Cheers from South Africa

T

The Flying Pepper

Good day,
 
Herewith my first post!
 
Been fermenting chillies for years. Usually somewhat of a hit-and-miss. Hoping some input from this forum will assist with improving process to ensure a perfect success rate during fermentation. Further also interested in learning more about different chillies as well as fermenting and aging with oak chips or staves. Objectives are to learn the making of a high quality, complex and tasteful, fermented pepper sauce. Also want to find out what else about chillie I'm not aware of and see how deep the rabbit hole goes...
 
 
 
 
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Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.
 
My first point of call is to build a dedicated stir plate for chilli project so I can test emulsifying some already fermented mash I have in the pantry. High hopes for this process I recently came across.
 
Second point is to find some fresh chillies to ferment. I will probably start with a bag of Birds Eye Chillie and some Red Jalapenos as I know these aren't too difficult to find at the market. Might see if they have something else interesting that I don't know. Not the biggest fan of the Habanero taste so will probably give that one a skip this season. Have also read about a pepper called Chisa Chilli, a F1 hybrid of Birds Eye which should be available in SA. If i'm lucky I might be able to find that. It's supposed to be a bit hotter and the heat should be more stable across farmers.
 
Third point would be to actually ferment these successfully. Need to decide on whether I want to just do a mash with salt or whether I will be doing a brine solution. Salt seems to be a difficult point here in SA. Struggling to find salt without additives in our grocery stores... will try to check with a more specialist baking store. Also need to decide on salt ratio's because I've been seeing anything from 2.3% to 10%. Surely there must be a generally accepted standard for being on the safe side without over-salting?
 
Lastly, I am fairly certain that I'm going to have to plant some of my own peppers if I'm looking for anything specific or more exotic than what is generally available at our market. Would love to try something like Fatalii and one or two others. Since we are entering winter this side, I'll procure some seed and get ready for the next season. Will start them indoors early so that they have some legs on them by the time the summer sun comes out to play. Still deciding whether it's worth building a small hydroponic setup or whether I should rather just keep it simple in the soil.
 
Will start a new thread and update you all as I go. Mostly as a way for me to keep track and digest what I'm doing and what my progress is.
 
Cheers!
 
Point 1. Sounds interesting , you are now obliged to keep us updated. :party:
 
Point 2. Thick skinned chillies are always best for fermenting , Jals , Tobasco , birdeye etc. F1 hybrid sound very unpredictable.
 
Point 3. Salt for fermenting , 3-4 % is what I use with just mash . I don't like diluting with water.
 
 
.... and most of all , enjoy it and good luck!
 
 
 
karoo said:
 
Point 3. Salt for fermenting , 3-4 % is what I use with just mash . I don't like diluting with water.
 
Click to expand...
 

Thanks for this input Karoo. I agree that the brine fermentation isn't really appealing to me but happy to do it if that's the best approach. Do you ever have any mold growth on the top layer of the mash? I've had that issue in the past and been thinking it's a salt ratio issue. Coming from a beer background I'm used to being pretty sanitary. My only other adjustment could be a Lactic Acid Bacteria starter of some sort to get the fermentation going quicker and possibly managing fermentation temperature.
 
The Flying Pepper said:
 
Thanks for this input Karoo. I agree that the brine fermentation isn't really appealing to me but happy to do it if that's the best approach. Do you ever have any mold growth on the top layer of the mash? I've had that issue in the past and been thinking it's a salt ratio issue. Coming from a beer background I'm used to being pretty sanitary. My only other adjustment could be a Lactic Acid Bacteria starter of some sort to get the fermentation going quicker and possibly managing fermentation temperature.
Click to expand...
 
My methods to prevent mold , 
- I start fermenting only after the worst summer heat in April.
- Sterility as you've mentioned.
- All mash and add the 4% salt on top of the mash from where it will work it's way down.
- Add a small amount of vinegar only on top , spraying the glass down as you add it . This is enough to clean the top of the container and keep mold off the top of the ferment and not too much . You don't want to stop fermenting or change the taste.
 
So my first ferment for this season seems to be going well. 500g cayenne peppers, chopped, blended, put in sanitised mason jar, 6% salt on top, flush headspace with Co2, lid on mason jar not tightened. Been going for about 3 weeks in pantry (approximately 18-20 degrees C) and activity has slowed down. Salt has mostly sunk down into the mash. No growth on top of the mash, which I'm happy about. Not opening it at this stage as I don't want to introduce oxygen. Will probably wait a week and process into sauce. Always liked Tobasco but since I've been taking my sauces a bit more seriously, I'm not so sure anymore. Bought a bottle last week and just find it too be too vinegary. On the bottle they say they have 19% pepper. I'll start by diluting 50% with vinegar after I've blended the mash again. Will put on stir plate to emulsify, hopefully the dilution will be enough, else I might have to go to a 60% vinegar, 40% pepper mash, then strain after emulsifying. Will heat to pasteurisation temps and bottle.
 
For my next ferment I'm planning a larger 5l bucket. Will pasteurise pepper mash in advance, cool down then innoculate with pure lactobacillus, transfer to fermenting bucket that has been flushed with Co2, add 6-8% salt on top and ferment in fermentation fridge at 35 degrees C. Hopefully I can keep things sanitary enough that the high temp will not give me any issues. Still trying to source the Lacto.
 
 
 
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