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  Hey Merrimack! I'm hoping for a food-grade salinity tester, not one made for an aquarium or pond (although those seem to be much more common). Here are a few examples: https://www.amazon.com/Chloride-Refractometer-V%C2%B7RESOURCING-Salinometer-Measurement/dp/B0852KWDWD/...

Hi folks - has anyone here used a salinity tester to measure the salt levels of a pepper mash (or anything else for that matter)? I'm mostly working with pre-made pepper mashes that are kept in quite a bit of salt (the manufacturer says 8%-11%), but I've found the salt level varies quite a bit...

One possibility, although it seems like a longshot if this is a rented commercial kitchen, is that they're using an aseptic bottling process. Most of us small timers are using a hot fill process, where our sauce is exposed to potential pathogens while it's being prepped, but we kill potential...

  I could absolutely see this happening. With the huge shift to household products and cleaning products, there was probably a surge in price for all the containers needed to make those products. I hope this starts stabilizing a bit as the year goes on, though!

Wow, grim picture out there! I'm still in testing phase and haven't launched my planned new product yet, but it's a little daunting to have so little stability in the price/availability of one of the highest cost components of the whole bottle of hot sauce!

Hi folks - I'm noticing that a lot of large online vendors have sold out of standard 5oz glass woozy bottles. Is something going on with the supply chain here?   Here's a short list of suppliers I've used that currently have no stock available:   Berlin...

Hi folks! From a safety perspective, I would assume that a hot fill/hold procedure will work just as well with a plastic bottle - so long as there is a continuous thread cap with liner - as it would for a glass woozy bottle? The principle is just to use the 180+ degree sauce to sanitize the cap...

  Oooh. Nice find! It seems the answer in general is to mack on beer-making supplies. $60 + another $15 for shipping is pricier than the plastic bucket options, but it could be well worth it for vegetable fermentation. Thanks for the tip.

Hi folks - I'm interested in what equipment you all have used to do larger scale pepper fermentation, and how you've handled monitoring the fermentation process with non-glass containers. (I've seen a lot on the forums about larger scale processing of ingredients and bottling, but not on...

Not having seen Smoken's post in time, I did open it up and added a bit of whey culture. A little under a day later and it started to bubble away! Thanks for the feedback all, lookin' forward to this one.

  Hi Axiel - While I'm no expert, there are a couple of good reasons to ferment. First, it's one of two ways to get the acidity level in your hot sauce high enough that it will be shelf stable (i.e. won't require refrigeration and expire quickly): you can either ferment, which creates lactic...

Hi folks - I started my first two ferments about a week ago, and they've both been behaving completely differently. This should be a great learning curve, and I'm looking for advice on one of them in particular.   The first ferment is 100% red jalapeno with 4% salt, I've got it in a very small...

Hi folks - Just started my first two ferments today in Boston. I'm also fermenting vinegar, which will hopefully be a happy marriage down the road.   The forums have already been a tremendous help in getting started.   First two batches are in small 16oz jars. One is 100% red jalapeno mash, the...