What do you think happened?

[Dozza987]

A weird thing has happened with one of my sauerkrauts.

As an experiment I left one batch out way longer than the others that I put in the fridge. After about 5-6 weeks, the top bit of cabbage started turning a weird grey colour. This weird grey colour gradually leeched downward to about the top two inches of kraut and darkened.

We just opened it after about 9 weeks and it smelled kind of fine. We discarded all the grey and my husband gave it a taste and said it was lovely! So we’re keeping it, but I’m still curious what happened! Any ideas?

[Christopher Weeks]

I've had the same thing happen and it seems to do with dehydration in my cases. It doesn't ruin the batch for me either. That line between the dark and light kraut seems to indicate where the brine is thick enough that the stuff below it is more or less submerged.

[living the dream]

I think the top was drying out, was it under brine.. if not, it looks dry, probably the texture would also be in decline. Try mixing up a little brine to add to cover the top. Hope it helps.