fermenting Fermenting dried jalapenos

[ADRUNKK]

I was lurking the hot sauce making sub-forum this last Friday and noticed a thread about fermenting dried chili's. I'm pretty new to the fermenting game and figured it would make for a fun weekend to experiment around and see if I could try my hand at it and document the experience.
 
So on my way home from work Friday I picked up 1,073 grams of jalapenos (the 5 gram plastic grocery bag was not tared out in the photo).

 
I gave the peppers a rinse in a colander and got to chopping. I had 978 grams of jalapenos after trimming (the 108 gram plastic bowl was not tared out in the photo).

 
At 10:55 pm Friday night the peppers went in the dehydrator at 110 degrees for approx 12 hours.

 
At 11:00 am Saturday morning I pulled them out of the dehydrator. I had a little seed loss which doesn't bother me, I didn't include these seeds in my powder. Only the peppers that held on tight got kept. There was more seeds in the the bottom of the dehydrator but i didn't take a photo of them. It was pretty negligible compared to the seeds in the photo. I ended up with 73 grams of dried jalapenos (the plastic bowl weighs 40 grams but it was tared out in the photo).

 

[ADRUNKK]

After weighing out the peppers i took the piece of crap coffee grinder I have an proceeded to pulverize the peppers and run them through a metal sieve.

 
Some of the peppers were still a tad bit wet so i through them back in the dhydrator for 1 hour, and ran them through the grinder again. After grinder loss, table loss, and burning nose and lung loss i wound up with 65 grams of dehydrated pepper dust (the cup tared out at 442 but wasn't tared in the photo).

 
I dint realize it when I started this experiment but I was all out of bottled water. I was drinking watching the AJ fight with a buddy, so I wasnt making a store run and risking a very stupid DUI. Luckily it was raining out so I figured I'd be better off to collect rain water rather than use the BS that comes out of my tap. There was pollen and other stuff floating around in the air that i collected as well as the water so I made a quick make shift water filter with a paper towel.

 
Fri 3:53 Pm. I didn't really have a clue how much water to add so the first installment was 211 grams of water, and 7 grams of salt (the cup tared was tared out at 246 grams)

 

[ADRUNKK]

I have 2 jars of habaneros fermenting on my table that started aggressively fermenting on Thursday. at 4:06 pm Sat. I spooned off 8 grams of this as a starter and mixed everything together. It was super super thick and I realized then I needed to collect more rain water. 290 grams total with water, peppers, salt, and habaneros. The empty bowl tared out at 807 grams.

 
At 4:18 pm I 1dded 159 more grams of water and 4 grams of salt but everything was still far to viscous. So i needed to collect more rain water.

 

[ADRUNKK]

At  5:04pm Sat night I added another 174 grams of water, 4 grams of salt, and mixed it up again. This got me to the consistency I was happy with at that point in time.

 
I took one final weight of the bowl and all it's contents.

 
At this point in time I covered it and I will give it a stir a minimum of 2 times a day and upwards or 4 or 5 times a day. When the ferment is really kicking it pushes all the solids upwards and the liquid settles low so I try to keep everything stirred and in an anaerobic environment during aggressive fermentation. I will wipe down the solids off the sides and try to keep everything submerged under liquid as much as possible.
 
Preferably I would have liked to do this in a mason jar to keep the water from evaporating, but I didn't have a correct size jar for this. I've done this with bowls on the table before covered with a plate. The biggest downfall if some of the water will evaporate, thus the reason I took the final weight. This way i can add more water if needed.
 
I plan on doing a 14 day run as long as it doesn't develop any kahm, mold, colors, or smells. I've had very good luck using this method, but it can be quite time consuming.

 

[ADRUNKK]

Monday 8:55pm. Starting to see some bubbles form. Smells good. No funny colors or mold.
 

 
Will check in tomorrow.

 

[Siv]

Very interesting experiment! I have no idea what drying will do to the lactobacillus. If they don't survive then perhaps your fermentation is actually a yeast ferment from natural air borne yeasts. Do you have a pH meter? I would check the acidity so see if it's actually an yeast or lactobacillus ferment that's happening. If yeast, you're producing alcohol, not lactic acid.
 
I've googled a little and it seems that lactobacillus can survive low temp drying so maybe you're fine.

 

[ADRUNKK]

Very interesting experiment! I have no idea what drying will do to the lactobacillus. If they don't survive then perhaps your fermentation is actually a yeast ferment from natural air borne yeasts. Do you have a pH meter? I would check the acidity so see if it's actually an yeast or lactobacillus ferment that's happening. If yeast, you're producing alcohol, not lactic acid.
 
I've googled a little and it seems that lactobacillus can survive low temp drying so maybe you're fine.

I don't have a ph meter. Is there one you would recommend?

 

[Siv]

I don't have a ph meter. Is there one you would recommend?

 
I bought this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ENFOHN8
 
I tried the cheapies and they are rubbish. I just said to myself that $50 is far cheaper than a trip to the doctor!

 

[ADRUNKK]

Very interesting experiment! I have no idea what drying will do to the lactobacillus. If they don't survive then perhaps your fermentation is actually a yeast ferment from natural air borne yeasts. Do you have a pH meter? I would check the acidity so see if it's actually an yeast or lactobacillus ferment that's happening. If yeast, you're producing alcohol, not lactic acid.
 
I've googled a little and it seems that lactobacillus can survive low temp drying so maybe you're fine.

I was thinking about this on the way home. From all the research I've done the 2.5% salt brine and anaerobic environment should not be an environment that yeast can live in right?
 
Pics from this morning Tues 5:57am before i stirred it.

 
Top down pic after stirring it.

 
Pics from tonight before stirring it. 6:36pm Tues

 
Pic after stirring it

 
I was actually expecting to see way more bubbles when I got home. I was expecting the liquid to be setting on the bottom pushing the solids up. The experiment goes on. I'll see what tomorrow brings.

 

[Siv]

Anaerobic respiration (fermentation) involves the breakdown of carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen
- In yeasts, fermentation results in the production of ethanol and carbon dioxide
- Bacteria produce lactic acid anaerobically, which modifies milk proteins to generate yogurts and cheeses (or pickling vegetables etc)
 
Both yeast and bacterial fermentation are anaerobic.
 
I would bet using your nose will tell you the most - does it smell like a bacterial ferment?

 

[ADRUNKK]

 
Anaerobic respiration (fermentation) involves the breakdown of carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen
- In yeasts, fermentation results in the production of ethanol and carbon dioxide
- Bacteria produce lactic acid anaerobically, which modifies milk proteins to generate yogurts and cheeses (or pickling vegetables etc)
 
Both yeast and bacterial fermentation are anaerobic.
 
I would bet using your nose will tell you the most - does it smell like a bacterial ferment?

 
It's smelled great so far. No off smells.

 

[ADRUNKK]

Well whatever fermentation may or may not have been going is completely stopped. The peppers smell great. They smell like slightly sweat jalapenos and a little bit of vinegar. I'll keep going til it molds or catastrophically fails.
 

 

[ADRUNKK]

A little more Co2 than yesterday but I was hoping for a real kick started ferment. I'll see what tomorrow brings.