How to make fermented hot sauce from scratch.

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With a ferment, the only way to know how much Essig Essenz to add (or 5% vinegar) is to do a pH check, using a meter which can be calibrated. While pH papers can work, the color of peppers can make it hard to ascertain pH by comparing colors.

Making sure your ferment did what you think it did is wise. Your pH after a ferment should be in the range of pH 4. If it’s in the pH5+ range, pitch it; something went wrong or it’s not done fermenting (too cold, not enough time, insufficient starter culture/bacteria).

Once you’ve confirmed the ferment is in the safe zone, around 4, I add Essig Essenz (EE) to drop the pH to pH 3.3 (2.28–3.34, given most meter’s margin of error) . I’ve not had a sauce go bad at this pH. While you can achieve this with 5% vinegar, it’ll take a lot more.

So, I’m not using a formula. Since a pH meter is required to determine the ferment’s final pH, it’s easy to add a bit of EE and watch the readings change using the same meter. Any formula would require obtaining a starting pH.

One should calibrate a pH meter before getting readouts. Generally, a couple buffer solutions, pH7 & pH4 are used, rinsing the probe/electrodes-containing bulb with distilled water in between liquids. Your meter should come with a guide covering this. Meters which cannot be calibrated are generally inaccurate.

Spoilage organisms at very low pH, e.g. pH 4, are usually fungi, molds. Especially if there are available sugars, one needs to increase the acidity below the tolerances of these fungi. The salt content is also a preservative, but affects bacteria more than fungi. With a sweet hot sauce, dropping the pH to 2.8–3.0 is likely a stable range. Straight 5% vinegar (distilled) runs around pH 2.28, and nothing grows in that, (except if vinegar producing bacteria were introduced with ethanol).

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That’ll fire you up! It’s take some labor to get enough picked for even a few cups. Similar to picking Aji Charapita, with an emphasis on …pita!

It’s another reason for a pH meter: not many people would want to taste, say 1/8 teaspoon of crazy hot pepper ferment to see if it’s sour enough!

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Rocoto and Fresno peppers lacto-fermented for a month, then blended with brine and garlic infused evoo. In the freezer now due to travel but nice and zingy! 5% brine for the ferment.

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Thanks all.

Reminded me to check on my peppers!
They smell good, and the brine has perfect heat and salt, and is a bit … “funky”? At least I hope that’s what that is.

Send a safety check if I don’t check back before the New Year.

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Ferments do have kinda a funkiness, depending on what’s being fermented. Serious funk hovers over many types of fermented tofu, and fermented sardines or small fish for fish sauce. Kosher pickles and peppers, are much friendlier. :yum: Though I use fermented tofu, anchovies and fish sauce; I don’t make them; those might stink up the house, long term!

There should be a sour taste. Things need to be acidic to avoid botulism making toxins. While botulism can survive in mildly acidic conditions, it doesn’t make toxins unless: 1-there is no oxygen; 2-the growth media is low acid, neutral or alkaline. Peppers start out mildly acidic, so a proper ferment ought to make them pretty acidic. If the brine isn’t very colorful, you can use pH papers to check the brine’s acidity.

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We do a lot of fermenting. This year wr fid about 100# of sauerkraut a month and probably 40 gallons of hot saucr. We ferment the hot sauce in glass jugs. Gallons for small batches & 2 1/2 gallon jugs for big batches. We ferment habsneros, cayennes, serranos, ghosts and reapers. Mostly red but we also do grern serranos.

We add 2% salt by weight to stemmed ground (in a big ass blender) peppers. I prefer Diamond to Morton Kosher Salt. If the pepper mash requires additional liquid we use a brine of 1 1/2 tablespoons per quart. Adding some brine sometimes helps to get the peppers in & out of the jugs - it has to be liquid enough to pour. Generally, i only fill the jugs up 3/4 full to allow for expansion. Some of thesr ferments get pretty excited and ive had them blow the valves out of the jugs. …and blow hot sauce all over the ceiling & everything else.

Anyway, the soluds rise to the top so i like to shake or stir them every day or two to keep things mixed. Generally we ferment 10 to14 days. Sometimes a bit longer.

