I think it's more a problem in home canning. Fermenting should be safe cause c botulinum can't thrive in salty environments and would get out competed by whatever the lacto bacteria is - also theyd decrease the pH which c botulinum really doesnt like. If you use clean veggies (wash em and make sure theres no soil), wash your hands, and follow whatever recipe you're using you should be totally fine.
I've seen some cool videos about making kimchi where they have these big stone weights. very useful.
Prevent what you're fermenting from getting into contact with air. That's how mold grows. Get some kind of weights (they make purpose-built glass ones, but some people [me] just use zip-lock bags filled with water) and sanitize whatever container you will be fermenting in. Also also, make sure you add enough salt. The salinity will prevent bad microorganisms from developing before the lactobacilius (however it's spelled) bacteria start eating all the sugars and takes over.
Trust your eyes, nose, and tongue:
- If it's moldy, throw it away.
- If it smells bad, throw it away.
- If it tastes bad, spit it out and throw it away. Maybe rinse your mouth out, too
Yeah. idk about other things but one of the tools you need for making alcohol is a one-way valve to allow gas to escape the mixture while it's doing it's thing.
As long as you are fermenting sugars and not celulose, meat or whatever is in tea you should be fine
Clean your equipment with star-san or a similar product. Use the correct amount of salt. Wash veggies very well with water+friction. It also tends to be very obvious when a ferment gets infected so if the smell isn't super sour, there's no black or white mold, and there's no pellicle then chances are you're good to go.
Botulism risk doesn't really happen with fermentation, the types of environs when made inhibit botulinum propagation. Now if you are canning non-acidic foods then you run that risk and should be using a home pressure canner.
that's wild beacuse I have wanted to get into botulism for a while, but I am held back by my fear of fermentation.
use at least 2% salt for the wieght of the veggies+water, use clean equipment, and keep the ferment under brine and you should be good. As long as the ph is below 4.6 its safe.
If you're gonna keep making pickles, sure. You can get a ph meter for 10-20 bucks.
I do a fair bit of home canning/pickling and I always add vinegar, or sour ferment my brines. As long as it's sanitary and acidic then there is nothing to worry about
I avoid things that have a higher likelihood for botulism (low acidic foods). Most things are fine.
This really depends on what you're planning to ferment. Are you planning to ferment meat or garlic?
Make a vinegary hot sauce, they're decently acidic and therefore very hard to get botulism from.
You can add it after fermentation though, there's not much risk of botulism until you start storing it.
I see, yeah you're probably good - are you planning like a lacto-ferment then? Like in salt water and nothing else?
Yeah vinegar won't be a ferment AFAIK, just a pickle. Anyways yeah you're good salt fermentation doesn't result in botulism.
Yeh dude I would save so much money if I brewed my own beer but I ain’t fucking around with potentially poisoning myself lol
It's actually not that risky. IME You can tell when it's off far before you even get near drinking it, and if it's bad after that, you'll be able to tell pretty immediately. So long as you're able to sterilize the equipment it's safe, and the most common flaws in beer (brettanomyces and lactobacillus infections) aren't poisonous, and are actually cultivated in some styles of beer.
Botulism isn't a problem because the yeast acidify the beer.
Beer is really easy. Mead is comically easy. The hardest part is making super duper sure your fermenting vessels and bottles are as sterile as possible. If you want to be cool and have tons of friends be the "home brewed mead" guy.
Brewing beer is insanely cheap and easy - and really hard to fuck up. My current yields are 5 gallons for approx 25 dollars a batch. The biggest hassle is space and a little bit of time.
Also, if someone really wanted to go ultra cheap, buying grain and ingredients in bulk could bring down the price to probably 15 dollars per 5 gallons. But you'd be somewhat married to a small set of beer styles if that were the route chosen.
Botulism is only really a problem in anaerobic environments with low acidity. It crops up in the kind of canning that can only be done safely with a pressure-canner. It's a non-issue with beer and wine. It may be something to worry about in some pickling processes.
