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messed up

R

Rabbit91476

first I messed up by not writing any ingredients on the first ferment before I joined to forum around November. it had ghosts garlic onion and red bell pepper 3.5 percent salt. if I recall
but question   there was no mold in jar or on fermentation lid.  taste sour/soapy.  what could I have done wrong
 
second ferment since January  31.  pineapple mango salt and habanero.  this one smells and tastes like it has white wine in it and I don't remember putting in wine in it nor is it in the recipe paper.  before I start another batch  what could possibly be producing these odd flavors
 
I have 4 pounds of habanero only fermenting with only salt and probiotic I hope there is no surprises with that ferment.
 
 
Thanks
 
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A certain amount of sour-ness is expected from a ferment for the first few weeks. How long did you let them go for? I used to sample mine every couple weeks and found that a minimum of 3 months gives it that complexity of flavors you hear everyone talk about. I had a 9 month batch that just blew everyone away, I wish I kept more for myself.
 
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warrantman means that in the bestest, most helpful way.  Been there, not done 'that', regretted it.....anyway, back on topic....
 
as Hawaiianero said, ferments taste sour, that's part of the whole fermentation thing.  "aging" is different than fermenting.  I've had HUGEly different flavors based on the ripeness or greenness of the peppers, and on what other ingredients are used.  One batch made with green jalapenos and left to do it's thing for about 5 months came out soooo sour...it was worse pucker power than sucking on a lemon!!!
 
Anyway,
give it another go, add some other ingredients like apples that will help it not be so sour and after it is fermented, you can always add more non-fermented of the same ingredients.
 
Have fun!
SL
 
 
 
 
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Rabbit91476,
 
I meant no offense and my apology if taken as such. As SL mentioned (thanks SL!) it was to be construed as helpful as I wish you to succeed in your projects and not duplicate dumb mistakes that I have myself made. There is a great deal to learn from folks here, certainly I've learned much and continue to do so..
 
Good luck and again to quote salsalady - have fun!
 
Reggie
 
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What's that saying....'knowledge is learning from your mistakes, wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others.  Be Wise, Peppawan."
-insert image of cloaked pepper floating off into the sand dune sunset-....
 
Don't mind me, just having a bit of fun.  :D
 
Fortunately, this is the bestest most excellentivest pepper forum ever and 99.92% of folks are here to learn or here to help.  There is the occasional rotten pepper, but the Mods take care of that quite nicely.  WarrantMan is definitely one of the good peppers~
 
SL
 
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No offense taken. Guess it wasnt bad then. Tossed it. Didnt taste very good. And wasnt very hot. Cant wait to see what my half gallon of habanero taste like. IN a month or two. Will use some for. Tabasco style sauce. And dehydrate some. For salt seasoning. Thanks for the replies
 
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Rabbit91476 said:
 And dehydrate some. For salt seasoning.
Click to expand...
 
See now there's something I never thought of that makes perfect sense. I've dehydrated peppers to make powders for mixing with salt, and I've dehydrated the remains of sauce that I ran through a food mill for salt blends but I never tried drying the ferment itself.
What a cool idea!!
 
Always learning....Love this forum :onfire: :dance: :party: 
 
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I've ran the ferment through the food mill and dried the tailings....that way you get both the liquidy sauce and the dried remnants....which is what you would basically be getting by drying a ferment.  Unless it is a really thick ferment...? and you don't have a use for it as a sauce?
 
 
Hmm ...if it is a kinda thick ferment, I suppose the pulp could be (blendered if needed...), put into jam jars and done up in a boiling water bath.  Kind of a riff on AJ Puree recipe.
 
SL
 
 
 
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I would be willing to bet you are getting that white wine flavor on your second ferment, because the pineapple and mango didn't lacto sour to produce lactic acid. Instead of a lacto fermentation, the fruit went through a fermentation with some wild yeast, and produced alcohol. Lacto fermenting fruit, requires a large lacto starter culture, and a short fermentation time, otherwise it will most likely ferment to produce alcohol.
 
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After my first or 2nd ferment, I started writing down what I did exactly.  Everything I make is a spin off from a recipe I found online and have posted elsewhere here.  I've even printed that out as I base everything on that unless I find a better recipe.
 
Recently I transcribed what I had written, as my handwriting is worse than a 3 year old's, to text documents and printed them out.  Plenty of room for notes hand written or otherwise.  
 
RE: sourness 
In my present batch of 3% salt plus a few cups of water, chilies, shallots and garlic, (what I normally do in proportion to chili weight vs original recipe) I'm getting 3.2-3.5 pH after 2-3 weeks.  The 3.2 surprised me as I previously got that reading only after fermentation and adding vinegar.  3.2pH came from a batch of jalapeños that are fermenting on their own w/one ball of allspice added to each bottle they are fermenting in plus a few cups of water, chilies, shallots and garlic.  All have a sour taste to them, but those made with thai chilies are very hot in present form without dilution via vinegar.
I only ferment for a month as I need to get these to people ASAP and have standardized with a 30 day ferment for everything.  
 
All chilies are smoked on the grill with a handful left out of the smoking process to make sure all the "good" fermenting bacteria aren't killed off as the temps get pretty high during smoking.
 
I only work with weights higher than 2 kilos.  
 
 
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