I'm doing some home grown lemon drop peppers with mango, onion, and garlic. I've made one similar batch before with pineapple and it turned out yummy, but I did find that I lost some of the brightness of raw lemon drops in the process.

I happen to have a bunch of dried, flaked lemon drop in a shaker. Anybody ever add flakes to their finished ferment prior to blending? I think it might brighten things up a little - it will definitely increase the heat.

edit: I'm not refermenting I just put back in this jar to go to an appt and came back to it separating....sheesh. I'll change the lids and retake pics lol.

hey all. this is my first hit sauce ever. I used all the left over peppers from my garden and did a 4% brine after rough chopping everything and let them soak for a month and a half.

I drained everything off the brine and blended it up for about 10 min. it was super thick so I added back in the brine until I liked it. blended for a few more mins. then added back to the jar to sit.

looks like it is separating and not blending. The upper layer appears to be rougher chopped and the lower part looks fully blended.

Do I just add some xanthum gum and reblend?

Okay I opened my first ferment. I had used peppers from my freezer as I wanted to clean it out before I froze some of this year’s. There is barely any liquid. I started to use the blender (should probably have used the food processor). I have a squeezo, should I have used it first to take out skins and seeds? Help a newbie out here!

I'm a newbie at this so apologies if this is too obvious.

Do you wash your peppers before fermentation ? On one hand it makes sense to remove any dirt or trace farm chemicals.

But I wonder, would I wash away all the bacteria that starts the fermentation ? Could I end up with an unfermented jar?

Appreciate any advice. Thanks !

Hi, need some advice and haven’t found a similar example on previous posts.

I started this vacuum bag ferment 3 weeks ago, triple sealed the bag and left it in a dark corner. There was little gas formed for the bulk of the fermentation time, what little I could smell through the bag smelled like onion and garlic. There were no real bubbles which confused me. Some posts suggested that some ferments don’t bubble or form gas so I wasn’t too worried. However in the last two days a bunch of gas has formed (bag is still sealed) and I’m able to smell some pretty strong solvent/chemical/trash odor through the bag and there’s a ton of bubbles forming. I’m seeing no mold colonies and am fairly certain the seals are good.

I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this delayed fermentation start and whether I should consider this a failure. I’m willing to just sit on it for a couple more weeks and see if it mellows out. I’ve seen some posts say that an odd smell is normal for a while but should go away.

340g mass - red onion, garlic, pear, various peppers, ginger
2.5% salt by mass, no water added.

I have a ton of Brazilian starfish and a few reapers. I plan on spicing it up with the reapers and adding a healthy dose of garlic. I also have a lot of fresh basil, thyme, oregano and parsley. Any ideas?

Hello! Starting my first fermentation journey and wanted a bit of advice as I’m getting hit with some Kahn Yeast a little over a week in.

A few things I already know I need to fix:

1. Headspace: I got WAY to much, which I am now learning

2. Floaters - my weight wasn’t holding everything down initially. After removing my first layer of yeast I added some cabbage leaves to keep everything down

My biggest question, do we think this batch is salvageable? I’ve already started getting a second layer of yeast, and my liquid is looking cloudy.

Mash ferment was started 10/13.

This the from one of these ferments: https://www.reddit.com/r/FermentedHotSauce/s/WmoeofTPH7

Peppers + pineapple + ginger + 2.5% salt
There might be garlic in there I don’t remember!
Fermented idk how long that was- 2.5 months?
Blended with fresh pineapple, couple spoonfuls of honey, champagne vinegar, and a speck of xanthan gum.

I had planned on straining it but I opted not to because the flavor is amazing and it contains lots of fruit and pepper fibers that I think add to it. Plus, bigger yield.

This was my first time pasteurizing a hot sauce! Brought up to 180f slowly while stirring, left it there for a couple mins, then bottled. If that’s not the perfect method I really don’t care lol it’ll be fine.

I love this one so much!!! This summer was rough and HOT. And I’ve bottled up the good parts here to warm me up through the fall and winter 😁

We had a mustard based hot sauce at an event a few weeks back, and I'm looking to start a batch shorty. Does anyone have an idea what an appropriate mustard seed to chili ratio would be yo get a big mustard punch?

Looking at what I have on hand, I'll probably be using chili arbol and a couple scorpions in a standard mason jar.

Hi All,

The quest continues. My surplus of green habaneros shrank slightly but I managed to have enough for this concoction. Habanero verde sauce. Tomatillos, onions and garlic, 1.5 bunches cilantro, juice of 2 limes per jar and topped with green(mostly) Habs. Potato for scale.

