fermenting New member...First Ferment

[Sizzle Lips]

Just want to start off and say thanks again to all the great info that the people in this forum supply.This is my first go at fermented hot sauce,I have been reading and reading...I hope I did this right.
I started out with 2 pounds of Orange Habs,carrot ,onion and some garlic......I had the crock already....I collected some whey from greek yogurt and followed the fermenting 101 instructions.
Chopped,grated and mixed the ingrediants in a bowl,added the whey(roughly 3 tablespoons) and into the crock and then the weights.
I mixed 2 tablespoons pickling salt with 2 cups warm water and added over the mix.....it was not enough to cover it so I mixed 2 more cups.....covered it just nicely....hope I did not screw up by doing that.
I put the lid on the crock.....filled the channel with water and set it in a safe out of the way place.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I hope i did this right my fellow chilli heads......I did forget to get a picture that shows the mash is covered by about and inch of brine....but it was all covered.
Now the long wait begins.....i plan on letting this go a least three or 4 months......by that time I should be able to use my own pods instead of store bought.

 

[Sizzle Lips]

Houston we have a problem......Hey guys not sure what to do here...need your advice.....It has been 11 full days since I started my ferment....I check the water channel in the crock every morning and top it up if needed.The other day it snowed here and the furnace was cycling on and off as it did get fairly cold.When i went to bed I noticed the channel in the crock was almost empty to the point that it might have taken on air....not sure..I filled it up went to bed and when I checked it in the morning it was down very low again.
 
I cant believe how much moisture the dry heat from the furnace has removed.....my question is what about my mash.....I cant see inside the crock unless I open it....not sure if it is still slowly fermenting and will it  still be airtight.....hoping the weights have do there job and kept everything under the brine........should I just carry on for a couple more weeks to make sure it has fully fermented and then open it.

 

[beerbreath81]

Assuming your weights are keeping everything under the brine (pretty safe bet) your mash is fine. Worst case senario as you say "might have taken on air" is to say that the C02 barrier was lost. Still ok in your situation since you have everything under the brine. As I said before the water in the channel is a backup, it is ok if that thing goes dry for weeks so long as everything is undeneath the brine..safe from oxygen safe from spoilage.
 
Just let it go for as long as you wish, you can continue to fill the channel as you have been but if it goes dry not to worry. If you want to remove the lid and take a whiff feel free you will not harm anything.
 
If this were my ferment/my setup I would be using the lid and water channel as more of a "dust cap" and would be opening the lid every week or two to give it a smell and see how the ferment is coming. If you take a look at my pic of saurkraut posted earlier you can see that everything is submerged below the brine. I open the cap several times throughout the ferment to see how its coming and when its done. 
 
Have Fun!

 

[Sizzle Lips]

Thanks for that  qiuck responce Beerbreath...Im going to give it till the end of the month...filling the channel with water.....and hoping that my weights are in place and did not slide under into my mash....Then i will open it up.......whats the worse thing that could happen.....I lose $8.00 worth of peppers...I have however just ordered a couple of lids with airlocks for wide mouth masons....so I can get some more stuff on the go....again thanks for sharing your knowledge.

 

[SmokenFire]

Yeah since I've received them I've used the airlocks almost exclusively, though when I find some of that mesh I'll cut some to fit my ceramic fermenter just like you did SL.  You'll get some overflow with the airlocks just like beer though - so the grass ain't always greener.  

 

[Hybrid Mode 01]

Thanks for that  qiuck responce Beerbreath...Im going to give it till the end of the month...filling the channel with water.....and hoping that my weights are in place and did not slide under into my mash....Then i will open it up.......whats the worse thing that could happen.....I lose $8.00 worth of peppers...I have however just ordered a couple of lids with airlocks for wide mouth masons....so I can get some more stuff on the go....again thanks for sharing your knowledge.

     
     How did your mash turn out? Is it sauce yet?

 

[Sizzle Lips]

     
     How did your mash turn out? Is it sauce yet?

Well it has been 42 days and I have not even taken a peek. ......I have a rain day off work tomorrow and I am going to pick up woozys....should be sauce in a week or so.

 

[Sizzle Lips]

Well its been 51 days and its time to make some sauce.....Toxic Habanero Hot Sauce.....this is just a hobby that I share with friends and family so my labels are do not need all the fancy stuff on it.

 
This is the first time taking the lid off the crock....I was a little nervous at what I saw at first but I just skimmed it and  went to work.

