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fermenting Questions on fermenting sauce

Barley-pop57

Barley-pop57

A month back or so Halbrust posted a question on fermenting hot sauce (12/28/13) and I got involved with questions also on his thread.
 
Photobucket nor flickr is very user friendly to me--so no pic.  I too started my 1st attempt at fermenting that day and I ended up putting a whole small container of peach yogurt in as my starter instead of seperating the whey (started to but my explaination is in Halbrust's thread).  Basically the concensus was to pitch it.
 
My question is this:  I've waited a month and there is no bad smell nor any mold.  I have an airlock on it and it is wrapped in a paperbag for light purpose.  I see very, very little bubbles at the top but the water in the airlock hasn't seemed to evaporate and I haven't seen it bubble like when I've made wine in the past.  I used a lot of brown colored peppers so it doesn't have the red that most post have.  So finally getting to my question--Am I in good shape ? or do I need to pitch ?
 
I realize without a pic it doesn't help but I thought the more experienced sauce makers by my details might be able to give some advice.  I had planned on waiting at least 3 months if not longer in fermenting before doing anything with it.  So I would appreciate input.  Thanks !!!
 
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You may still be ok now but you have to remember that you have a LOT of Dairy in there now and that requires special handling, Salsa lady might be able to explain it all but I have no idea how to properly process it safely. What i can speak to is I don't think I'd let it go another 2 month with the dairy in there. to me that's just asking for problems heck, even now you could be looking at a jar of sickness that isn't sick itself yet.
 
*** JMHO ***
 
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eeek, 
 
I was wondering how this ferment was doing. I just dont think this is a good idea at all, which is why I was so interested originally to know whether you added whole tub of yogurt to mash. I have no experiance handiling a ferment that has dairy in it so I cant offer much advise but would really like to see a pic. Surprized that you say it smells ok, I would guess that it smells like sour milk.
 
Also to answer you on "I see very, very little bubbles at the top but the water in the airlock hasn't seemed to evaporate and I haven't seen it bubble like when I've made wine in the past." this would make perfect sense the ferment I would guess does not have as much sugar as your wine does (cant remember all ingrediants of this one) so you wont get as much of a bubbling action as you would with wine.  That also does not mean that its not active.
 
Sent you a PM
 
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Plus the yeast used in beer and wine fermentation is more aggressive than the bacteria we use for peppers.

I'm really not that surprise it's bit bad. There's plenty of fermented milk products available, think Kiefer, but Id be concerned about the time away from refrigeration.
 
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Hmmmm,
Barley-pop, I just replied to your PM. 
 
Was the peach yogurt a live culture Greek -type or just a regular Yoplait/whatever? 
 
"very, very little bubbles" as in there are bubbles but the bubbles are tiny -or- there a very FEW bubbles?
 
If you have pics of everything from when you started, do what I suggested and I'll post them here for you.
 
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Posting for BarleyPop57....Here you go!......
 
pepper ferment 001.jpg

pepper ferment 002.jpg

 
 
 
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are these current pics? 
 
 
And answers to the Q?'s I posted?
 
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These are the most recent and only pics.  Per my pm the liquid part has always been brown from the start (I think from the peppers) it has just moved from around a 1/4 to 1/3 level to where it is now.  If I need to do something now I'll jump on it to save all the peppers I used. 
 
With me living in an apartment I'm kind of limited on the amount of peppers I can grow and with my situation in life that limits me also....this is not meant to be a whine but it is my reallity.
 
Having said that I'm really appreciative of all the help and want to say thanks to all the thp support !!!! :)
 
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Looks nothing like I imagined.  Also doesn't look particularly 'bad' or obviously spoiled.  I can say with honesty that I wouldn't try it due to the yogurt used initially, but I'd likely sample some of it two or three days after you did, provided you didn't die or show obvious signs of botulism.   :)
 
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The smell is a pretty good indication of how it's doing.  If a batch of peppers goes bad, it definitely smells BAD!  If this jar has that good sour fermented smell, that's a pretty good indicator.  Ultimately, Barley-pops going to have to make the call. 
 
It has bubbles, the separation like is typical, seems to have a good airlock....no mold, good smell.... seems to be OK, but I'm not an expert on fermentation.   
 
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Well my fermenting project has ended.  It had been 39-40 days.  Opened it up and did not smell bad but was gaining more doubt as I went along.  So it appeared good so I boiled it for 40 minutes then tasted it.  Didn't want to try it if bacteria in it was questionalble and figured the boil would kill.  All in all I boiled it 4 times.
 
It is just plain HOT and taste like Dave's insanity sauce but doesn't have the extracts in it.  I added apple sauce and blend some peaches, all spice, garlic powder (already used raw garlic realier in process) & added some honey, sea salt along with some vinegar.  As I said it is just plain hot and will probably use as an additive to other cooking projects down the road.
 
I appreciate everyone's input !!!!  I have around a gallon of hot sauce to use up before I attempt again...LOL  Next time I'll use more patience and strain the whey.
 
Well I'm off to bottle hot sauce.  Before I forget...no I don't have ph tester but with adding vinegar I should not have to worry about it according to other posts.
 
Again thanks everyone.
 
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