Brad's Top 10 Fermentation Tips

Back to botulism.

Kinda got yelled at for that last comment.

Sorry.

Hey guys.

Today on It's Alive, we're gonna be doing something

a little different.

I got my top ten tips of fermentation.

If you're looking to get started

or looking to up your gear game for fermentation,

this is for you.

Tip number one.

Oh are we ready?

(upbeat music)

Tip number one, Vinny.

And this is a nice one gallon jar.

Just look up fermentation jars.

You can get them with just sealing lids

or with lids that have these little airlocks.

So what that does is lets the gas out.

Let's the gas out, and nothing can get back in.

So that gas doesn't make the jar explode.

You don't need that, but otherwise you have to burp it.

And then if you're gonna be doing anything liquid,

you wanna get like a beer making

or fermentation grade glass.

I've had a couple, mostly just one, bad accidents

when I was using glass that was not fermentation grade.

It just couldn't take the pressure,

and I mean that thing turned into dust.

This one I can't stress enough.

You know when you go to like a cafe, and they come up

with one of these and they pour your water.

Those usually are just decorative.

Not fermentation grade.

Tip number two, Vinny.

Accessories.

Couple companies make some really cool products.

This one's called Kraut Source.

And this just goes right onto your mason jar here.

As it starts to release the gas, it just blub blub

does a little self burping thing.

Another one, cool company called Mason Tops.

This is just another little air lock.

And then it comes with this great little tamper.

And you know when you're making sauerkraut or kimchi

everything needs to be submerged a little

underneath that liquid.

So this helps instead of shoving,

you can't get your hand down there you know.

I can't say...

How you say that word, Andy?

Escali.

Escali.

Italian.

Escali.

I feel like this thing is a lot of people have

digital cooking scales.

If you don't, get one.

It's really great for fermenting

especially when you start dealing with

different salt percentages and you're making brines.

Last cool little gizmo that I really like.

I believe I'm pronouncing it correct.

A refractometer.

It reads the amount of sugar that's in the water.

So you can gauge how much carbonation will take place.

You can geek out as much as you want.

But you know having that...

Oh thin.

You get what you pay for.

No it's fine.

Refractometer.

Great tool.

Terrible case.

Tip number three.

Tip number tree.

Oh.

Use good produce.

You know if you got get like a real nice head of cabbage

at a farmer's market compared to something

that's been sitting in some box in a supermarket

for God only knows how long,

the amount that product will ferment

is very noticeable.

Also when you're buying produce, get organic

as much as possible.

Having things sprayed with pesticides

and stuff like that, that's not gonna translate well

into when you're trying to grow life in a jar.

Pesticides, ehn, no good.

You wanna get fresh, fresh, fresh.

Nice, nice, nice.

Tip number four.

Sanitation, cleanliness.

When we talked about all these jars and gadgets

and do dads.

Anything that's gonna be in contact with

what you're fermenting or using,

you wanna have clean.

A great food grade sanitizer is called Steri-Sani.

It's kinda like the industry standard

when it comes to beer making, wine making, fermentation.

Kills everything.

Not harmful.

I mean, you don't wanna go drinking it or nothing,

but diluted, it's a good thing.

Always wash your hands.

Always wash your vessels.

And always wash your produce.

What's the old saying?

Cleanliness is next to godliness or something?

Same goes with fermentation.

Oh, what's that?

What's next, Vinny?

Tip number five.

It's always good to write things down.

Keep track of your adjustments of your recipes.

That way you can recreate them.

If you're like me, you tend to forget things

after a while.

Get yourself like some masking tape,

label things.

The more information, the better.

Data, data, data.

Data, data, data.

Data, data, oh.

Data, data, data.

Keep track of your information.

What are we on?

Tip number six.

We're gonna head over, take a little field trip

to fermentation station over here.

You know when you're fermenting things,

you kinda wanna be in like a cool, dark spot.

You don't wanna be out in the sun.

