fermenting Is this mash gonna be OK?

[Bigoledude]

On many of y'alls posts, I often read where many of you add some type of acidic ingredients to lower the PH prior to starting your ferments. I didn't add anything acidic.

I have a gallon of sauce fermenting right now. I'll list the ingredients again; about 2 pounds of store-bought habaneros, about a quarter-pound of serranos, 1 pound of jalapenos, and about a half-pound of poblanos. Then, I added a carrot, a banana, an apple, a couple large onions and two heads of garlic.

As I posted before, I squirted some very active kefir whey into the mash before I capped the jug.

There was no citric acid, vinegar, lemon, lime or anything else added to the mash to lower the PH before I jugged-up the contents.

Have I ruined this batch?

With all of the activity I can see, it is either fermenting really well or, it's rotting really bad! Will the fermentation process cause the PH to fall on it's own?

 

[Pulpiteer]

I would say yeah, you're probably going to be ok. I did not add anything acidic at all to my mash, just some yoghurt whey to jump start the fermentation. The fermenting does lower the pH quite a bit, I think mine got down to like a 3 or 3.5, so you don't need acid for lowering the pH when you're done. Do you have a picture you can post? Also, the sticky in this section about fermenting hot sauces was awesome, that's what I used in mine and it worked great.

 

[Bigoledude]

Hey Pastor Andy

Yea, I read RocketMan's "Fermenting 101" several times over. But, I keep reading in posts here, where everyone is adding acid to their mash in the beginning. Just thought I may have read it wrong? Glad to hear that my sauce is still a remote possibility!

My son "borrowed" my SD card from my camera to use in a game-cam (mine also). Then, my computer quit prompting me to send photos taken with my wife's phone, where I WANT THEM to go. It now sends them where IT WANTS THEM to go! And, I gotta go searching all over this skull-cramping machine to find them.

I'm buying an SD card tomorrow. And, I'm still trying to find someone to put this new computer together with all the new components I just got from Newegg. I sure hope a new computer solves the issues for a while.

Will this site allow me to "attach" photos that I have in "Word" or "Windows Picture Manager"? I've never used a third party like photobucket.

 

[Pulpiteer]

No, you can't attach them like that. You'll have to use a third party. I've got my own webspace for my blog and the church so that's where I put mine. A lot of people were using photobucket, but I think they have made changes to their policy so double check that before joining. I'm not sure what service to use, but I'm sure someone does.

It sounds like your mash should work fine. Just keep oxygen from getting in. For mine, since I couldn't push the solids all the way down under water, I had to scrape off the top level of gunk, I think it was a sort of yeast, and toss that, but the rest was great. I just drained the salt water (although I don't know that everyone does that) and chopped it up. 30 to 40 days of fermenting should work for you. Oh, if you don't have one, I'd recommend getting a pH tester. I think mine was between 20 and 30, it was a Milwaukee product ordered on Amazon. Works great.

Good luck with the pictures, I wish I knew more about the third party stuff to help you out.

 

[RocketMan]

I don't usually add any acid upfront either. I did in Cannon Fire with the Blood Orange only because it was part of the over, and you'll hear me use this term a lot, Flavor Profile I had in mind for this sauce. So, I think your fine and going to have some great sauce here in a bit. I bet Pastor Andy might even do a long distance blessing of the mash for ya if you asked

 

[Bellyacher151]

I have always used Imageshack for my pic host server. Now you do have to sign up though for ease of use. After pic is uploaded to their site just copy the "direct link" then while in posting box click box I have pointed out in pic, small popup window will appear and thats where you paste your link.