fermenting First fermenting attempt, making xmas sauce as a gift.

[Ectoid]

This is my first attempt at fermenting a hot sauce. I have read a few tips from the forum here, which were helpful.  I hope it will go well.
 

 
If you have any comments or suggestions, all are welcome so I can iterate to get better results. I'll post a follow up on this.
 
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Part 1 of making my virgin voyage to fermenting sauce let us see how that goes. You can expect some hot stuff if this works out. Part teo is coming in the 2 weeks of time.
 
Shoutout to dj_make and inspired by his recipe https://github.com/pimeys/recipe-el_fuego_viviente 
 
So:
1/2
1  
10g of Carolina Reapers
Bowl of habaneros
Filled up with green finger  
2 tbls of salt
 
I filled the rest of the jar with as much habaneros and finger chillies as possible so the amounts would depend on you jar. Then I'll let it sit for two weeks. Mixing a little each day to avoid mold on top!

 

[Sp33dy]

Hi,

I watched your video, my only observations are you would be better off with an airlock instead of repeated openings. A zip lock bag and elastic band will do.

Dont fill the jar to the top either, once it starts to ferment that will overflow. Use an onion slice or cabbage leaf to keep the peppers under the brine.

All the best.

 

[Pharthan]

A few recommendations:

1) Go with airlocks instead of repeated reopening, as Sp33dy said.

I had one jar I opened after 2.5 months of fermenting, and it had been doing fine, but had absorbed all water. All I did was added a saturated-salt brine on top to keep it from molding. Ironically, that actually was enough for kahm yeast to form.

Minimize exposure to atmosphere.
 
Here are the airlocks I use and love, but not sure they'd work for you, these are for mason jars and yours looks like it has a wider mouth than a standard mason jar.

2) You didn't leave a lot of room for expansion - and it will expand. Be prepared to lose some of your mash, and unfortunately what's on-top is most of your spice stuff. Usually you want to leave 3-6cm for expansion.

3) Your initial ferment should be done by Christmas like you wanted, but be prepared for it to take some time for the wild yeast to take hold, since you didn't use a starter. My last batch took about 3 weeks before it started actually fermenting.

The problem with this is how short a time-frame you're on. I actually made my first batches for a wedding about 1.5 months ahead of time, and the flavor was... lacking. Typically you want to ferment for 90 days. My second
(technically 3rd, as my second batch I had to toss it out due to kahm yeast) definitely had a better flavor letting it go for the full 3 months, whereas the 1 - 1.5 months first batch was spicy, but weak in flavor.

So my real recommendation:

Make another batch. Bottle your first batch at the intended date, but then let the second batch go fully for 3+ month to find out just how fantastic it can be.

Good luck!