Resources
Where to find all the equipment and niche ingredients for unlimited fermentation.
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Equipment:
Vessels, lids, and airlocks.
I tend to stick with wide topped containers that are easy to clean between batches. Containers like demijohns are great for fermenting and ageing large batches of alcohol, but I find the tiny opening a pain to clean even with the correct brushes and solutions.
They come in all sizes and shapes, but I find 1.5L or bigger to be the best. This way you can set off a decent batch of something and not run out the moment it’s made. I also prefer the taller, more narrow shape as it makes it easier to insert glass or ceramic weights and makes use of vertical space in storage.
Alternative Cliptop - Lock-Eat XL by Luigi Bormioli
I haven’t linked to these because every one of them online is hugely overpriced. I bought mine from a local cookshop for £8 each, but online they range from £40-£70. I wanted to list them still as an option with an ingenious one-piece lid that naturally vents the buildup of gases, and is a straight sided jar, lending itself to easy miso making. Keep an eye out for them and if prices change, I’ll add a link.
Kilner’s dedicated offering for fermentation comes with 2x two piece airlocks, a rubber lid, and glazed ceramic weights. To my knowledge, these weights are only available as part of this set and are by far the best ceramic weights I’ve used. Easy to clean and use (as they’re in two halves). However, they are too big for most of Kilner’s smaller sized jars. I’ve also found that very active ferments can blow the lid clean off, even with an airlock fitted, so make sure to use tape for additional security.
A Korean specialty for kimchi making, these containers are one of the most well designed modern answers to all things lacto fermentation. They come with a secondary internal lid to hold ingredients securely below the brine surface and block odours from filling your kitchen.
One of the oldest styles of fermentation vessel, these crocks hold a lot of food and produce naturally ideal conditions for year round fermentation. With an ingeniously simple lid design, they can be turned into aerobic or anaerobic containers that naturally let carbon dioxide escape without letting in oxygen or pests. If you’d prefer a smaller size, I’d recommend this one
Incredibly useful for hands off fermentation and vital for alcohol fermentation, airlocks come in two main styles. Bubbler and two piece. A bubbler is a single piece tube. The pro is that it has a slow evaporation rate so you don’t need to top it up often. The con is that it’s hard to get in and clean. The two piece comes apart for easy cleaning, however, water inside it evaporates more quickly so you have to keep an eye on it or risk your wine turning to vinegar.
Other equipment.
From pH metres and refractometers, to masontops and more.
Useful for peace of mind if you wish to test the acidity of a ferment. Models differ, so always make sure to read the instructions and use the buffers provided to calibrate the instrument as required.
If you don’t like the idea of having to calibrate a pH metre, then this is another option. The downside is they’re single use, so you’ll need to keep buying them when you run out. However, they’re accurate, simple, and give peace of mind.
These come in handy when you need to check how much sugar there is in a harvest. As sugar is often the food for microbes, it’s important to know how much you have in an ingredient in order to calculate how much you need to add or dilute for certain final results. For example, yeast converting sugar to ethanol. For a fancy sounding piece of equipment, these are incredibly easy to use and this one is the cheapest I could find. They range in price, but for our needs I’d recommend not exceeding anything more than £80-£100.
My go to method for weighing down ingredients that insist on floating above the brine. There are many different sizes and shapes to glass weights (also called glass pebbles) so pick whichever suits your needs. I prefer these as they’re wider than average and made of smooth contours, making them easy to clean.
Whilst most ferments can be cleared with a clean tea towel, muslin cloth, or ice clarified, sometimes it’s easier to use a large staining bag and leave it hanging overnight. This is especially true for large batches of fruit and berries, where any form of squeezing will push through pulp.
Very useful for alcohol fermentation and another way to check the sugar or salt levels of a liquid. A hydrometer is an affordable item that lasts forever, and relies simply on buoyancy, indicating the density of liquid.
