I realize it's been talked about a lot on many threads. I'd like to hear ONLY about starters such as sourdough, kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt cultures, etc. What's your favorite & why?
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fermenting Preferred Starter for Pepper Mash
- Thread starter FarmerJones
- Start date
A few of those options aren't bad but I like to go under a controlled environment. Sauerkraut is OK but one of its primary fermentation microbes is pediococcus, which in some strains produces a large amount of diacetyl which lends a buttery\popcorn aroma to your fermentations. Sourdough\yogurt is an OK choice but depending on how you cultured it there are a lot of bad bacteria floating around in the air that can lend some really awful flavors to your product. I prefer to go with known microbe isolates with proper sanitization techniques. Coming from brewing, even with the preservative nature of hops and alcohol you can end up with some really nasty results with open-air\wild fermentations. Certainly not necessarily bad but if you are going to take a month or so to make your hot sauce I'd pick up some lactobacillus cultures from Wyeast or White Labs.
Downriver
Extreme Member
Sauerkraut juice is my first choice because I like popcorn! 
jk
Seriously, I like to use a LAB that originated from a veggie source (kraut, kimchi) vs dairy (yogurt) because we're fermenting peppers, not cows.
That's my rationale and I'm stickin to it!
YMMV
jkSeriously, I like to use a LAB that originated from a veggie source (kraut, kimchi) vs dairy (yogurt) because we're fermenting peppers, not cows.
That's my rationale and I'm stickin to it!
YMMV
Sorry...but your single choice poll doesn't work for my response to your question.
I always have some sauerkraut and kimchi on hand, and when I am making a new batch of either one, I normally just use some juice from an existing ferment. But there are times that I just let it go without adding a starter because the cabbage needs very little help to get going and I only ferment it about 2 days before moving it to the fridge.
When doing a batch of peppers, or sour pickles I will use whey harvested from non fat yogurt.
When fermenting fruits, carrots,beets,bread and butter pickles,garlic etc, I like to use Caldwells vegetable starter.
MissGreenJeans just told me about using Wyeast, because she liked the aggressive ferment she got, but it hasn't finished yet so she hasn't done a taste. test yet.
I plan on giving Wyeast a try at some point.
I have not tried sourdough hooch, although I know of several folks that swear by it.
CM
I always have some sauerkraut and kimchi on hand, and when I am making a new batch of either one, I normally just use some juice from an existing ferment. But there are times that I just let it go without adding a starter because the cabbage needs very little help to get going and I only ferment it about 2 days before moving it to the fridge.
When doing a batch of peppers, or sour pickles I will use whey harvested from non fat yogurt.
When fermenting fruits, carrots,beets,bread and butter pickles,garlic etc, I like to use Caldwells vegetable starter.
MissGreenJeans just told me about using Wyeast, because she liked the aggressive ferment she got, but it hasn't finished yet so she hasn't done a taste. test yet.
I plan on giving Wyeast a try at some point.
I have not tried sourdough hooch, although I know of several folks that swear by it.
CM
I've experimented with several different starters including Wild ferments, Sourdough hooch (that's the clearish part that has the LAB not the dough part that has the yeast), Whey and a Probiotic. I've gotten good results from using the hooch and the whey with quick starts and a great flavored sauce. I have 5 currently in the fridge waiting for me to process and I used the probiotic with all 5 of them. Out of the 5 3 have a kahm yeast in them, which never happened with the hooch or whey.
The plus to a wild ferment is it's free because the LAB came with the ingredients. What you don't know though is what kind of LAB you have and whether it's going to give you the same flavor profile every time or not. Don't get me wrong I liked what I had but when I make a sauce I want to be able to replicate it, so...
The plus to using the hooch is that you always have a ready source for LAB that doesn't cost any more than a bag of flour every so often and you get some really good bread when you decide to bake a loaf.
The plus to Whey, the cost is a tub of yogurt and the time to let it drain and what's left over, well my wife's Lebanese family call it Labneh and it's better than any cream cheese on a bagel, etc...
I haven't made a new sourdough starter since moving to the new house so I've been using Whey mostly. I don't think I'm going to use the probiotic anymore though I, like CM, would like to give the Wyeast LAB a shot.
Cheers
The plus to a wild ferment is it's free because the LAB came with the ingredients. What you don't know though is what kind of LAB you have and whether it's going to give you the same flavor profile every time or not. Don't get me wrong I liked what I had but when I make a sauce I want to be able to replicate it, so...
The plus to using the hooch is that you always have a ready source for LAB that doesn't cost any more than a bag of flour every so often and you get some really good bread when you decide to bake a loaf.
The plus to Whey, the cost is a tub of yogurt and the time to let it drain and what's left over, well my wife's Lebanese family call it Labneh and it's better than any cream cheese on a bagel, etc...
I haven't made a new sourdough starter since moving to the new house so I've been using Whey mostly. I don't think I'm going to use the probiotic anymore though I, like CM, would like to give the Wyeast LAB a shot.
Cheers
Whatever I can get my hands on
Saurkraut--Usually wild, but have some going now using the Ultimateflora probiotic capsules.
Pickles--Usually wild
Peppermash--Usually want to use a starter, So far I've tried and had good results with the Ultimateflora , Whitelabs lacto yeast, saurkraut brine.
Ive used whey before on saurkraut ferment but I'm not to big on yogurt and other means are availble, so I quit. The whitelabs yeast of course was great i think its about 8 bucks and I was able to get about five ferments out of it. The probiotics are fairly new to me but I like the idea of always having a quick source available. Still have yet to try the sourdough starter.
Saurkraut--Usually wild, but have some going now using the Ultimateflora probiotic capsules.
Pickles--Usually wild
Peppermash--Usually want to use a starter, So far I've tried and had good results with the Ultimateflora , Whitelabs lacto yeast, saurkraut brine.
Ive used whey before on saurkraut ferment but I'm not to big on yogurt and other means are availble, so I quit. The whitelabs yeast of course was great i think its about 8 bucks and I was able to get about five ferments out of it. The probiotics are fairly new to me but I like the idea of always having a quick source available. Still have yet to try the sourdough starter.
I use a big crock with weights and never use any starter to speak of. Sometimes I might use a scoop of mash from the last batch I just finished to get thing moving. My airlock burps every 15 minutes after only a week. Glad to see so many trying to mash their own peppers, well worth it.