Siv
Extreme Member
I ran out of glass fermentation weights yesterday so was shopping on Amazon for some more. The BETTER than Glass Fermentation Weights caught my eye and I was about to buy them as they are a lot cheaper than glass. But then I got thinking - this is something I can DIY at home for nothing.
So I rummaged around the cupboard and found some plastic cups:
Put the cup in the jar to tell me where to cut:
Cut off the top and flip it over and cut a few small holes on the bottom:
This is my unweighted ferment:
And now with the plastic cups added (same amount of peppers):
I'm sure there is some optimization that can be done here with the right size cup but it seems to be a guaranteed way of keeping your peppers submerged in the brine. Note that my unweighted pic is basically the same volume of peppers that I can achieve with the glass weight so adding the cup does squish them down but also stops them springing back. If I can find a plastic cup with a slightly wider base, I may be able to fit more peppers into the jar which is an added bonus.
I' gonna do this for all ferments going forward. The only negative I can think of is the plastic but we're drinking for PETE bottles all the time...
So I rummaged around the cupboard and found some plastic cups:
Put the cup in the jar to tell me where to cut:
Cut off the top and flip it over and cut a few small holes on the bottom:
This is my unweighted ferment:
And now with the plastic cups added (same amount of peppers):
I'm sure there is some optimization that can be done here with the right size cup but it seems to be a guaranteed way of keeping your peppers submerged in the brine. Note that my unweighted pic is basically the same volume of peppers that I can achieve with the glass weight so adding the cup does squish them down but also stops them springing back. If I can find a plastic cup with a slightly wider base, I may be able to fit more peppers into the jar which is an added bonus.
I' gonna do this for all ferments going forward. The only negative I can think of is the plastic but we're drinking for PETE bottles all the time...
