It's not as much about "go bad" as to create the perfect conditions for the good bacteria to develop... and those we like thrive in O2-free environment ("anaerobic")... that's why all sorts of pickle veggies, sauerkraut etc... are usually sitting under the liquid, held together by weights!
have you done them this way before? are you sure you can succeed without using weights to maintain them under the liquid? that's how i always learned you succeed at lactofermentation, by ensuring it it stays anaerobic...
Retrospectively, wasn't a lot of the space-exploration-based SciFi from the 50s 60s 70s serving the purpose of justifying massive government spendings in big rockets, mainly used to build ICBMs, to justify imperialist policies and the cold war?
were we (the scifi afficionados) the useful idiots of this missile race?
long story short: don't google