Brine: Fermentation Salt Calc — Support

Need help?

Email roman.kopaliani@gmail.com with your question. Please include:

• What you were trying to do
• What happened instead
• The app version (Brine → More → About)

Frequently asked

What's free and what's in Brine Pro?

Free forever: the Salt Check (both methods, with range verdicts and warnings) and Ferment Safe. Brine Pro ($6.99, one-time) unlocks Style Targets, the Batch Log, and Brine Doctor. No subscription.

How much salt do I actually need?

Two honest answers. Kraut-style dry salting runs about 2–2.5% of the vegetable's weight — NCHFP's sauerkraut ratio is 3 tablespoons of canning salt per 5 pounds of cabbage, which derives to about 2.4%. Pickle-style brines run 3.5–5% of the water's weight in common practice, and NCHFP's fermented dills sit near 7.6% (full-sour). Brine shows the range, the source, and where your number lands.

Why grams instead of tablespoons?

Because a teaspoon isn't a unit of salt. By the brands' own labels, canning salt runs about 6 grams per teaspoon and Diamond Crystal kosher about 2.8 — the same spoon holds less than half the salt. Brine shows teaspoon equivalents for your specific salt, but the gram figure is the recipe.

There's white film on my ferment — is it ruined?

Usually not. Surface film (kahm yeast and wild bacteria) is common; NCHFP's guidance is to skim it as often as it forms and keep everything below the brine. Fuzzy, colored mold or a rotten smell is a different thing — that batch is done. When in doubt, throw it out.

Can I water-bath my finished kraut to make it shelf-stable?

Not from this app. Fermenting is not canning: a finished ferment goes to the refrigerator, where NCHFP says it keeps for months. Making it shelf-stable is a separate boiling-water-canner process with its own tested recipe — follow NCHFP's canning instructions for that, not a calculator.

My pickles came out soft — what happened?

Per NCHFP, the classic causes: brine below the recipe's salt level, fermenting above 80 °F, vegetables floating out of the brine, or blossom ends left on the cucumbers. Nothing un-softens a pickle, but the next batch is fixable — and if they're soft and slimy or off-smelling, discard.