so RM showed me this thread, so I figured I would go ahead and give my input to the best of my ability with my experiences in fermentation
gimmie a second and I am going to multiquote all of the first page, and then do the second page, and give my opinions
I started to post this in the ferment 101 thread, and then thought that perhaps this question deserves its own thread... After having done a bit of searching, I haven't found a satisfying answer...
Honey is a complex sugar as I recall, in fact, it takes your body something like 12 hours to break it down. In light of that, how does honey affect a ferment? Does it impact the time? I see agave nectar being recommended a lot, is that a better choice than honey? how does honey impact the taste? I know honey CAN be used in a ferment, because it was used to make mead, but that is not lacto, that is yeast yes?
I will likely give it a shot, and formulate my own opinions... But I want to hear the crowd sourced wisdom on the topic first
Honey is not that complex of a sugar, in fact its almost completely composed of the monosaccharides fructose and glucose, very simple sugars
Honey ferments out very quickly in fact, as long as you have proper pitching rates for either yeast or bacteria fermentation, and a maintained fermentation temperature
It's not just breaking it down that's the issue. It's also that it is anti-bacterial. Honey can slow down ferments A LOT if there is enough of it. From my experience with yeast ferments (Booze) A normal beer only needs to ferment for weeks, while fermented honey products take closer to year. This hover may not apply to lactobacillus ferments. The best I can suggest is experiment first.
Honey itself does not slow down fermentation, the potential ABV and environment ( amounts of zinc, phosphorus, other minerals, temperature, dissolved oxygen, etc) that are given to the bacteria/yeast are the causes of a lagged fermentation
You can make mead in like 40 days IIRC from a literature class I had once... But that was stored near the fire.
I have made mead in 10 days
I have made mead in a year
Here's the thing about ANYTHING that goes into a fermentation jar. All of the sugars are going to be consumed, so, if you want to add a touch of sweetness to your sauce you have to do it AFTER the fermentation, during the processing of the mash into the sauce. Just as the yeast in a mash eats the sugars and
+1 DQ, honey can mess with and mess up your fermentation.
not ALL of the sugars are going to be fermented, thats dependant on what creepie crawlies you have avbailable for fermentation, what strains of bacteria/yeast you are using, but you already knew that, i was just clarifying
It is possible to ferment a sauce with a beer yeast, leaving complex sugars, and then using food grade lactic acid for your preservative purposes, at least the science tells me so
That would be an interesting thing to experiment on, using honey in lue of Salt in a ferment however, when using a starter the need for salt is reduced also. I have High Blood Pressure and so most of what I do is low sodium. When I start a fermentation I only add a couple of Tablespoons of salt to the mash with the starter. The starter kick starts the fermentation process.
Temperature is still important and Lacto bacteria work best in a temp range of 85 to 95 degrees F. lower temps will slow the fermentation down. Higher temps though will kill the bacteria off but not produce any off flavors as a yeast will at higher temps with estors and fissel alcohols.
My Jamican hot sauce is a fermented sauce and there are A LOT of sugars in the mash, Gloden Raisins, Ginger, Sweet Potatoes, a lot of sugars. Then I add pineapple to it during the final processing. Now you'd think that it's going to be a sweet sauce however it's not. You can taste all of the fruit in it but the only touch of sweet you'll taste, and it's only bairly noticeable, is from the pineapple that's added during processing. It's actually pretty cool that you can taste, and if you have a really great pallet, you can pick out all of the individual flavors, but not the sweetness of the fruits.
I do love me some Jamaican, i use it on pineapple and ham pizza
Hmm that's interesting. My mead ferments were very slow. I also used sweet corn in it. However, when I tried a plain sweet corn ferment it went much quicker. Could the difference be the end ABV?(10-12% vs 5 to 8% for beer) The amount of honey used? Any other ideas?
Seems lacto bacteria are significantly slowed by honey.
http://www.ajol.info...iew/58890/47207 However the lactic acid produced seems to increase. These experiments were done with milk and honey. Not peppers and honey so that may also affect the end result.
Your mead ferments were slow because of the shear amount of sugars there were to ferment, not to mention your pitching rate was significanly lower than necessary, and im sure you most likely didnt oxygenate in order to compensate
as far as the increase in lactic acid, its because the bacteria is stressed out compared to ideal fermentation characteristics of what you are trying to ferment
its like unwanted esters and polyphenol production in yeast fermentation, you piss em off, they are going to do exactly what you dont want them to do
so if you want my opinion on honey and fermentation for a sauce, i say absolutely go for it, do a batch with it before and a batch after fermentation, and see the results
pre-fermentation additions are going to give you the flavor, not necessarily the sweetness depending on what strain of lacto producting bacteria you use, while post will give you both
I would think post fermentation would turn out to be more of a spicy BBQ sauce than an actual sweet hot sauce
I would also try one with molasses, as I have used that in beers before and it works out perfectly, as molasses are more complex than honey
