Reddit reviews NiceBottles - Hot Sauce Bottles, 5 Oz - 12 Pack

Unfortunately no. I processed the hot sauce in a boiling water bath a few days ago but decanted into the bottles today. These are going out to friends tomorrow and to be refrigerated. I do really like these bottles: here’s a link. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01EISFX1K?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

For that many peppers?

Stem the peppers. You can seed them too, to tone down the heat, but I never do. Chop the peppers into about 1 inch chunks and throw into a pot with about 2 cups vinegar and 1 cup water - enough to cover the peppers but not much more. Add some cloves of garlic, maybe half an onion or a carrot or two for some body, if you feel like. Throw in a teaspoon of salt, unless you're watching your sodium. Lemon juice or lime juice is also popular, maybe a quarter cup or so.

Boil all the things until soft. Then blend. I use an immersion blender, but I've used a food processor in the past as well. Have a bag of chips on hand for taste testing. If you like what you taste, then the next step is consistency: boil down if it's too thin, add a bit of vinegar if it's too thick. If you don't want seeds or chunky bits, strain it.

Once you're happy with it, simmer for 20 minutes for the food safety stuff, and sterilize your bottles, funnel, and other implements. I just dip in starsan, but there are several methods. Bottle it up, and turn the bottles upside down and put them back in the box upside down. The heat from the sauce will sterilize the lid and dripper top (if you're using a dripper top).

As you can see, there's a lot of freedom in how you make it and what goes into it. I've done sauces that were only vinegar, jalapenos, and salt. I've also done sauces made of "random peppers found in the garden this week" and "whatever these peppers from the CSA box are - and there are pears in here too? Ok, sure, and pears."

If you make sure you have at least 2:1 vinegar to water as the liquid base, your pH will be fine. I used to measure the pH of each batch, but it only got high if I used a lot of water and less vinegar, so I don't bother now.

Here are the bottles I order: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EISFX1K/

My two cents:

Boiling the containers beforehand seems like overkill to me, but obviously won't hurt anything. I find hand or dish washing to be plenty.

I always refrigerate when I consider a ferment "done." It'll keep fermenting a bit, but slows it to a crawl, keeping the flavor and color where you want it, plus you don't have to worry about any additional gas production. Not saying it's dangerous outside the refrigerator, just that it's less consistent and more of a hassle.

I don't boil after bottling, and would suggest you don't either. I think the best part of homemade fermented hot sauce is that you keep the fresh, raw flavors. If you're into the microbe action for health benefits or whatever that's great too, but even if you're not, cooking changes it.

Finally, if you like the texture and smoothness of store-bought sauces and the way they shake out of the bottle in drops and cling to food, a food mill and a bit of xanthan gum is your friend. Food mill to remove any seeds, most skin, and to achieve a consistent texture. Xanthan gum to stabilize and get a bit of that clinginess. Takes a couple tries to get right, so you don't get that gummy texture, but it makes all the difference.

Oh, and these bottles with dripper inserts and caps are a dollar a piece on Amazon, and I love them. It's about what you pay for jars anyway, and they're way better presentation for gifts and more convenient for use. Oh, and less oxygen interaction, which also keeps your flavor and color consistent for longer.