine to leave them on the bottles.
I am wondering if I could reuse screw on lid "commercial" ( or store bought) kombucha bottles?
Of course! We usually just wash them and reuse them without any problems. Thanks for the question!
Would you recommend using an airlock when making the ginger bug?
Thanks so much for your question! For making a ginger bug we've tried both ways and it really doesn't seem to matter. Usually when we make it the bacteria and yeast that are already present seem to be pretty strong either way. Definitely experiment to see which is better in your area. We hope that helps! 😊
You guys are too cute!
Loved the video :)
Thank you so much for the love! 💓💓💓 We're happy you found us!
Guys! I’m so ignorant. How do I avoid using chlorinated water? Is my Brita filtered water good enough or do I need to boil all the water I use to make kombucha? Thanks for your help!!❤️
Thanks for the question! Most likely your Brita filter should remove the chlorine in your water. If you only have chlorine in your water, you might also be able to let a pitcher of water sit on the counter for a few days and off-gas the chlorine. Give it a try with the filter and see if it works!
I have few questions, can I ferment grape wine in a glass bottle with a small opening? If yes then how do I stir it everyday? And can I use cotton plug instead of the airtight plug?
Thanks so much for your question! You can definitely use a bottle with a smaller opening. You probably don't even have to stir it but if you wanted to you could swish the bottle around to get it moving without having to put something down in the bottle. We probably wouldn't use a cotton plug since it seems like it would be a great environment for bacteria to grow. Who knows though! It could probably work. Maybe try it out and see! 😊
I’m using my jars for vanilla extract so once I sanitize can I just add my liquid immediately or is it important to dry the bottle first? I’m having a hard time getting my bottles to dry out.
Hi Stephanie! Oooh, homemade vanilla extract?! Yum! As long as there are no chemicals on the bottles and you were using non-chlorinated water, then you could use the bottles immediately, even if there's still some water left in the bottles. Have you tried drying your bottles either upside down and/or in a warm place? Maybe by a window on a sunny day?
I have but after days they never really dried out. I thought about putting them in the oven at a low temp to quickly dry them. Any experience with that?
You probably could try that at a low temperature or try getting some kind of a drying rack to let gravity do the work. Hope that helps!
Beer Brewer - Star San for the win
We've heard that some people like to use star san with great results! We haven't actually used it before since we like to just use all the natural cleaning methods but sometime we'll have to try it! Thanks for the suggestion! 🙂
& question #2: I lost a fav recipe for a friendship cake. U put a can of fruit w/ its syrup or juice into a big gallon container. Every couple days u add sugar & fruit. After like 2 or 3 weeks u give away some of the liquid "starter" to friends & use some for ur cake & some as starter for ur next batch. Discard fruit or find other uses. Do u hav that recipe? I cant remember when to add fruit/sugar, when is it ready & what ingr. for the cake.🍒🍐🍏🍍TY
Wow that sounds like such a fun idea! We actually don't have a recipe for this but we'll have to look this one up and experiment. What a great idea to share with friends. We'll let you know if we find a good one. Thanks for sharing the idea! 💓
Plz. Ans.
What is the maximum time for which water kifer. can be kept and if it is to be kept for one year then what needs to be done for it?
Note : My question is for Water kifer and not for kifer grains .
Thanks for the question! We answered in another comment but that depends on what kind of taste you like. The longer it goes, the more sour it gets. You'll have to watch out for mold and make sure it still tastes and smells good. We hope that helps!
If I use a Silicone Pickle Pipe (Airlock with a Nipple to release the carbon dioxide build-up), there will only be carbon dioxide left in the jar and no air/oxygen. So do the vegetables still need to be pushed down with a glass weight or cabbage leaf, etc to stop the bad bacteria/microbes forming mold?
Thanks so much for the question! When you top it off with the pickle pipe, there's still some oxygen left in the top of the jar that's possible won't get pushed out. We'd had vegetables float to the top and were still fine but it's still possible to get mold from the remaining oxygen. It just makes it almost foolproof to keep everything below the brine. Happy fermenting!
where did you find the growler bottle dryer????
We love that thing! We got it on Amazon: amzn.to/3nYBsHZ. Just FYI, we also have links to all our favorite gear on our website: fermentationadventure.com/gear/
so, would i be correct in observing that y'all aren't proponents of buying new lids for every new ferment?
Hi! Yes, that's correct! We reuse our lids/tops and will put them through the washing machine to help sanitize them for next time. The only exception are the metal lids. We usually will hand wash those so we can dry them off immediately. Otherwise they tend to rust. Hope that helps!
@@FermentationAdventure Thank you! I've seen a number of people advocate for always getting brand new lids...which is just crazy to me because sanitation does exist and that's just otherwise not sustainable both financially and environmentally.
Do you drink the stuff from your tester bottle?
Hello! Great question. We do drink our ferments from the tester bottle, yes. It really depends on what kind of material you're using for your tester bottle, how long it ferments in that bottle, and your comfort level with drinking out of the plastic. If you do decide to drink your ferment from your tester bottle, we definitely recommend transferring it to a glass bottle for longer storage in the refrigerator.
