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I've been making hot sauces for several years now, and I think probably the best advice to use on top of everything already said here is to simply try making lots of different sauces. I started off making simple uncooked sauces for the first year or two, then shifted over to cooked sauces and found I liked those better in general. I made (and still make) vinegar forward sauces, less vinegary sauces, fruity sauces, tomato-based sauces, and many other experimental things that either work or don't work to my taste. The question you ask at the bottom of your post re: specifics is really a matter of personal taste. Try making different sauces and see what you like! I don't always want a fermented sauce, and sometimes what I'm eating calls for something less vinegary/more vinegary, or even fruity! You'll probably find that you want to have several different kinds around.

The hot sauce book mentioned in this thread is a good one (I own it and have used it for years), and there are a few others out there that are fun, too. The book, Fiery Ferments, helped me break into fermented sauces, and I've had some fun this summer using some of the recipes for inspiration in my own creations. I pay attention to recipes whenever I find them, either here or elsewhere, and I make note of interesting ingredients that I might want to try.

I also have found that it's helpful to write down the recipe I create when I'm making a sauce. I weigh and/or measure the volume of each thing I add, and then record that for future reference along with any other steps in my process (cook time, blending, etc.). Documenting my process has resulted in a couple of solid recipes that I devised on my own, and it's fun to make then year after year.

Bottom line: find yourself a mess of peppers and start making sauces!

Yeah! IMHO a good hot sauce balances heat and flavor. From the look of the box, you are getting a good mix of hot, flavorful peppers. Here is a very simple hot sauce recipe. While it doesn't say it, I would recommend you run it through a fine mesh strainer and then mix in a pinch of Xanthan gum (you can find individual packets for like $0.99 in the baking isle of your grocery store). You only need a pinch - a little Xanthan gum goes a long way.

Personally, I would avoid the extracts. They add heat without bringing anything else to the party. Of course, if heat is your endgame it will definitely get you there.

Just in case you are looking for some additional sauces, Da Bomb is really, really spicy. My personal favorite (balancing flavor and heat really well, IMO) is Zombie Apocalypse.

Hope this helps!

By lactose, do you mean lactose sugar? Lactose sugar doesn't contain any live cultures (I mean there may be some dormant wild yeast/bacteria in there), so that's just going to add more food for whatever eventually takes hold of your ferment - wild yeast, Lactobacillus on the peppers, etc.

If you mean pitching Lactobacillus cultures, yes that would work and probably help a bit. Something like this would work well (it's what I use for kettle-souring beers), but a healthy ferment consists of several species of Lactobacillus, and you may get less than optimal results relying on a single strain. Some good literature on this available here, but doesn't appear to be full-text :(

Another solid option would be to pitch a little bit of brine from a previous ferment, especially kraut brine which will have a nice mix of all the good Lactobacillus spp.

Liquid whey should work too, but I've never tried it myself.

Try these weights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CXJ92CG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Make sure you buy wide mouth weights and wide mouth ball jars... I found ball jars delievered WAY cheaper through target and walmart vs amazon.

Try these lids: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07921Y1CY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 These worked great as well.

I stuffed my 32oz jars way too full, and each jar yielded 2.5 5oz hot sauce bottles. Next time I will use 64oz jars...

And yes, also suggest getting a small digital scale to make sure your brines are right... that way you can be sure it stays shelf stable and edible for a lot longer.

I use a small mesh strainer basket that I set over a small pot and push all my sauce/mash through. My results have been so spot-on with a store-bought quality I'm kind of blown away.


I bought these for general purpose straining and they have been perfect! I even use them for rinsing rise and other things like that. They work great for more than just sauce!

Yes, though personally I recommend Fiery Ferments over Hot Sauce but that's because I'm more interested in fermenting peppers for hot sauces, which the former delves into more - the latter has a greater collection of recipes so depends on what you're looking for.

1. make sure stuff is weighted and under brine
   
   
2. remove as many floaters as possible, sometimes not possible but the less the better
   
   
3. get some good airlocks where you can suck out the oxygen. these help me to almost never get mold. .

I blend it in a food processor first but then I pass it through one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001I7FP54/

It does a PERFECT job.

If it's too thin afterwards (rarely the case) I'll put it back in a sauce pan and reduce it.

