Fermenting Hot Sauce -- GONE AWRY!

Hi all!
 
I am making some homemade sriracha sauce (delicious), and I've done it several times before with great results.
 
The usual process which worked in the past:
Finely chop chilis (I used fresnos), garlic, salt, sugar, toss into a glass jar, seal tight, and let sit for 2-3 days. Once a little bubbly, mix with vinegar, boil, and blend. Voila! Highly recommended.
 
This time, however, something went HORRIBLY wrong:
When I opened the jar after the fermentation period and dumped the chopped chilis into the pot, as it poured out, it was EXTREMELY viscous, like very thick mucous. Disgusting, really. (In the past, the texture had been the same as when the chilis/ingredients went into the jars, save for the natural separation of the liquids from the solids -- fresh and wet)
 
Possible explanations:
1) It was hotter in my kitchen as the sauce fermented this time around (around 80dgs F, vs 70-ish) 
2) The jar was filled almost to the top this time, with very little or no air remaining (in previous batches there was an inch or two of space)
3) Maybe the jar had some kind of bacteria in it and wasn't clean/sanitized enough?
 
If anybody has any ideas as to why this horrible thing happened -- or, alternatively, if it's not that horrible and is completely natural -- PLEASE let me know! Also, if anybody knows what would actually cause that strange mucousy thickening... so so strage...
 
I'm going to be scaling this recipe up big time and before I buy pounds and pounds of ingredients and destroy them I'd love to have some idea of what happened.
 
Thank you SO SO much to anybody who can help!

frickafricka said:

Finely chop chilis (I used fresnos), garlic, salt, sugar, toss into a glass jar, seal tight, 
 . . .
it was EXTREMELY viscous, like very thick mucous. Disgusting, really.
. . .
Possible explanations:
1) It was hotter in my kitchen as the sauce fermented this time around (around 80dgs F, vs 70-ish) 
2) The jar was filled almost to the top this time, with very little or no air remaining (in previous batches there was an inch or two of space)
3) Maybe the jar had some kind of bacteria in it and wasn't clean/sanitized enough?
 
If anybody has any ideas as to why this horrible thing happened -- or, alternatively, if it's not that horrible and is completely natural -- PLEASE let me know! Also, if anybody knows what would actually cause that strange mucousy thickening... so so strage...

Click to expand...

 
 
The texture change is what stood out to me, as this sounds indicative of anaerobic putrefaction.  Sounds like you got some anaerobic nasties in there.

Yep a bad batch of nasties, Before you do any more fermentation I would wash and boil your bottles to sanitize them and seal them till you are ready to use them, Also you need to let your sauce breath while fermenting you can buy a lid that has a fermentation lock that will let the gasses escape with out letting air in,  your health food store will have them or you can get it from your local home brewing shop.  Also there are several good books on natural fermented food and how to get a good batch every time, that way you won't accidentally poison yourself or loose your entire batch to nasties.