I find adding washing up liquids before water causes too many suds better add after the water no suds this especially when washing pots in sink
Also salt a good steriliser
Thanks so much for the suggestion! I'm sure that would work great!
How do you sterilize plastic jars in bulk? Planning to start nut butter business at home first :)
That's a tough one! I'm sure you'd have to clean them out and then use some kind of sanitizing soap.
@@FermentationAdventure alright, it would be enough to just cleanse them with sanitizing soap right? No need to sterilize it like what we do in glass jars putting it in hot water?
I think soapy water would do just fine. Just make sure to wash out all the residue! :)
Can you make a double batch
Definitely! Just double the size of the jar and recipe and you should be good to go! 😊
Hi guys I had a question 😁 can I make fizzy drinks in a jar or they can explode ?
Thanks for the question Masud! You can make a somewhat fizzy drink with the fermentation process if you don't use a lid but it's not going to have a lot of carbonation. Get a plastic soda bottle and try it. You'll notice it getting solid very quickly. Be careful and good luck!
@@FermentationAdventure ah OK thank you kindly 😁
My bottles end up with moisture inside. Any advice?
Hello! Yes, ours do that too, especially if we leave them in a dark part of the sink to dry. Our upside down drying rack works really well, but you could also try drying them in a sunny spot of your home. Sunshine and warmth should help them dry. Let us know how it goes!
Oven to 350, jars in for 15 - 20 min.
Thanks so much for the suggestion! I bet that would sterilize them in no time!
It’s been a minute, but how would you deal with the silicone components on bottle lids? I’d assume they wouldn’t handle the oven temp.
do you soap to clean it?
Yes we like using soap to disinfect everything to make sure it's clean. We don't want cross-contamination!
Which chemical do you use in the dishwasher?
In the dishwasher we just use regular dishwashing liquid. This is also why when we start with clean bottles we like to rinse it just to make sure there's no residue left. Thanks for the question!
Can use sterilizer after fermented?
You could use sterilizer after you're done fermenting but then it would kill all of the good probiotics that were created during the fermentation process.
I keep seeing bread on your intro, but you don’t have a video. Do you make sourdough ?
the first and last time I put boiled water in a glass jar the jar cracked!! how in the world are your jars not cracking??!!!
Wow! That's scary! Was it a Ball mason jar? We actually make tea every day using almost boiling water but before we pour it in, we run hot water over the jar to "preheat" it. We've been doing that for quite a while now making tea. I'm sure that's probably not the greatest idea but the jars are supposed to be able to withstand very high temperatures. It's probably the rapid change in temperature that cracks the jars though. Be careful!
Just use Star-San done and done.
Thanks for the suggestion Mike! We've heard from others that also love star san and that it works well. 🙂
chlorine... residue?
Yes you never know. Some municipalities use chloramine which doesn't off-gas since it also contains ammonia. We like to rinse our jars and bottles just in case. 👍
What about alcohol?
Thanks so much for the question Terry! We actually made an entire video on this to test the alcohol all along the way during the fermentation. Check it out! czcams.com/video/86SwZyUbtF0/video.html
I only use Covid hand sanitizer .....
😂🧼
How come you don't use a an easy,time tested solution? Sodium Metabisulphite 2.5 % Solution?!
That's definitely one of the most common solutions but we try not to use chemicals since Sarah has an allergy to sulfites. I'm sure it would work just fine though!
Lol I just use bleach.
That should work most of the time but sometimes bleach doesn't work on mold and only changes the color. This is why using vinegar in cleaning helps since vinegar's acid level can kill mold. Hope that helps!
@@FermentationAdventure I'd best be careful not to mix the two.
Your content is good but,
I can’t stand the “cutenesses” are you guys preschool teachers? I, as an adult, find it irritating and insulting to spoken to/taught as if I was a three year old. Can you guys speak in a normal😊 voice and tone?
Ah well, we can't please everyone! 😂 Although we get what you're saying. Hopefully we'll continue to improve!
Folks you should bake your glass get two large pots fill both pots with water keep one more and bring the other one to boiling, now after baking your glass for 15 minutes at 200° or 180° slowly put them in the warm water in the big pot with the warm water, as the other pot starts to boil yes you're going to take the ones in the warm water and slowly submerge them now in the boiling water and then put it on a rack or the poor man methods swish it was some hundred and ninety proof golden grain 😂 and I just bottle water but to ensure perfect water that's the steps for your glass
Wow! That definitely sounds like a good method to sanitize the jars. I bet it'd be hard to find anything that would survive that. Thanks for your suggestion! 😊👍
Never tell somebody to use a sponge when they are in the process of sanitizing what does a sponge do hmmm harbor bacteria😂😂😂
True! I bet if you really wanted to sanitize you'd probably have to use a fresh sponge and then throw it away. Good idea! 👍