Not sure I follow so bear with me.

First, normal limit on processing is within 24 hours max. Plus the jar and contents have to be hot when they go into the canner. And the purpose of bringing the brine to a boil is to kill bacteria and so that it is hot going into the jars and into the canner. If you were using approved instructions that all should have been included in it.

So how long have these been in the fridge? If less than 24 hours then you have to dump out all the brine, reheat it to boiling, refill clean jars with the hot brine, use new lids especially if any of these sealed due to the heat, place them hot into the canner and process.

If they have been sitting in the fridge longer than 24 hours then not only does the brine have to be reheated to boiling but so do the pickles themselves as listeria has had time to grow if it was present. Then into clean jars, new lids and process.

If you want to make pickles a few jars at a time then you need to also process them a few jars at a time and they need to be very hot when going into the BWB or the processing time is invalid.

Does this help.

Dave

That does help. Thank you! I am confused what you mean by reheating the pickles. I did not do that in the first place. The Ball directions simply say to heat the liquid. So if I just use clean jars and new lids, I could reheat the liquid and put them over the same cucumbers? Just move them to a new jar, fill with boiling liquid, and process? I see now that the directions do not say to let them come to room temp. That is only if you are saving them in the fridge.

Depends on the time frame. After 24 hours bacteria has had time to grow in the cucumbers as well as the brine so boiling just the brine isn't going to solve that problem. It is your choice of course and personally, if I was using a really strong vinegar brine I wouldn't worry about reheating the cukes. But that is a personal choice and not recommended as I don't know which recipe you used.

The Ball instructions assumed immediate processing or at least processing within 24 hours, not days later. It is important to understand that refrigeration doesn't kill bacteria, it only slows its growth.

Dave

Makes sense. Thanks.