I keep seeing people skip the brine weight when they ferment cucumbers

Grace Fox · 2026-04-16T13:00:16.659144+00:00

I was at a friend's house in Portland and watched them just drop cukes into a jar with water and salt. The pickles ended up floating above the liquid and got moldy in under a week. You need to weigh them down with a glass weight or a small plate so everything stays submerged. Has anyone else had this happen with a specific veggie?

laura_ross5mo ago

Tried fermenting green beans last summer and they kept bobbing up. I ended up using a clean river rock I boiled for ten minutes as a weight. It worked perfectly and kept everything under the brine.

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nathan2895mo ago

Yeah, that floating pickle problem is a classic one. I get why people skip the weight, it feels like an extra step, but it's the main thing keeping mold away. Even @laura_ross's boiled rock idea is a solid fix (pun maybe intended). The key is just keeping everything wet, no matter what you use to hold it down.

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cameronrivera4mo ago

A ceramic fermentation weight costs less than a replacement jar of moldy pickles.

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