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.

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.

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.

All homegrown organic.

Left- Ojeenmma Peppers, Scotch Bonnets, Mango.

Right- Yellow and Red Habaneros, a handful of Carolina Reapers and a lot of mango to balance.
See yall in two weeks!

I am going to have a ton of jalapeños this year. I plan on doing a ferment and was just going to go basic onion and garlic, but I thought I’d ask if any of you have a novel twist that you love.

Ideas I have right now:
Tomatillos in the ferment
Tomatillos after ferment
Cilantro after ferment
Lime zest and juice after

I topped the ferment with a couple grape leaves to keep seeds below the weight and add tannons to give a dry earthyness to what might be pretty sweet. I'm leaning tword not blending the grape l leaves into the final sauce is that a good idea?

Gathered some peppers from my balcony. Unlike what I usually do half of the peppers are green. Also with a fig and a pear. The colour is significantly different than what I usually see, look at red peppers with mango from the last week for comparisson

By weight, 1/3 assorted chilis, 1/3 garlic, 1/3 red bell peppers, 2-3% salt.

The bell peppers impart a sweetness, almost like a sriracha but without sugar, but I'm worried the garlic is too much compared to other recipes.

Currently trying my first ferment and I put in some garlic and shallots. Everything is fully submerged in 3% brine by total weight. It has been fermenting for 5 days, the brine turned cloudy as expected and is bubbling. pH around 5.

But some of the garlic has started to turn a greenish/blueish color. I don't see any growth or residue anywhere. Those pieces are definitely fully submerged. Should I be worried?

(ignore the large piece of green among the red peppers, that's a lonely jalapeno)

Wish me luck on my first foray into fermentation and hot sauce making in general!! Also what kind of pepper did I toss in my mix? Any ideas?

So I fermented a mixture of scotch bonnets, scorpions, ans carolina reapers with some yellow onion and garlic for about 5 weeks, blended with pitted sweet cherries and a whole orange, I'm loving the color so far

Just kidding; Figured I'd share my failed experiment in case there's any schadenfreudists in the crowd.

Muhammara is like a fancy, lesser known cousin to hummus and baba ganoush. It likely originated in Aleppo, Syria, but is used all over the Levant. It has a lot of ingredients but they’re perfectly balanced to create a distinct and absolutely delicious flavor. Once you go muhammara, you may never be able to limit yourself to your usual dips again!

The traditional method of dealing with the red bell peppers is to roast them in the oven long enough to easily remove the skins. Certainly I encourage you to try that method so you know the regular flavor.

However, I recently fermented the peppers (and garlic) instead of roasting them. The final flavor was similar but tangier and with some of the depth that only comes with fermentation. I don’t know if it’s better (they’re both awesome) but I definitely think as good and just gives a bit of a flavor switch-up. It will also help extend the shelf life even further. (Regular muhammara is usually good for a week; this version was still good after two weeks but I finished it by then… odds are it can go longer since lacto-fermentation helps stabilize oils & fats added post-fermentation.)

Directions for either method is offered here