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Newby first batch

Hello Folks,

I have read a lot on here and elsewhere. I have my first 1/2 gallon batch started. I used dried De Arbol with some shredded carrot, garlic, and onion. I did add a few dried Ghost peppers as well. I made up the brine and added a little 1/4 cup kimchi juice. It seems to be fermenting well. It's been going about a week. My question is.... What's next? I want to do an extended ferment. 3 month or so. Should I grind the peppers at some point then rebottle to let ferment or just put a ferment lid on and let it go?

Thanks!
 
sirex said:
Put the lid on. Put them in a dark, coolish place. Forget about. Come back in 90 days. Process.
 
Sirex is speaking truth.  Let it run for the 90 days.
 
Then you'll pull and process, which means you'll blender then cook or boat motor it in a large sauce pan while cooking.  This step is crucial to stop fermentation - otherwise you would bottle and then it would keep fermenting - which results in bottles that explode (speaking from experience).  
 
During the cookdown process you will have the chance to adjust flavors like salt/sweet/heat level, etc.  Once you're happy with the final taste (which might not need any adjustment!) then you can put the batch through a food mill to remove seeds/skins and then bottle using the hot fill/hold method. 
 
Good luck Yaak!  :)
 
Thank you!
 

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Yaakpepper said:
I have plastic bag filled with water holding everything down!
 

It looks like you're fermenting in a 1/2 gallon mason jar.  I would advise you get some fermentation airlocks that will keep ambient air out of your ferments, preventing mold and kham yeast growth.
 
Several options on this page would suffice.
 
It does smell good. Not rotten or bad and it is bubbling. Lots of co2. When I was pushing the peppers down with a spoon I noticed the liquid was thicker than water. Maybe normal? It was kind of syrupy in viscosity.

Thanks!
 
I wouldn't worry about the syrupy liquid, especially after seeing the pic. My theory based on nothing is that while the water is reconstituting the peppers, the dried peppers also give some fibrous material back into the remaining water causing it to thicken.

I'd say that's plausible as long as it's only slightly thicker than water, if we're talking honey consistency, ya got me.
 
SmokenFire said:
 
Sirex is speaking truth.  Let it run for the 90 days.
 
Then you'll pull and process, which means you'll blender then cook or boat motor it in a large sauce pan while cooking.  This step is crucial to stop fermentation - otherwise you would bottle and then it would keep fermenting - which results in bottles that explode (speaking from experience).  
 
During the cookdown process you will have the chance to adjust flavors like salt/sweet/heat level, etc.  Once you're happy with the final taste (which might not need any adjustment!) then you can put the batch through a food mill to remove seeds/skins and then bottle using the hot fill/hold method. 
 
Good luck Yaak!   :)
 
Hiya, hope the OP doesn't mind but I'm gonna jump in here to save starting another 'newbie' thread.  After a few tries I've managed a successful ferment.  Only ran for a little over a month, and only a small batch, just enough to fill a normal mason jar.  The smell was nice and it had a pleasing acidic flavour, so I decided to process it.  Unfortunately I simmered more of the liquid out of it than I would have liked (wasn't a huge amount to begin with), and decided to replace it with some apple cider vinegar.  Thing is, in doing so I lost a lot of the pleasant 'tang'.  From this point I just added a little water to get it to the consistency I wanted without overpowering things with more vinegar.  So, it's done now and I'm pleased to have an edible fermented sauce, but a little disappointed to have lost some of that initial 'tang' of the lactic acid.  So I'm looking for ideas for next time, which will be started imminently!  I've had a few thoughts myself - I had packed quite a bit of shredded chilli/onion/carrot/garlic into the jar, so maybe the mash to liquid ratio was far too much on the mash side?  And maybe the obvious solution would be to top it up with water rather than vinegar during processing, but I'd then be concerned of diluting the acidity.  Anyone have any thoughts on how to keep that lacto flavour?
 
Aaron said:
 
And maybe the obvious solution would be to top it up with water rather than vinegar during processing, but I'd then be concerned of diluting the acidity.  Anyone have any thoughts on how to keep that lacto flavour?
 
To keep the tang AND have a thinner sauce water is your answer.  Dilution of acidity is real though, so for safety you should invest in a pH meter.  
 
You can also add brine to the fermentation vessel to increase liquids.  Here's a quick salinity guide I found:
 
4012185_orig.jpg
 
That chart is mega useful SmokenFire, thank you very much for that and the reply.  I do intend to get a ph meter so will look into it.  For now, I've started off a new ferment using a similar amount of product as the last time, but in a large mason jar instead of the normal sized one, but still filled up to the top with brine, so hopefully this will provide a more liquid result.  
 
When I get to processing this batch, another thing I was mulling over was the boiling simmering process - if I simmered very gently then I should be able to hold on to a lot more of the liquid, but is it important to give it a good fast boil at some point?
 
Aaron said:
When I get to processing this batch, another thing I was mulling over was the boiling simmering process - if I simmered very gently then I should be able to hold on to a lot more of the liquid, but is it important to give it a good fast boil at some point?
I prefer to focus on botulism, thinking that covers everything else that could be of concern.

Here's a great handout that should be saved

https://www.nwedible.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/botulism3.pdf
 
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