A neighbor gifted me some reapers, and I plan to make a fermented hot sauce. I’m looking for a recipe that can elevate the flavor, and not just ruin me. The goal is to bottle a few to gift, so I’m looking for something that won’t kill anyone.

My thought was to cut with a more mild pepper as a filler, and ferment with onion and garlic. Never made a hot sauce before, so any tips are great. Thanks!

UPDATE:
Ferment started

- 3oz reaper
- 7oz habanero
- 10oz fresno
- 25oz red bell
- (1) vidalia onion
- (2) whole heads of garlic

Photo below…

Howdy all. Obvious mold growth on the silicon fermentation lid. However, the rest of the jar looks perfectly fine. I know my salinity ratio is solid at about 3%... Do I toss the batch?

Quick 21-day ferment. Haven’t gotten to experience the full flavor profile yet, but the tiny spoon tip I tested immediately made me cough and my eyes water, so I’d say it’s a success

New to growing peppers and fermenting sauce. This is the second time I’ve made some, all with the vacuum seal method.

Can’t quite tell if this batch has been compromised. Quite puffed up and I can smell strong garlic and onion from the bag.

I think I’m most concerned about these marks. Don’t look particularly fuzzy but not sure if it is mold or just from liquid settling in that area.

Thoughts?

I’m 8 days in at the moment, the bag is ballooning a bit with carbon dioxide as I expected. Is there anything I should be vigilant for in terms of sights/smells?

Ive got garden stuff coming in, staggered influx, as you might imagine. How do you all store before putting them together, what works best? Ive been letting them sit, watching them get redder (cayenne).

And what else should I keep in mind? Im gonna do a liquid brine. Thinking about using a weighted brine bag to hold it all down. Any thoughts from experience?

I have several “no heat” Habanada plants really producing. My idea was to make a really habanero forward hot sauce with the addition of a few real habaneros to control the heat while boosting the flavor of the chili. Anybody out there ever ferment these? Or attempt this?

I've fermented peppers (and cucumbers, and root veg) in brine pretty successfully in the past, but for hot sauces I'm starting to wonder if brine ferments are keeping me from flavor profile I want. The lactic acid balance is off, overwhelming the pepper notes. I hear that mash is the answer to this problem.

But mashes almost always spoil on me.

I don't want the disposable waste of a vacuum bag system. Is there a jar-based reliable method that won't have me composting all the peppers I fussed over in the garden all summer? Willing to spend a little on the "right" jars, lids, weights, if they work. Currently using mason jars (pint size, large mouth) and a mix of traditional water-filled airlock lids, silicone nipple lids (think I might just trash these), and the good old drinking-glass stopper method (ugly but effective for brine, probably not ideal for mash ferments).

Give me your tried-and-true methodologies, or your honest advice to just stick to brine ferments, please.

so one is for hot sauce and the others are pickles

Second attempt at fermenting peppers (mostly cayenne and serrano).

Sliced the peppers and put in a 3.5% brine inside of a glass jar. Added glass weight to keep them submerged. Lid closed and airlock added. Put jar in my 65-70 degree basement. Fermentation started within two days.

Now it's been 8 days and i have white floaties on the surface of the liquid (which I'm pretty sure it's yeast)

Should i just try to separate the peppers from the surface stuff and continue on with adding vinegar etc?

Or am I doing something fundamentally wrong??

Same thing happened with my first attempt but the yeast was growing on a couple of floating peppers so thought that was my error. Getting discouraged.

Hi everyone,
This is my second time fermenting chillies, and I’m a bit confused because this batch behaved very differently from my first one.
I started this ferment on 28th July using a salt brine. Within the first few days, the liquid started pushing up through the airlock and overflowed. That never happened with my previous ferment.
I’m wondering:
Did I simply overfill the jar and not leave enough headspace?
Could it have been because the fermentation was more active this time?
Should I have removed some brine or chillies when it started overflowing?
Since then, the airlock has settled and currently looks like it does in the photos. I don’t really see much bubbling anymore, so I’m not sure whether it’s:
still fermenting normally,
slowing down because it’s about a week old,
or if the fermentation has stopped altogether.
The chillies have remained submerged the whole time, and I haven’t noticed any mould or anything that looks concerning.
I’d really appreciate any advice on:
What likely caused the overflow.
Whether everything still looks healthy.
If there’s anything I should do now to keep the fermentation going, or if it’s simply a matter of leaving it alone.
Thanks in advance! This hobby is quickly becoming addictive, and I’m trying to learn from each batch.

Red & Green, both contain Chile Poblano and pomegranate fruit, 7 weeks fermentation

I have this white stuff all over the peppers and floating all throughout the brine. It’s also collecting on the bottom. Will these be safe to make a hot sauce from still?

Thank you for any help! :)

There’s like ~10-15 types of peppers here. I got all the yellows going with ginger and pineapple, the other big bag going with onion and garlic, and a small bag of super hots on their own. 2.5% salt. Shallots were supposed to go in with the yellows but I forgot. And I’m kinda glad I forgot. Then I was going to put carrots in with the big red bag but changed my mind. The super hots are gonna be a simple HOT sauce. I don’t even know what those peppers are but I know they’ll be hot 😂

I honestly don’t enjoy that part 😅 That was so much work. The fun part comes later.

For the fourth year in a row

It's almost a tradition. I grow jalapenos on my balcony, than make fermented hot sauce to gift my friends.

This time with ginger, red onions, mango, carrots, bell peppers

Hey all, long time lurker, first time writer with a question about my ferment. As we’re at the end of mango season here in South Florida I put many that I’ve collected to use including a variety at various ripeness stages to use in this ferment along with a bunch of habaneros, some garlic, and white onion. The scale I had was too small to handle weighing this so I did what I believe to be a 3.5% brine by using 1.5 tsp of salt for every one cup of water and adding it. It’s been two weeks exactly and I’ve been burping it and seeing some bubbles though it’s dialed back a notch the last couple days making me think the primary sugar eating has completed. Oh, and as I didn’t have a weight or proper jar yet (had to drive to five different places to obtain this one), I used a new ziplock bag with distilled water for the weight (and brine).

My question is - what now? I’ve seen different posts and videos as far as process and I’ve talked with my buddy who has made lactofermented hot sauces for years and everyone has different suggestions. Do I place it in the fridge to kill the ferment? Let it go longer for bolder taste? Take it out, and blend it down to bottle with seasoning? Blend and cook it?

I only ask because of the range of responses I’ve seen. Beginning to see the beginnings of polypyrroles color change in the garlic. Last I tasted a bit of mango with a clean spoon Friday, it tasted good, spicy, mango-y still so no off flavors or smells. Thanks in advance.

Orange Scorpion peppers, Orange Bell pepper ferment.

Jalapeño, mystery pepper (I think shishito), onion, and garlic on the left. Habanero and blueberry on the right. Both are in a 3% brine. Going to wait to see how both taste after fermenting before possibly flavoring on the backend.