Temperature and Humidity Sensor
This is only really necessary if you plan to get into making koji, but very useful as you don’t need to disturb the substrate or environment to check in on progress thanks to its bluetooth connectivity.
Another one that’s only really useful if you’re getting into koji, these scales can measure down to 0.01 of a gram, which is needed to weigh out koji spores.
A seriously handy piece of kit. Pop some rinse sanitizer solution in the bowl and pump cleaned bottles over the head of the piston. You can sanitise narrow mouthed containers quickly and thoroughly.
Very useful for winter time fermentation that just won’t burst into life, as well as an option to aid in ideal koji making conditions. These types of pad have a temperature probe to attach to the outside of a vessel, then a heating element that sits beneath. Set the ideal temperature for the device and it gradually heats and maintains this temperature throughout the vessel. Good ones are also water resistant.
Whilst not necessary for lacto or alcohol fermentation, these types of simple insulated containers are ideal for at home koji making.
As an alternative option to freezing or pasteurising, a dehydrator gives you another option to stop the clock on fermented ingredients and preserve them further. I use a larger model of the Excalibur dehydrator but opted to share a smaller scale one after seeing it in action in my friend, Gaz Oakley’s kitchen. A word of warning, I’ve tested multiple brands of dehydrator and none of them are 100% accurate with their temperatures, particularly at the lower range. So if you’re drying temperature sensitive ingredients, avoid using the heating element altogether.
Not only did I survive off meals in my multicooker when my house was under construction, but it has proven itself invaluable in multiple fermentation and preserving practices. Not only do they cook food, they also have a dehydrate function, the ability to pressure cook (very useful for beans and peas), and they even have a ‘Yoghurt’ function, which you can override the pasteurisation mode and skip straight to ‘keep warm’ which is perfect for yoghurt and amazake.
It also airfries, which I’m told is popular these days.
Probably the machine I get asked about most, sousvide. Perfect for the dry brine ferments that don’t produce enough liquid to submerge but also quite a financial investment. You also need to buy vacuum bags to go with it, which have a compostable option (but cost more) that so far, I’m yet to run into any difficulties with fermenting in them. Whilst there are smaller ‘clamp’ sealers available, these don’t create a vacuum to depressurize the chamber, but instead suck the air from the bag. This is fine unless you have liquid in the bag, which will spill out and make a mess. If you’re thinking about getting a vacuum machine, hold off and keep an eye out. Sousvidetools often run sales and this particular item is a popular candidate. It’s also the most compact chamber sealer on the market.
Ingredients:
It can be tricky tracking down authentic koji spores both inside and outside of Japan. Here are my main three suppliers.
KOJI Spores:
UK orders | The Koji Fermentaria
US orders | Hakko Online
AUS orders | Koji and Co
The famous chilli used in kimchi. Unless you live in a city with an Asian/Korean supermarket, it can be hard to find good gochugaru, but it makes a world of difference to your kimchi.
Further Reading:
Some of my favourite books on fermentation as well as the world of food.
The Fermentation Kitchen by Sam Cooper (I had to, or my publisher might tell me off)
Koji for Life by Nakaji
The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz
Wildcrafted Fermentation by Pascal Baudar
The Noma Guide to Fermentation by Rene Redzepi and David Zilber
Koji Alchemy by Jeremy Umansky and Rich Shih
Preserving the Japanese Way by Nancy Singleton Hachisu
The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit
Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4000 Years of Recipes (A Cookbook) by Max Miller
The Forager’s Calendar by John Wright
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
The Art of Natural Cheesemaking by David Asher
Baking School by Matthew Jones, Justin Gellatly, and Louise Gellatly
The Larousse Book of Bread by Eric Kayser
Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson
The Third Plate by Dan Barber
Eating To Extinction by Dan Saladino
The Self-Sufficiency Garden by Huw Richards and Sam Cooper (should you wish to grow your own ingredients to ferment).
