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tutorial Fermenting Peppers 101

thanks, RM, I'll probably let the little one go for 6 week and then try it. How it tastes will determine if the big jug keeps going or if it all gets processed. I'm notorious for not having patience to wait for sauces to "cure" so this will be a good exercise in patience for me. :) The big jar has a little liquid visible at the bottom. It's a gallon jar and there's maybe an inch of geen liquid and the pulp seems to be floating with lots of bubles. I don't have an airlock on them, but I think I can get one rigged up for the small jar with a plastic lid. Will post pics if it works.
 
If you don't have an air lock there are a couple of things that you can do. The simplest is to jusp put the lid on that came with the jar and just leave it a little loose. Another easy one is to place a plastic bag over it and use a rubber band to hold it in place. The main thing is to keep out the air and allow the CO2 to build as a buffer zone and to escape so it doesn't over pressure the jar.
 
Thanks, RM.

I found a plastic lid from a mayonnaise jar fit the quart jar perfectly, and the black lid is off of a large food-service size spice jar. I had the gallon jar, and last time I tried to use an airlock with a metal lid to make kimchi, but the lid got all rusty. yuck. For others, if you have the gallon jar, like a sun tea jar or other, ask at a local restaurant if you can have the lid (or the whole empty plastic container if you don't feel like explaining why you only want the lid> :lol: ) from a 5# spice container.

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It was bubbling nicely and had a lot of gas trapped in the pulp before I took the bags out and put the lids on. After putting the lids on, I shook the jars to try and release some of the gas and get it into the head space. Hope I didn't screw it up. :fingerscrossed:
 
looking good Salsa Lady, looking good. The only time you'll have a problem is if any of the juice gets into the airlock where it can contact air and can be drawn back into the mash.
 
Hey everyone. First post here. I must say I love the site and especially this thread. I started my first mash a week ago and threw it out when the yeast started growing on top. That was before I read this thread and found out it is harmless. My current mash has been brewing for a couple days now and I am barely starting to see small bubbles form. I am experimenting and so in one jar I poured about 1/2" of olive oil. I figured it would make a seal and prevent air from getting in since it is lighter than water and floats. So far it seems to be working well. In two jars I innoculated with some yogurt starter and another I used some coconut yogurt. The yogurt seemed homogonized and I didn't see any whey so I just used a spoonfull. When I made my mash I used ~10% salt to weight mixture. I have heard everthing from 2tbsp to 10% so I assume more is safer but past 10% you may kill the Lactobacillus. Also, since I am using a high salt mixture, when I want to cut it down should I use xanthan gum to rethicken it? It seems like a lot of popular sauces do it that way.
 
Synreal said:
Hey everyone. First post here. I must say I love the site and especially this thread. I started my first mash a week ago and threw it out when the yeast started growing on top. That was before I read this thread and found out it is harmless. My current mash has been brewing for a couple days now and I am barely starting to see small bubbles form. I am experimenting and so in one jar I poured about 1/2" of olive oil.
Click to expand...

Interesting... but may be hard to get rid of the oil if you're making hot sauce out of it.

Synreal said:
I figured it would make a seal and prevent air from getting in since it is lighter than water and floats. So far it seems to be working well. In two jars I innoculated with some yogurt starter and another I used some coconut yogurt. The yogurt seemed homogonized and I didn't see any whey so I just used a spoonfull.
Click to expand...

If you use yogurt as a starter you definitely want to make sure it says it's using live cultures. Most yogurts don't.

Synreal said:
When I made my mash I used ~10% salt to weight mixture. I have heard everthing from 2tbsp to 10% so I assume more is safer but past 10% you may kill the Lactobacillus. Also, since I am using a high salt mixture, when I want to cut it down should I use xanthan gum to rethicken it? It seems like a lot of popular sauces do it that way.
Click to expand...

You may be surprised that you don't need to cut it down much. Xanthan gum will re-thicken and help prevent separation, but I find I don't need it (Vitamix Pro 500 blender FTW!)

FWIW, here's the sauce I ended up making with the mash from a few pods from last year...

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Nice Pablo! Do you sell your hot sauces? Also, about the oil: I plan on sucking it out with a syringe or turkey baster. I have been shaking my jars to keep the stuff at the top from growing yeast but eventually the oil rises to the top.
 
Synreal said:
Nice Pablo! Do you sell your hot sauces? Also, about the oil: I plan on sucking it out with a syringe or turkey baster. I have been shaking my jars to keep the stuff at the top from growing yeast but eventually the oil rises to the top.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the interest! I'm making a short run to sell, yes, and if we sell out, we'll scale up and sell some more. :cool: The ones pictured are just a one-off from me experimenting with my own mash. They'd be hard to produce at scale I think because of the odd-ball blend of peppers used and the difficulty in sourcing them in large quantities. For the production line we're using a mash supplier. Making your own mash is nice because it gets really expensive to ship these giant vats of mash everywhere - they're HEAVY; but it's hard to beat the convenience of having consistently good mash on hand also.

