# Brown water in my canned green beans.



## tngal71 (Aug 10, 2014)

Hi to all from tennessee! I have been caning for several years and today was my first attempt at BLUE LAKE GREEN BEANS. I live above 2000 ft in the mountains. According to BALL BLUE BOOK I have to pressure can them at 15lbs pressure for 20 minute which I did. The water in the jars is slightly brown in color. I have a well for my water but it has all the right stuff it should have as it was tested 2 years ago. I used the water that I boiled them in for 5 minutes. can anyone tell me why the water is brown?


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## kkbinco (Jun 11, 2010)

Did you happen to use iodized salt(table salt) this time?


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## Badger (Jun 11, 2010)

I got brown water once when the greenbeans were a little too mature. That's what I blamed it on anyway.


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## Dixie Bee Acres (Jul 22, 2013)

The water in my means is always a little brownish. Not dark brown at all, but not clear. Maybe the type of bean? I always grow top crop, which are very similar to blue lake.


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## Vosey (Dec 8, 2012)

I just canned some bigger beans and some of them turned brownish. I assume it's the age/enzymes. 

Btw, if you have an AA canner look in the manual for their adjustments for altitude and vegetables. We're at 2800 feet and do green beans for 15 minutes raw pack. If you were using a dial gauge you'd be doing them at 12#, so AA has charts adjusting times for different altitudes.


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## tngal71 (Aug 10, 2014)

Thank you all>>> I did not use reg.salt only canning salt>>> The beans were purchased from my produce guy at our local supermarket. He got me a 15lb box and I had to waste about 1 lb. The beans were crisp and green>>> I have both dial and weighted canner. I use the dial one for quarts and the weighted one for pints. As I said before I did process 15 lbs for 20 min>>> Could I have over processed? Which is better than under processing? well we had a jar for dinner last night and I am still walking, talking, typing and breathing!:clap: Thanks again for all your replies! This is a great site and very, very informative!


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## Vickivail98 (Sep 26, 2014)

I know this is an old thread but I solved this problem and I'm kicking myself! I planted a zillion bush beans this year and can them separately by variety. Turns out that all the varieties that have brown seeds look terrible! Even though they weren't overgrown and the uncooked seeds looked white they give off a brown and extremely unappealing color. I followed the same procedure as always and the EZ Pick variety (white seeds) turned out great. Never again, dark seeded green beans are officially banned!


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## nate77 (Mar 20, 2013)

Blue Lake green beans have white seeds.


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## Vickivail98 (Sep 26, 2014)

Nate77. There goes my theory ☹ Does anyone know what does cause it?


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## nate77 (Mar 20, 2013)

Could be minerals or rust in the water.


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