Ok, I see, you let the starter uncover and the lacto innoculate it?
Why is safer than wild fermentation. Looks the same to me. The bad bacterias can innoculate the starter as well.
Better to leave it loosely covered rather than uncovered where nasties cna get in and ruin the starter. The lacto will come naturally from the ingredients.
Hey quick question - since the lacto consumes the sugars in the mash, is it impossible to get a sweet product short of adding sugar afterwards? I'm lookin to start my first mash in the next few days. The only fermented sauce I've had is tabasco sauce - not a fan of saurkraut or pickles type of sour...
After your mash is complete and your ready to make your sauce your going to boil it which will kill off the lacto. You can then add sweet ingredients and it will keep the sweetness. I prefer to use natural sweet flavors over adding sugar. Agave Nectar, Honey, Brown sugar if a sugar, or fruits like Mango, Pineapple, etc...
The lacto is killed at some temperature, not that high. That means after the boil, any yeast or bacteria should be remained. That means you can then add sugar that won't be fermented. Same process in winery, you kill the yeast before ''backsweeting'' the final product. Only, then, chemicals are used.
Lacto's desired range for fermentation is 85 to 95 degrees F (29.4 to 35.0 degrees C, dont think anybody uses Kelvin) and just about anything that can get in will be killed off at 190 degrees F (87.8 degrees C). Just to give you some actual temperatures to go by.
Hmmm I'd be interested to try some peoples sweet fermented sauces....for my first try I think I'll do just a straight up pepper one and one with pumpkin and apple.
Good thinking, for your first fermentation it would be best to go with a more ordinary sauce such as:
2 - 3 lbs Peppers
1 Lg Onion
3 Lg Cloves Garlic
3 Shredded Carrots
Let it ferment a good 45 days or so and then process by the Fermentation 101 or Sauce Making 101. If you want when you process you could add some tomatoes or a couple tablespoons of Agave Nectar or honey if you want some sweetness in it.
I guess the safest way is to use pure lactobacillus culture?
A vial like this is usually enough to ferment 5 gallons of beer of regular strenght (around 5%abv). So I guess you can ferment A LOT of peppers, then it wort the 10$.
I can even make a starter in beer wort and easily double, and redouble the ''yeast'' culture.
http://www.homebrew-...=0&item_id=1246
Getting a large container of yogurt with an active culture will do it really well and cost alot less. Then you can use the left over soft "cheese" for bagels or to make a cheese cake and you'll never want cream cheese again.
Started fermenting in a gallon crock. The peppers are soaking up a lot of the liquid and I'm worried I put too many peppers in one jar. Are the peppers not completely submerged in jeopardy? Should I add more brine?
As long as you leave the lid on they'll be fine. The co2 layer will protect them and this is perfectly normal in a fermentation. After the bacteria settle down and the fermenting activity is less aggressive they'll drop back down as there will be less trapped co2.
really interesting!
i forgot to mention in my intro, i'm actually a professional brewer.
though i have been working with Fermentation for the last 12 years, it never occured to me that you could ferment peppers.
however, Chillies in beer have never been a favourite of mine. i like beer to extinguish the fire, not fire in the beer.
but of course, there's always an exception to the rule...
I got the lovely treat of meeting the brewers from Ballast Point brewing co (san diego) a month or two back, they had made a habanero IPA which was just phenomenal! a little heat, but just packed to the rafters of that tropical Habanero flavour. wicked!
Welcome to THP, you should get to know wheebz, he's a former brewer at Southern Tier and is now Brewmaster at Darwins on 4th in Sarasota, FL. They just got back from GABF where they got alot of great comment on their brews.
Lacto fermentation is alot like brewing, homebrewer here, except that when your fermenting peppers you want temps higher than for fermenting wort. Lacto prefers temps like I mentioned above.
Habanero brew with not much heat, they must have removed all the seeds and ribs, using only the meat of the pepper. Most of the heat is in the placenta so that would give you the Habanero taste but not much heat.
Cheers Everyone, Have a great weekend
RM