Here's the Pablo's pages for anyone interested -
https://www.facebook.com/PablosHotSauce
https://plus.google.com/u/1/111557082308109818406/posts
http://pabloshotsauce.tumblr.com/
http://www.pabloshotsauce.com
 
-Pablo- said:
Thanks for the interest! I'm making a short run to sell, yes, and if we sell out, we'll scale up and sell some more.
icon_cool.gif
The ones pictured are just a one-off from me experimenting with my own mash. They'd be hard to produce at scale I think because of the odd-ball blend of peppers used and the difficulty in sourcing them in large quantities. For the production line we're using a mash supplier. Making your own mash is nice because it gets really expensive to ship these giant vats of mash everywhere - they're HEAVY; but it's hard to beat the convenience of having consistently good mash on hand also.

Here's the Pablo's pages for anyone interested -
https://www.facebook.../PablosHotSauce
https://plus.google....109818406/posts
http://pabloshotsauce.tumblr.com/
http://www.pabloshotsauce.com
Click to expand...

My production sauce is available for purchase on Etsy now if you're interested. http://www.etsy.com/shop/PablosHotSauce
 
MashDay!

Started March 18, 2012
Jalapenos, garlic, onion, apple, salt, started culture

I used airlocks on the jars, set on the kitchen counter for ~71 days. (too lazy to actually count)

Here's what they looked like taking the lids off-
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The smaller jar had this funky stuff on it, and I know others have called it a yeast, but it was pink and white, and the smell wasn't the same as the large jar....so it got pitched.
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Simmered the large jar stuff for about 45 minutes, cuz I was busy with other stuff and that's how that was decided, then through the food processor. It still had a bunch of large seeds, so then it got milled. Much Better!

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pH in the finished sauce was about 3.2. And since I can't just leave well enough alone, I added a couple things to the other jars. Agave, and some spices. After the agave was added, pH was 3.4.
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swirled the jar to show the texture.
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It has a good sour taste, but maybe a little too salty. I'm not sure since I don't usually eat mash-type sauces. That was cool to see the pH so nice and low! I'll find out more about the flavor this weekend as we have some victims volunteers coming over for a visit.

:lol:

So what about that yeasty jar? I know it's a little hard to see the color, but was that a good yeast or bad yeast? Oh, and thank's for all the suggestions and support.
 
So what about that yeasty jar? the yeast wont kill you...but it sure does mess up the flavour.
You must keep air out completely, all through the process.
 
So I have to ask......Is the "yeast" really just a pellicle from the lacto like you would end up with making a sour beer?
 
Lanman.......these 'kahm' type yeasts are not part of the lacto-they are opportunistic intruders in terms of the lacto-fermentation process; and they need oxygen.
Sour beer" i don't know of but could well be related. It's all about the battle for the sugars...lactobacilius bacterias will convert sugar to relatively mellow lactic acids , yeasts will convert those sugars to ethanol/alcohol with side effects of the more harsh acetic acid/vinegars .
 
been intrigued by this process since i read about it last year but never got around to it til now just started my first 3 mashes, 1qt red superhot mix, 1 qt yellow super hot mix and then 1pt yellow and superhot yellow and red mix. peppers, pickling salt, water, garlic, onion and kefir starter, within 2 hrs the jars have showed activity> I am super pumped as u might imagine, RM and CM thanks for this thread! :dance: :cheers:
 
I have a question, I have several fermentation jars that have been going for over a month. I notice that when the fermentation starts everything rises to the top then it slowly settles back to the bottom. Two current fermentations went through this process and no noticeable bubbles rising then suddenly everything rose to the top again. Now there are bubbles almost constantly rising again. Is this normal?
 
interesting question. to those who have fermented before, have you noticed a difference between the fermenting action of red and yellow peppers i have three pepper mashes going 1 red, 1 yellow, and one mix of red and yellow they have the same amount of water garlic and onions, the same amount of salt, but the red one is bubbling far more then the mix and lastly the yellow only
 
Chili_freak, I'm guessing it has to do with the amount of sugars in the peppers, could be wrong though. Some of my fermentation jars take a while to start while others are bubbling and burping the next day. Are you using natural air fermentation or adding LB? Same amount of LB in all jars?
 
yeah same amount of kefir starter in both types, the third small jar was what wouldnt fit of the two batches i made one red and one yellow and each batch got one packet of kefir starter 1 onion 10 cloves of garlic a butload of peppers and a whack of salt, then water to cover
 
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