Once fermenter they go back in the blender with 50/50 vinegar & water plus garlic & any other flavor additives (cilantro. Lime, tequila or whatever) & blent to the desiredconsistency & then into the bottles. Typically, we bottle in 12 oz Woozy bottles.

Simple.

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That’s a lot! Are you selling these products? Or are you drinking shots of hot sauce, LOL :sweat_smile:

The ferment blowups sound like it’s a bit on the warm side: fast ferment=foam & chunks rise and plug the water trap/vent…pop!

I’m just using regular pickling salt, less chemically intensive to make and way cheaper. Sea salt is another choice, 2-3.4%, by weight.

Whenever adding things which could dilute the final acid level, it’s a good idea to check the final pH. I once added some homemade tamarind puree/pulp to a stable hot sauce, figuring the acidity of the tamarind was no issue…wrong! Some days after bottling, I heard a disturbing “bang” in the kitchen. One of the bottles blew the cap off. Apparently, the tamarind has enough moisture to dilute the sauce so either yeasts or bacteria got going again.

Garlic paste/puree, for example, has a pH around 5.8, Jasim & Sivhare (200). Garlic also has sugars. So, if one adds too much, bad things can happen. … bang!

Most of the hot sauce made here gets aged with white oak chips or sticks in the bottles. These are toasted in the wood stove, over coals. Sometimes, I shortcut the process and use Jack Daniel’s Whiskey barrel chips. Adding that barrel-aged, bourbon flavor really gives those sauces a great taste. It takes 6–12 months for the oak flavor to infuse. Brewing suppliers also sell oak for flavoring wines, beer, etc.

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I revisited this thread today after deciding to make some fermented hot sauce from the surplus of ghost peppers and Hawaiian chile peppers we have in the garden. I roughly chopped the ghost peppers and left the stemless Hawaiian chile peppers whole. I Put them in a quart mason jar, covered with a 4% brine solution, added an airlock and put it on the counter to ferment. It’s our hottest time of the year now in Hawaii with daytime temperatures in the upper 80s and night time temps in the mid 70s…so fermentation should proceed pretty briskly. I put a glass weight on top of the peppers so they are submerged, (with a few strays floating…) There is about an inch of brine above the peppers.

If it behaves as ferments have done in the past….it should briskly ferment for about 7-10 days then slow down. At that time I will mix it with some garlic, blend it and add some vinegar to slow further fermentation.

We use hot sauce on everything in our house, so this should be a fun experiment.

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Fermented ghost peppers makes one potent pepper mash, even if diluted a bit by other types! I’m surprised you didn’t chop the Hawaiian chilies; are they very small?

I just finished making several pints of Sambal Oelek, using Er Jing Tiao peppers. With those, 3% salt, by weight of peppers, was added to the ground chilies and the mash made its own brine; no water was added. The first batch came out so well, I made three more.

I’m using a silicone follower, under the glass weight, to keep the solids down under the brine.

I’ve been using the Easy Fermenter kit for small-scale ferments. The vacuum pump is helpful for pulling out air and reducing the likelihood of Kahm yeasts and molds. The silicone disk came from Mason Jar Lifestyle.

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Does anyone know of the risks of adding fresh peppers to a mash? I only have a few Scotch Bonnets so far. There are a lot of flowers on the plant, and maybe some will ripen, but I need to do something now.

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If you keep adding bulk of any vegetable to a fermenting mash, it can spoil as the salt percentage decreases. I usually try to keep a pepper mash around 3-4% salt, by weight of the peppers. In theory, you could add 3% salt, along with the newer cut/mashed peppers and the salt level will be constant.

However… Each time you open the fermentation vessel, oxygen can enter and make yeast and/or mold growth more likely. The easy fermenter kit actually has a little vacuum pump to remove some of the introduced air.

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I see. No matter. It looks like the next flush is at least 60 days away.

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I’m usually pleasantly surprised at how long my fresh pepper sauces last in the fridge. -ita means little, for sure. Chiltecpins are special…ancient. Maybe my pal Tim could come up with enough to make a substantial batch. I don’t see them up here often at all. I rely on Mexican friends who refer to them as “chile del monte.”