Crock Question

[Marcus]

Hi all,

I'm Marcus, a new member from the Washington DC area. I'm a long-time homebrewer but an inexperienced food fermenter. I've made a number of batches of sauerkraut and pickles... enough that I wanted to scale up to a larger fermenting vessel.

I bought a new crock, and every time I've used it, I get a salty crust pattern on the outside of the crock. Here's a link to a picture on my photobucket account.

http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r545/marcusharton/IMG_0852.jpg

The accretion tastes like salt. It is dry to the touch. I'm pretty sure my brine is migrating through the glaze and crockery.

Does this look familiar to any of you experienced crock users? If so, how big a problem is it? The batches I've done in the crock have turned out fine.

Thanks for any wisdom you can offer. I look forward to browsing the forum.

[Sheppie]

Is it possible that you spilled some brine when pouring inside the crock? Or that brine inside fermented lively and just poured outside? That would be a viable explanation.

[Marcus]

No, it wasn't a spill. The brine was seeping through the glaze. I tried wiping off the salty crust and it came back overnight through the walls of the crock.

I had a good experience with Harvest Essentials. They sent another crock and the manufacturer asked me to return the bad one so they could figure out what happened.

They said it wasn't normal for a salty crust to form all over the exterior of the crock.

Marcus

[Christopher Weeks]

So the new one is behaving as expected?

[Marcus]

Yes, it is. The replacement is holding brine just fine. Nothing happening on the outside.