Thanks for the input and response! No doubt what you are proposing is a simpler method and possibly better.
Yes I believe that the strain of Lacto will make a difference in flavour but I've not yet found any research article on what that difference might be. Coming from a homebrewing background, we use different yeast strains to impart specific flavours in different beer styles. I find it very interesting to explore these differences. Sure, chilli and beer is not the same but I still have unanswered questions. Doing a natural chilli fermentation is easier and maybe even more interesting for some but I don't really know what's going on in there and can't really manipulate it much. You also need to keep temperature relatively low to ensure there's no other unwanted growth which slows the entire process and I don't know what affect that has on flavour considering lacto generally works at its optimum at 32-37 degrees C, depending on the strain. Since this is a hobby, we do sometimes have the luxury of choice whether to follow the traditional method or whether to tickle your fancy and explore things that you don't know, which is primarily the reason for going this route - learning to possibly have more control by choosing the strain of Lacto you are using and testing the impact of higher temperatures on such fermentations.
There's a patent on pure lactic acid fermentation of chillie's which makes us of Lactobacillus Plantarum and Leuconostoc Mesenteroides, in a 2:1 ratio. Lactobacillus Plantarum is used quite commonly in brewing sour beers. I am not certain what the need is for the second bacterial strain. The same strains have been mentioned in other scholarly research articles, together with P Pentosaceus (Pediococcus). I'm not too keen on playing with Pedio at this stage. From research, the performance of L. Plantarum when used on it's own in fermenting chilli seems fine. Another strain that's commonly used in beer is Lactobacillus Brevis which I might have access to and I wonder why the chilli research folk don't seem to be using this.
This might just be a wild goose chase. Time will tell. i don't know how many people on this group has experience with this sort of thing and have subsequently decided it's not worth the effort. Maybe the final product even comes out flat and boring in flavour. I don't know...