You don't wanna put it on your windowsill.

We're running at a pretty cool 69 degrees right now.

The ideal temperature I've found is around like

anywhere from like 70, 75, 80.

65 to 80.

It really depends on what you're doing.

When it's a cooler temperature, it slows down

most fermentations.

And when it gets hot, it speeds it up.

I mean if it gets too hot,

it'll start to have negative effects

and kill fermentation and certain bacterias and yeasts.

But the sweet spot for me, I found to be

around 75, 80 degrees, 70 degrees.

Right in that window.

Not too cold, not too hot.

Just nice.

(cymbals crash) (drum beats)

Tip number, all right, well.

Tip number seven, Vincenzo.

We're gonna talk about salt.

You go over to your aunt Suzy's house

and she's got that like BS iodized salt,

you don't want to be using that when you're starting

to make, you know, fermenting things.

You wanna get some real nice Kosher salt.

Tried and true, been around forever.

It's the diamond crystal Kosher salt.

It's got a great consistency.

Super clean taste.

And then another one, my buddy Ben,

Ben Jake from Salt Company.

Mostly they're known for their big flaky sea salt.

Will this come out before or after?

This comes out before?

Okay?

Are they ever coming out?

Beautiful day.

We're gonna make some salt.

I look like the Gorton fisherman.

But he's also coming out with a great Kosher sea salt.

Ever since we started getting it from him,

I've been using that in all my fermentations.

The flavor just really comes through.

And it just, you gotta do quality.

It's all about quality when you're doing projects like this.

Tip number eight here.

We're gonna bring up something that people

have asked about a lot.

I'm not very concerned with it but botulism.

(ominous music)

It's a real thing apparently.

It really strives in an anaerobic environment

where's there's no, zero oxygen.

I mean who was the last person that got botulism?

I think it was...(buzzes).

How was that, good?

That was gold, right?

Well I just got yelled at for that, so...

If you do wanna check your pH levels,

check it out on Google.

But I think it's like.

I really should get that number, huh.

Hold on a minute.

(leisurely music)

They won't live in an atmosphere of 4.7 or lower,

so if you wanna shoot for, keep it around four,

you should more than fine.

They make a nice little digital thing

where you can put whatever your liquid is

you know, just (beeps).

Or also real cheap, you can just get them online

is the little pH dip sticks.

That wraps back into cleanliness.

I mean, botulism, do a little research,

but that stuff's everywhere.

It's just more about the toxin that is released

when it's in an anaerobic environment.

I think the easiest way to get it

is putting garlic in olive oil.

So just don't do that.

Ferment foods, you'll be fine.

Next.

Tip number nine, Vinny.

And that's books.

Get out there, order some books.

Go to the bookstore for God's sakes.

I've got two of my favorites here by the good old

Sandor Katz, a fermentation legend.

Anything you could possibly wanna know,

you can get from these guys.

But fermenting is not a new thing.

It's been around for thousands of years.

There's a ton of information out there, so...

The more you know the better.

And you know what, just go and meet some people.

Make some friends in the fermentation world.

The same way like the internet kinda changed the game.

Lot of forums and websites and... Chat groups.

I don't know if people do that any more, but

go to the farmer's market.

Go to a fermenting workshop.

Make some friends.

There's always some weird guy making pickles

in his basement in a bathtub or some (beeps).

Go make friends with him.

And that's how you learn stuff.

(jazz music)

Last but not least, tip number ten.

Just go ahead and subscribe to our YouTube channel

and we can ferment and learn together.

If you haven't seen any of the other episodes,

check them out.

Where we're actually fermenting.

We're seeing how things are made.

If you have any questions, put them in

the old comments section.

Tell me what you make, what you wanna see me make.

And that's part of the community.

Get involved.

Have fun.

Bon appetit.

What do you think, Vinny?

Three and a half?

Yeah.

You know what's not in there, Vinny?

Botulism.

(upbeat music)