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Took me 11 days to find out my sauerkraut was fine and my basement was the problem
So back in early March I started a 5 gallon batch of sauerkraut in my basement, and about day 4 it smelled like straight garbage. Sulfur, rotten eggs, the whole deal. I panicked and dumped it, started over. Same thing happened. Dumped it again. Third batch, same smell, and I'm out like $40 in cabbage and probably 6 hours of shredding and pounding. I finally posted on a fermenting forum and a guy named Dale said something so simple I felt dumb. He said the smell is normal for the first week and to just let it ride. But then he asked WHERE my crock was sitting. Turns out my basement sits at 74 degrees near the furnace in spring, and that warm temp makes the sulfur smell way worse and pushes the ferment too fast. Moved the crock to the pantry at 66 degrees and the fourth batch smelled like actual sauerkraut by day 10. Eleven days of dumping perfectly good cabbage because I never checked the thermometer. Is anyone else fighting their house temp this time of year, or did you all just pick a good spot from the start?
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