 
I dumped out the mash into a sauce pan and simmered it for 15 minutes while my bottles were in the oven at 220 degrees.I removed the hot mash to the blender and let it rip....I got the consistincy I was looking for in the first blend.
I returned it to the stove and brought it back to a simmer and added 1/2 cup good red wine vinegar...bit of salt and let it simmer a few more minutes.
The ph right out of the crock was 3.6 and after cooking and adding the wine vinegar it was 3.4.
 

 

 

 
I bottled up 11 woozys exactly and filled them hot and inverted the bottles to sterilize the caps.
 
And a sauce was born
 

 

 

 
All in all I was fairly pleased with the way it turned out....I would say the heat level would be 7-8 out of 10.....cant wait for my next ferment to finish doing its thing.

 

[cypresshill1973]

I really like the result.
 
Only has cooked 15 minutes?? 
 
I've cooked 30-20-15. In each intermediate processing at high rpm.
Only half of the second cooking, the smell was strong.

 

[Sizzle Lips]

 
I really like the result.
 
Only has cooked 15 minutes?? 
 
I've cooked 30-20-15. In each intermediate processing at high rpm.
Only half of the second cooking, the smell was strong.
 

Actually it was cooked 15 minutes.....blended and returned to the pan....when I added the wine vinegar it was probably cooked 10 or more minutes to get it back up to temp before bottling.

 

[cypresshill1973]

I think it was shortly after cooking. 30-20-15 cooking tutorials say. 
My yeast did not smell nice until the first 30 minutes of cooking. 
I am newbie in ferments and review for having read much.

 

[RocketMan]

Sizzle, take a look at the 101's pinned to the top if you haven't yet. You didn't mention your bottling process other than to say that you did invert the bottles so just in case:
 
The length of time cooking the sauce is a personal preference thing as some like a little more raw sauce than others. The most important thing is that you have a safe Hot Pack of the sauce into the bottle which means that the sauce needs to be at 195 dF when it goes into the bottle and is not allowed to drop below 185 dF. You should bottle 2 or 3 and then cap and invert them for at least 15 minutes to sterilize the cap.
 
Making and sharing hot sauce is a really great hobby and a lot of fun well, until someone gets sick and has to be taken to the hospital. We "preach" good techniques here and so far, knock on wood, we've had no mention of anyone getting sick. 
 
Ok, off my soap box now, the sauce looks and sounds great. That little bit of stuff on the top that you had looks like a Kahm yeast was starting up but didn't get very far. it's nothing to be worried about. You did just what you should have done.
 
Cheers'
RM
 
EDIT: Your label is outstanding, though for Allergy Reasons you should include the ingredients on it  

 

[Sizzle Lips]

Just to clear up my bottling process...my sauce was simmered to 200 degrees ...stirring constantly.....and was bottled 3 at a time from bottles I had in the oven a 220 degrees...with a little help I even bottle my sauce while it is still on a simmer with my thermapen always close by....I then invert in the box until cool......1 hour.
I don't want to get anyone sick.......but my process for bottleing is more than safe im sure.
 
Yes I might make a small ingrediant label for the back of the bottle...just to be on the safe side.

 

[beerbreath81]

Well its been 51 days and its time to make some sauce.....Toxic Habanero Hot Sauce.....this is just a hobby that I share with friends and family so my labels are do not need all the fancy stuff on it.
All in all I was fairly pleased with the way it turned out....I would say the heat level would be 7-8 out of 10.....cant wait for my next ferment to finish doing its thing.

wow SL this sauce looks great, nice work on the labels i really like them, they are a nice touch and makes everything looks professional.  Nice work on your first of many sauces!!
 
How did you make your labels?

 

[Sizzle Lips]

 
 
How did you make your labels?
 
I designed them in Photoshop and then got Vista Print to print them on some nice glossy sticker paper....thanks for the kind words.

 

[hoibot]

looks great, you done well!

 

[RocketMan]

 
 
How did you make your labels?
 
I designed them in Photoshop and then got Vista Print to print them on some nice glossy sticker paper....thanks for the kind words.

 
What size label did you go with? I was thinking about having them do the labels for the wedding sauce on 3 x 4 but the more I think about it the more I think I'd like a 3.?? x 5

 

[Sizzle Lips]

 
What size label did you go with? I was thinking about having them do the labels for the wedding sauce on 3 x 4 but the more I think about it the more I think I'd like a 3.?? x 5

These are 3x4 labels....they were designed for a 3x5 originaly,but they were cheaper going with the smaller size.