Found out my kraut pH was way off after buying a decent meter

Was using test strips from the brew shop in Portland for months and they said my kraut was fine. Got a real pH meter last week and it read 4.8, which is way too high. Anyone else had a big surprise after upgrading their testing gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_shane19d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah but 4.8 isn't actually that crazy for kraut depending on how long it's been going. The problem with those cheap test strips is they're useless once you get below like 5.0, they just blend together into one orange color. I fought with a batch for weeks thinking it was stuck at 3.5, turns out my meter was reading high because the probe was dirty with all that salt residue. Have you calibrated it before using it, or just pulled it out of the box? Those meters drift like crazy if you don't hit them with buffer 4 and 7 first.

caseyclark18d ago

... hadn't even thought about the probe getting crusty with salt, @the_shane. That's wild though, 4.8? I would've been freaking out throwing that whole batch away or something.