Kraut has been fermenting for a little over two weeks in huge pickle jars. Tastes great! I followed the raw pack method. When I packed the jars - I had to add a lot of extra (new) brine. While fermenting, everything was covered with juices, but had to add almost 2 additional quarts of new brine to 8 pints of kraut to get enough headspace. Does that sound right? Seems like I might have diluted something a bit too much?

I have another huge jar that I'm going to let go a few more days. That can stay in the fridge for up to three months with no processing, correct?

Thanks for your help!
~ Tracy

Either way it is safe as the cabbage is already fermented and you are basically just processing to create the vacuum.

I don't know how much you began with weight wise so can't tell how many pints you should end up with but had it been packed into say 6 pints you'd need much less new brine.

Dave

As a side note. I had a second gallon jar fermenting also. Prepared the same day as this batch, under the same conditions. I canned the first batch on Monday and let the second jar go til today. When I dumped the kraut into a pot today, it had a horrible rotten smell - I threw it out. I wonder why this batch went bad? Could the two extra days make a difference (the temp has been 70 or below)?

Thanks for your help.
~ Tracy