Question about first hot sauce

[desmi]

Hi my name is Derek and I just joined this great website.
 
A few days ago I found some recipe to make Sriracha and because I like the stuff I decided to make some. But I really enjoy the hotter things so I made my own version.
 
So here are the peppers I put in:

 
 
The yellow ones on the left are adjuma peppers, and they are pretty hot.
 
I also added 5 gloves of garlic, a little bit of fresh ginger, 1 tomato and 2 small red onions, sugar.
 

 
I was reading about tabasco and how it is aged in barrels. Next to hot sauce I also really enjoy the smokey BBQ sauces. So I thought lets add some smokey whiskey to get the barrel/smokey flavour in. So I added a shot of Lagavullin 16. It is the strongest flavoured one I have.
 
After blending this is what I have:

 
 
After about one day I did not see anything about fermentation. I brew beer and if you don't see bubbles in 24 hours you have a problem. So I added some brewyeast, 4 hours later it was bubbling.
 
After all this, I found this website and started reading on fermeting, I found out you NEED salt (not just for flavour) so I added some salt (added 24 grams, equal to 3,3% of the weight).
 
My question is, will this still work, because adding brew yeast is not really the default way to to (someone wrote it will ferment but in a different way with different flavours).
 
Also the recipe I found said the fermentation is one week. Should I let it ferment longer? Because on this site most people do 30 days minimum (I think??).
 
I would love some feedback :-)
 
Derek

 

[RocketMan]

Hi Derek,
First I'd like to welcome you to THP, if you'll over things hit and spicy then this is the place to be!

Your sauce sounds like a really great combination of ingredients and I'd encourage you to read the Fermenting 101 if you haven't done so already. It will answer a lot of your questions and is a great source of information.

Now to your ferment.

I love adding liquor to peppers. There's some real magic that can happen there. I've never included it in the ferment jar though so it will be interesting to see what happen there.

I've never seen brewers yeast work well in a pepper mash, there's just not enough sugars readily available to please the yeast. The thing we use instead are Lactobacillus bacteria. Same as used in brewing a Lambic and available at the brew store from White Labs or you can use some if the ways mentioned in the 101.

Pepper ferments are slower to start and are no where near as aggressive as fermenting wort. You can't look at them te same. You won't see much action in the air lock but you will find lots of bubbles trapped in the mash, enough to cause the mash to float. Don't open the jar! We want that CO2 layer to stay in there and protect out mash from bad bacteria taking hold. The salt is in there to help protect it till the lacto take hold.

I don't think the brewers yeast you added will do much to the mash. If you do find you need to jump start it get some whole milk plain yogurt with a live active culture and follow the instructions in the 101 to collect some Whey and add it to the jar. Give it 30 to 45 days to do its thing and place it somewhere dark and where it's between 80 and 95 degrees F.

Cheers,
RM

 

[cone9]

Welcome to The Hot Pepper and great first post!
 
There are few better ways to endear yourself to THP chiliheads than posting pictures of hot things to eat.

 

[salsalady]

From some news clips and stuff that I've read, I think Hoy Fong ferments for 1 week, but you should ferment for as long as you want.
Here's one of the best posts I've found regarding making as close to the original sriracha hot sauce.  And substituting your own hotter chiles to your tastes is what it's all about. 
http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/02/how-to-make-sriracha-from-scratch-sauces.html
 

 
and yea...thanks for the pics.   We luuuuv pics....
salsalady
 
 
 
edit- here's rocketman's Fermenting 101 thread.

 

[desmi]

@Rocketman

Thank you so much for the reply!

I will just let it sit for a few days and see what will happen. If it looks like nothing is going on, I can try to add some liquid from greek yogurt (I live near a eco-shop so I think I can find some non pasteurized). I did read the fermenting 101 and hot sauce 101 (unfortunately after I made my sauce). But it will definitely help with the next batch.

@Cone9

If I have something (good or bad) to show, I will take some pics and update this thread :-)

@salsalady

Thanks for the link, I'm going to read as much as possible and maybe next month make a new sauce (after the first one is done and I have tasted it).
 
edit: spelling

 

[desmi]

Hey Guys,
 
Here is a little update.
 
After nine days I decided to make the hot sauce, the reason I did not wait longer is:
 
- I added the salt 24 hours after blending the peppers
- I added brew yeast
- Because my jar was really full I put the stuff in an empty wine bottle, this seemed smart but was not very smart because you cannot scoop mold etc from a bottle
 
So I heated it, unti boil, let it simmer for 15 minutes. Blended it again, put it back on simmer and added some ingredients to add some flavour.
 
Here are the ingredients:
 

 
- Lemon aroma white vinegar
- Whiskey
- Palm sugar
- Worcestershire sauce
- Ketjap soy sauce
- Honey
- Syrup
 
Spices:
- Paprika powder
- Cinnamon (very little)
 
I boiled some water, put in some jars and let them boil for 15 minutes, put in the sauce:
 

 
 
It pretty dark, a little smokey, a little sweet (but not overpowering):
 

 

 
I'm happy with the result, and happy I could learn things here for the next try :-)
 
Have a great weekend!!

 

[salsalady]

Very Nice!  Sounds like an interesting flavor.  Glad you had fun and you're looking forward to the next batch.