(It’s even better at 10-14 days, and yeah it really teaches patience)
BTW The Pickler looks great. What a fantastic idea–is it a quart?
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Yes, it’s a quart canning jar. The plastic lid has a hole with a rubber gasket to hold the airlock. Pretty sweet kit to get, I tell you what.
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Well, this is day 5, and here’s my 'kraut:
It smells sauerkraut-ish, though a bit less vinegary than I’m used to. Tastes decent, and the texture is a little… squinchy? Not crunchy, not mushy, but… I dunno, squinchy seems to be the only made-up term that pops into my brain right now. In any case, I’ve re-submerged the 'kraut and will see what it’s like later.
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STOP PROJECTING, TAUNTER
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so, i have good news and bad news.
good news, it doesn’t taste vinegary cause that takes like ten batches fermented in a row, adding a bit from the previous to the next batch. in another five days it will be more acetic.
bad news, the color there shows that it is highly oxidized. this doesn’t affect the flavor in a meaningful way (for kraut) but it ain’t ever gonna be bright green again. or i should say as green as store bought, which is terrible kraut anyways.
so in another week here is what you will end up with: a really tasty, fantastic kraut without the crunch you are used to, and without the color you are used to.
so how does one make a lively, crunchy green kraut.
- grape leaves or sour cherries. the tannins firm up the veg
- add a few tablespoons of kraut or kraut juice to subsequent batches
- more liquid, less light. the veg shouldn’t every contact air (really any gases)
- or add a few tablespoons of Braggs apple cider vinegar or live kombucha (this does the same thing as #2)
another thing I personally do, and this is slightly superstition but still has scientific rigor: when you first start fermenting keep the lid off for a day, pick some flowers from your yard (or neighbors yard), and place them in a vase directly over the veg. shake the blooms occasionally. the yeast and bacteria will fall from the blooms, and it looks great 
after a day seal with an airlock.
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Ala Rogue’s Beard Beer, I assume that many “wild yeast” experiments come unintentionally from human contamination 
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Taking your advice, I added some of the brine from batch #1 to batch #2.
No garlic in this batch, and I used my mandoline to get a more uniform chop to the cabbage. Today is day 8, and I took a little taste. YUMMMMMM. Much better.
Oh, and I did eat batch #1. Waste not, want not!
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That looks about perfect. I’ll post some recipes for future inspiration, brazenly stolen from one of my books!
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When I opened it, the smell that hit my nose was much closer to what I expected, so I figured that was a good sign.
When I was at a local natural foods market over the weekend, I hovered over the fermented foods in the fridge case, to get a few ideas for future batches. Holy moly, do they ever charge a lot of $$ for that stuff! I’m looking at it, thinking “I can make that for less than $2!”
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My friend makes a living brewing up his own chilli sauce from chillis he grows in his back garden. It’s doable.
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Sauerkraut batch #3, day 5:
This one has:
~3T brine from batch #2
2 garlic cloves
The cabbage was particularly fragrant when I chopped/massaged it. Coaxed a lot of moisture from it! It was really active and gassy for the first few days, which I took as a good sign. Tasted a bit this morning, and it’s good, but needs to develop a little more. Will let it keep doing its thing until next week sometime, then I’m diggin’ in.
Maybe I’ll get a little more adventurous with the next batch and add something besides garlic.
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You’re doing great!
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It looks fabulous. The big guideline for me, is when adding ingredients steer away from ones that look weird if they turn a tad grey.
Also, if you can find some fresh grape leaves they will keep things crunchier. You can discard the leaves after fermenting.
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I’ve used some comb honey strained & diluted with hot water for priming sizzurp in my batch of beer. Set it off in the barrel on Saturday gone. When it’s ready, I shall post rambling gibberish to prove it worked.
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Pics. Or pints. Your call 
If I remember, I’ll post a pic when I draw one off.
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I need to get something new in a fermenter. I have the Port that needs to be racked and some pickles, but I sense a need for a holiday Russian stout or Baltic Porter. In fact I just picked up two more fermenters, so I need to put them to work.
One day, I’ma dry-hop a batch using the flowers from the, ahem, ‘Indoor Garden With The Big Light’
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Select for high cbd and yer golden.
