Authentic Sriracha the Easy Way:
Ingredients:
20 fresh Fresno chilies
2 to 5 fresh red superhots of your choice (optional)
5 to 10 cloves of garlic (to taste)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp pickling salt
1 tsp fish sauce (optional)
1/4 tsp whey (liquid on top of yogurt)
2 cups water (non-chlorinated)
1/4 cup rice vinegar or white vinegar
Finely mince all chilies and garlic using a blender. Incrementally add non-chlorinated water to make it easier. Add brown sugar, pickling salt, whey, and fish sauce. Thouroughly blend all ingredients into a soupy mash. Add non-chlorinated water as needed until the mash is just soupy enough to have a slick surface. Adding too much water now will make your sauce too thin so don't go crazy with the water.
Pour mash into a 1/2 gallon Mason jar. Be sure that there is plenty of space in the jar above the level of the mash. It will expand somewhat. Cover the jar with either an airlock lid or a piece of clean cloth with a rubber band to hold it tight. An airlock lid is preferable. Place the jar in a dark place that is approximately a constant 65F to 75F. Fermentation will be faster in the upper temperature range.
Within 24 hours, you will see signs of fermentation. Little bubbles will appear and the mash will start to look "fluffed up" (unless you made it too soupy). Stir it at least once per day for 3 to 5 days. Remember that at the higher temperature range, you will need less time.
Your mash should now smell like Sriracha. Pour it into a blender, add rice vinegar and blend it like crazy. After fermentation, all the little particles will break up more easily and it should start looking fairly smooth.
Strain your sauce through a screen strainer to remove seeds/skin. Then strain it through cheese cloth to get a very smooth consistency.
You may want to add more salt/sugar to meet your preference.
IMPORTANT!!!--after you bottle it, you MUST do a hot water bath on the bottles or else it will continue to ferment and make your bottles explode in storage. Your fridge will look like the scene of a brutal murder. Not good.
Because you added vinegar (especially if you added plain white venegar), you should let the sauce mellow in the fridge for a couple of days to lose that raw vinegar flavor.
Enjoy.