I made a big batch of the purple sauerkraut recipe from the book and left a couple of cm at the top before I shut the lid of the (clean and boiled) ex pickled onion jar I used. I thought I was supposed to open the lid to let out the gasses which I’ve been doing and on a couple of occasions I’ve even poured away some of the liquid because it just keeps growing, this morning I came down to find purple juice all over my kitchen worktop so I poured some more away. I put a bit of cabbage root on top of my sauerkraut as suggested to keep the contents submerged and when I’ve had the lid open to pour off some liquid I’ve been pushing this down to keep the contents submerged. Ive now been reading about the potential for botulism if the contents have contact with the air and I’m wondering if I’ve done this all wrong and need to throw my sauerkraut away??

Hi Tofu63
Watch this video by the fermenting guru Sandor Katz: http://www.wildfermentation.com/sandor-at-the-river-cottage-food-fair/
hopefully it will reassure you there is little to no chance of any issue with botulism. Particularly relevant at 41:30.

Sorry meant 51.30 but the whole video is interesting!

Thank you. 🙂

old post – but i have the same issue
In the first 2-3 days there’s a LOT of gas produced, which expands the whole jar – as the bubbles are trapped in the kraut. So it just pushes all the cabbage & liquid up & out of the jar.
I put my jars into a bowl, they overflow & its a quick cleanup.
You then just mash it all down again – even using fermenting weights doesnt work – the gas just gets trapped.

Burping you sauerkraut in the first few days is normal.