Glass Fermentation Jar with Screw Lid and Carry Straps

This is the jar for the batch that is too big for a kitchen jar and too small for a barrel. Cucumbers and cabbage go in whole for a slow ferment, fruit and sugar go in for liqueur, and a must can sit under the cap while it works. The family runs from 4 litres for a first experiment up to 24 litres for a full autumn crop, and every size is built the same way.

The body is thick clear glass, pressed with a panelled surface that holds its shape and lets you watch the contents from the outside. Glass does not react with acid or salt and does not hold on to smells, so a jar used for vinegar in spring can hold plum liqueur by Christmas. The wide threaded neck takes a moulded plastic screw lid, and the lid carries a short threaded port in the middle. Two closures fit that port: a translucent vented cap, which becomes an airlock once a little water sits in it, and a solid screw plug with side tabs that closes the jar for storage or transport.

A full jar is heavy and glass is slippery when wet, which is what the webbing straps are for. They wrap around the widest part of the jar and end in two loops, so the weight is carried by the straps rather than by a grip on the glass, and the jar can go from the worktop to a cool pantry shelf in one trip.

It suits anyone who preserves at home: salted cucumbers and sauerkraut in autumn, beetroot through the year, country wine, mead and fruit spirits for the shelf, and juice or syrup once the ferment is done and the plug goes in. Cleaning is a wash in lukewarm water with a food-safe disinfectant, and the glass should never be filled with boiling water.