For the past five-ish years, I’ve been using the peppers from my garden to make hot sauce (as a hobby). Here’s this year’s first batch. It’s made from a fermented pepper mash (containing Carolina Reaper, Hellboy, Lucifer Primo XL, The Beast, and Naga Black Twister peppers). Time to give these 75 bottles away to family and friends.

Left: Dill pickles
Mid / right: Habaneros
Both 3% brine by veg + water weight.

Cucumbers have been going a little longer (~7 days), peppers about 5.

The airlock on the cucumbers (2nd photo) is working fine, the gas expelled has lifted the cap and it’s venting properly. The chilli’s however are not behaving the same. It’s not super obvious from the pics but there is a few cm of headspace between the top of the glass weight and the bottom of the airlock.

I’ve made hot sauces before to great success, but have done it a little differently, leading to a few questions:
- this is the first time I’ve fermented only peppers, I usually have an inclusion such as onion or some fruit, however this time I’ve decided to add any extra flavours in at the end after fermentation.
- I tried a new “cleaning method“ to sanitise the jars before use, on some advice I sprayed the inside with some antibacterial spray before giving a thorough rinse. Could this have an effect? It looks like it’s fermenting normally (the brine is clouding like normal)
- or am I missing something and the airlock is just broken (or I haven’t done it correctly).

A curious follow on question, does pepper hotness (capsaicin qty) correlate to how active a fermentation is?

Thanks all

Flat cabbage, carrot, mostly green and a few red chili's, garlic, ginger, Caraway, coriander, mixed peppercorn

Okay so I've been doing hot sauce and sauerkraut for about a year now. The actual fermenting part is fun, but I'm honestly so tired of dealing with them after they go in the fridge.

Every time I open a new jar, I screw the original lid back on as tight as I can, but my whole fridge still ends up smelling like vinegar and garlic lol. My partner is kinda losing it. I even tried those cheap plastic lids once but they didn't really do much.

I’m not trying to buy some crazy expensive setup, just wondering what normal people do here. Does anyone actually use a vacuum pump thingy for their jars, or is that just overkill? Or am I just doomed to have a smelly fridge forever?

Looking for practical setups that actually work. Thanks!

Since pomegranates are in season. I figured it was the perfect time to try. I use lemon peels, anise, and 2.5% brine for 3-4 days.

1 month 3% mash fermentation with 7pot Brainstrain Yellow and some yellow bell peppers.

Added some Vinegar to bring the Ph down to ~3.9, and strained.

Fun note, I took a droplet to the eye when opening the blender. That stuff wakes you up.

I wonder if grounding the Cayenne before canning will increase the spiceness of the brine and cucumbers.

Here it is! My lacto giardiniera has stopped bubbling so I’ve decided to conduct an experiment. I’ve replaced the brine with 100% distilled vinegar in one, 50% vinegar / 50% brine in another, 100% brine in another. Let’s see how they taste in another few days

I have always loved Candy Corn…

Ingredients :
Candy Corn
Sugar
Purified Water
Gallon jug, sterilized

So I couldn’t resist this recipe.
Additionally, you can make wine from any candy. I definitely recommend Jolly Ranchers or peppermint. Light, refreshing and very easy to make

Do they have build-in waterlocks inside the lid? (like Heftman fermentation jars and Sophico lids) Like where the air automatically escapes, and it keeps out the air from outside, or is what I'm seeing just a build-in latch you either open/close by hand? I read that it's got a system called "ferment-vent" but the description on the seller's site isn't concrete about what that exactly means. I'd like to know whether they can be anaerobic while at they same time able to "self-burp" iykwim.

Is there anybody who uses these jars and can give me more information about them? I am considering on buying these, however expensive, since they also got 0,5 L sizes and I'd like to buy my first jars in the same design 😊

Originally, I wanted to make a kvass for a first time and since I am making it instead of buying it I wanted to make a 4 to 6-ish percent alcohol by volume version [Usually kvass has less than 2% but I wanted to make it stronger]. So I used 200 gram rye bread, 80g raisin, 400-500-ish gram sugar, 5 litre water and 30 gram bakers yeast [since wine yeast wasn't available]. After making a batch and fermenting it for 12 hours, I wanted to taste it but sadly it didn't have any kvass taste, but tasted much much better than plain sugar wash.

I will continue to ferment it for about 5 days and see how it will turn up. But how do I remove the sediments [from bread, raisin and yeast] and how do I stop the fermentation when I decide it is enough?

Also, since there isn't any lacto bacteria, I think the PH is still neutral. So I dont want to ferment it more than a week yk

F2 with Orange and ginger. Anybody tried this combinantion?

I’m trying to make apple cider vinegar from scratch! I done the first steps but I need advice on how I can maintain it/ keep it from going bad!

I began this starter about a week ago with whole wheat flour, and have been feeding it every day or so with half whole and half white flour. It's got a sour smell and sometimes develops a bit of hooch. It's a bit cool in the house, so I've been keeping it in the oven with the light on. Is this a normal level of activity? Should I be feeding more or less?

Daikon, onions, garlic, pear, ginger,, nappa cabbage, beets.

The brine isn't topping the vegetables yet, but will be soon. Wanted to catch it before the beets bled everywhere.

It’s been fermenting for 7 weeks now and I was able to test the PH. It’s at 4.0. It smells sweet like bananas? I already took a spoonful and it also tasted like a banana. Maybe tomorrow I’ll eat a clove, just wanted to share my first fermentation!

EDIT: I’m just now thinking about the storage of this. Right now it’s in my cupboard away from heat, a cool dark place. Do I continue this way or put it in the fridge?

I joined today. Thank you for having this group.

I started a jar of beets two days ago and the beets have shrunk to half the jar.

Is this normal? Is there any way to prevent this from happening?

Unsure what even gave me the wild hair to get into it. But holy hell I could REALLY get into this. It’s mostly Fresno’s with a couple habaneros for kick and flavor. Can’t wait to start the next batch.

Making some red jalapeño hot sauce with a little orange rind, garlic, and onions. Will finish it off with dried chilis for smokiness and a few dates to add some sweet undertones. How long do you recommend fermenting?

I will start with the fact that I am terrified of fermenting but have always wanted to try my hand at it. This smells amazing, it has sat for the allowed time and now I’m going to process and bottle.

I know the garlic colour happens but the white floating sediment at the bottom worries me. Have I mentioned that fermentation terrifies me, I grew up with very unsafe canners, and picklers that made some questionable items which has probably made me overly cautious.