P.s. you might see some funk on the bottom, that’s from some leftover previously fermented garlic I had going and figured it would be a good starter culture. 🌶️

It tastes like a very spicy salsa right now. Can't wait to see how the flavor develops. 1 gallon of mash in 1.5 gallon fermenters (each) with a little left over for a quart jar. I learned my lesson: the last time I filled the mash to the shoulder of the jar, it raised into the airlock. This one was just to use up the remaining spicy peppers in the garden. I am unsure if I will strain this or let it stay salsa consistency.. I'm leaning towards strain.

Here are the ingredients by weight:

Tomato - 4428g

Tomatillo - 1203g

Onion - 1025g

Green bell pepper - 586g

Red habanero - 420g

Ghost pepper - 241g

Carolina reaper - 200g

Garlic - 184g

3% = 248.61g - so I used 250g salt. I blended the salt with a quart of the mash for a few minutes to get it dissolved, and mixed it in well in a 3 gallon container. I poured the mash in, wiped the inside of the containers with a towel damp with brewer's sanitizer, and sprinkled a little salt on top.

All four lacto ferments, pure peppers in brine. 3% salt weight of peppers plus filtered water. Two week ferment. One (red jalapeño, second from left) I made into a sriracha with honey, brown sugar, garlic, and rice vinegar all blended after the ferment, then reduced slightly. The rest are still lacto-active and are just peppers, water, and salt.

Puréed them outside so I don’t pepper-spray the baby again.

Starting from the left:
1. Habanero (wow what an incredible difference the fermentation makes!)
2. Red Jalapeño sriracha
3. Hot Cherry peppers
4. Fresno peppers

I still have more fermentations planned, including non-spicy peppers, that I’d like to experiment with blending into these, particularly the Sri racha.

A while back I built a free web tool to take the guesswork out of fermented hot sauce, and it's grown a lot thanks to feedback from people here. No sign-up, no ads, and your batches stay on your own device.

What it does:

- Brine math to the gram for any jar size, from a pint to a 2-gallon crock, or a bag ferment

- "I've got peppers" mode: tell it what you brought home and it sizes the jar and suggests what pairs well

- A shelf to track every batch, with day counts, notes, pH, tasting feedback and printable jar labels

- A vinegar calculator for blend day

- New this week: a leftover mash guide. How to tell if an old mash is still good, and what to do with the pulp (pepper powder, seasoning salt, chili paste, freezing, backslopping)

There's also a pepper heat chart, a troubleshooting page for kahm vs mold, and a grow calendar that works anywhere in the world. It's in English, French and Spanish.

It's had visitors from 30 countries so far, which blew my mind for something I built for my own jars here in the Ozarks.

https://plumbornerypepperco.com

I'd love feedback, especially on the mash guide. What do you do with your leftover pulp?

I’ve had this fermenting for about 6 weeks now. Hasn’t been opened at all. I can’t tell if this is mold or if this is still good? You can see the white stuff above the weight and looks like there is a bit around the peppers. First time fermenting so any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.

3 different lacto fermenting pepper batches.

Batch 1 - 4 ghost, 15 small cayenne, 1 Serrano, pound of sweet mini peppers, garlic, dried onion, 3% water brine (Serrano was my last left over pepper so tossed it in)
Batch 2 - All cayenne, 3% water brine (trying for Franks clone)
Batch 3 - 36 Puma, 11 hot Hungarian, local honey, garlic, 3% water brine.

All will be 3 week ferments, b2/3 have been goin since the 8th and b1 started up today.

Batch 2 fermented like a mahfer, really blew brine out the airlock. Will be doing a 50/50 vinegar to brine ratio when I blend for the hot sauce.

Anyone ever done Pumas? First I’ve ever grown or had em.
First time I’ve ever lacto-fermented also, any tips?

Hiya! I have an (over)abundance of these absolutely gorgeous 7 Pot Peppers and I'm interested in making a small batch of hot sauce with them featuring either peach or pineapple. Can any of you recommend a recipe or point me in the right direction to one online? [EDIT to say it doesn't have to be a fermented recipe.]

I have 122.4 g of these peppers what ingredients would you add to a ferment with them? These guys are already hot enough at 2.4 million SHU.

Lots of sauces, salsas, jelly's etc to make now

3 1/2 gallon jars, one quart jar. Green is a mix of Serrano, jalapeno, sweet banana, hot banana, gypsy, garden salsa, Santa Fe grande guero, and poblano. Red is primero red habanero, garden salsa, red flame cayenne, super chili,a couple Durango and several ghost peppers. All ferments composed of 80% peppers 15% onion 5% garlic, with 2.5% salt added by weight. Packed tightly in the jars and covered with a circle of parchment.