Lindsay and RJ Marvin on temperamental ferments, fighting Big Pickle, and scoby walking
Barrel + Brine owners ship pickles, kraut, and kombucha to 4 states, but still find $7 pickles make some shoppers wince
“We opened in the middle of winter, not really sure if anyone in Buffalo was gonna get it.
There were no stores selling fermented or pickled things locally. Kombucha wasn't really available in supermarkets at the time. So we definitely had this, ‘I don't know if this is gonna work, but we're gonna try it.’
So we open, and we had this crazy line, like out the door.”
Outgrowing its 750-square-foot ex-bodega birthplace, Barrel + Brine now ships pallets of pickles to four states from its 155 Chandler St. operation. The Marvins’ fertile fermentation product minds frequently generate specials like shakers of popcorn seasoning in kimchi and dill pickle. The core of their business is pickles, kraut, and kombucha.
Eight years of small business experience taught the Marvins volumes about what it takes to keep your balance when everything is changing, and they share those insights and more in the 60-minute episode.
Turns out half-sours, the lacto-fermented pickles that Barrel + Brine makes each year are among RJ’s touchiest products.
“They're still a little temperamental, you know,” he said. “Cucumbers are so part of the reason why we have to make sure that they're from a farm that we know we trust. Cucumbers have different enzymes in them that make them soggy if you don't trim them properly.
There's two different worlds with pickles. There's acidified pickles, which are made with vinegar.
And then there's fermented cucumbers, like half sours, full sours. Those are fermented, similar to, sauerkraut with lactic acid. There's no vinegar, just salt and water. So when we were talking about temperamental ferments that have, like, a mind of their own, those cucumbers fit the bill.
There's been a time where on a Wednesday, I look at the fermented pickles and say, ‘Oh, these are beautiful.’ And then I come in on Thursday morning, and be like ‘Holy shit. What happened to this barrel of pickles? And then, maybe a week later, you come back and they're great again.”
Also, I got to ask Lindsey Marvin, the kombucha specialist of the couple, a question that has been on my mind.
So when you make kombucha, a layer forms atop a nutrient tea. Called a “scoby,” an acronym for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, the fungus layer can grow inches thick in a big enough vat. Barrel + Brine makes kombucha in 3,000-liter tanks.
Could you walk across it?
The Marvins had the answer to my question, and many more.
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