You need some sort of an airlock lid. There is a bunch of them out there. Basically as the ferment gases, it pushes the air out on it's own. Here is the one I use

Easy Fermenter Wide Mouth Lid Kit: Simplified Fermenting in Jars Not Crock Pots! Make Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Pickles Or Any Fermented Probiotic Foods. 3 Lids, Extractor Pump & Recipe eBook - Mold Free https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01DJVVORE/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_tfnGDbWQYR98Q

Don't, it's a bad idea for this. This is a good set up for making a gallon of hard cider, mead or beer. But OP is going to spend a good hour or 2 trying to get those peppers out. Also there is no way to weigh it down because of the cone shaped interior, and you can not fit anything in the tiny hole that work anyway. So, mold it a high probability.

But, for other fermentation purposes (i.e. mead), this set-up is fine and you can get one gallon carboy just by buying some decent apple cider and resuing the jug. The other parts are simply a rubber stopper and an airlock..

The ones I got off amazon are medium toast. I can’t get over how good the ferment is smelling! Going to try dark toast next time.

I got these—


North Mountain Supply French Oak Cubes (Medium Toast, 4 Ounce) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PL2MLTG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_-bdZDbH988KSZ

The stuff I got was off of amazon and had the amounts on the bottle. NOW real Food Xanthan Gum Powder,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014UH7J2?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I usually only use a teaspoon for a whole blender full and really stabilizes and holds the sauce together nicely even when it’s high texture/chunky sauce

I bought these last year.. solid glass, good grip. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B076V66FZ4

My husband got me this book off of Amazon Fiery Ferments for Christmas and there is a lot of helpful information in there.

Omega also makes commercial kitchen grade blenders that are similar spec to the Vitamix (3hp motor). But they will often sell for half the price ($220-$250 instead of $450-$500), and are frequently on sale.

Another cheaper option is to get an Indian brand "mixer grinder". The mixer grinder is a workhorse in an Indian kitchen, along with a pressure cooker, because of the daily need to grind lots of stuff for meals (chutneys, curry powders, curry pastes, dry spice grinding etc).

They are not 3hp motors but 1hp but are very well built and reliable and in most cases, a 1hp or 700W motor is enough and gets the work done. But they cost $100, which is significantly cheaper than the commercial grade blenders. And with every day use (literally), most will last for years in a home kitchen. Here are some options:

• Ultra Stealth
  
  
• Butterfly
  
  
• Prestige Manttra
  
  
• Preethi Steele

Easy Fermenter Wide Mouth Lid Kit: Simplified Fermenting In Jars Not Crock Pots! Make Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Pickles Or Any Fermented Probiotic Foods. 3 Lids(jars not incld), Extractor Pump & Recipes https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DJVVORE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7SiMDb515T96A

Has anyone fermented with something like this?

​

https://smile.amazon.com/Easy-Fermenter-Wide-Mouth-Lid/dp/B01DJVVORE/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=ferment&qid=1570111451&s=home-garden&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFESzVOTjE2UEwwMU0mZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA2MDYzNTIyOFZTOUhYUUlNVjlIJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA1MTU0OTQxRk84WUNFSTlRWkk4JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Assuming you're asking about the lids. I bought a set of the Easy Fermenter Lids from Nourished Essentials.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DJVVORE

https://www.amazon.com/Sauce-Bottles-Caps-Shrink-Bands/dp/B016FMGZXM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1500475262&sr=8-2&keywords=hot+sauce+bottles

Stuff like this is what I use.

Yea, pinapple is highly active and prone to develop white kham yeast long term. One of the reasons I finally processed is that it kept building white kham yeast and I hot tired of scooping it out. It's totally safe, just looked yucky. One way to avoid this is ferment the pinapple separately. This is going to be my go to way going forward. Ferment pineapple for just a week or so.

Anyway, I got a pH tester at Amazon years ago. Looks like this.

Digital PH Meter, PH Meter 0.01 PH High Accuracy Water Quality Tester with 0-14 PH Measurement Range for Household Drinking, Pool and Aquarium Water PH Tester Design with ATC (yellow) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JLWV73Z/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jGf0DbAFSEWGZ

Just ordered them on Amazon! Just regular Mason jars. These are the lids: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07921Y1CY?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01L83TS7S/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Here's a 12 pack, I've also found a 24 pack too

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B076V66FZ4?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

I just got this Ninja system because my food processor just took a dump, and for the smaller blender cups since I have a lot of small batches going on for experimentation. Once I get my recipes dialed in, I'll absolutely be getting a Vitamix for my bigger batches.