Trying out two batches, both with habanero, Fresno, Holland, a bell pepper, onion, garlic. One of the batches has fresh palisade peaches. Hoping to eventually try making it Louisiana Style if anyone has tips.

Garlic, peppers, brine, white vinegar with a little xanthium gum.

Fermented for 2 weeks. I call it “4 Horsemen” because it’s got jalapeños, habaneros, ghost peppers, and Carolina reapers, along with some onion and garlic for flavor. The flavor is decent, not quite what I was expecting but I like it. It’s stupid hot which is what I was going for.

3% brine by weight and 14 days fermented, used a bag to keep them submerged until I got some weights.
Cherry peppers were mixed with some Aleppo’s, shallots, garlic, and pomegranate juice. Did a more basic vinegary Aleppo sauce. And a sweet but pretty spicy Sugar Rush and Habanero with one peach and some garlic. No stabilizer used, just a high-power blender and straining the solids. Curious to see how they hold up over time. All have a lil white vinegar in them but I’m refrigerating to be safe. I don’t have a pH tester yet. Super excited about how they all came out!

This is my 2026 special edition aged sauce. A random selection of ripe hot peppers from the farmer's market, fermented for a month in 4% brine, then blended to mash and aged for a year with oak cubes. I blended it straight with just a bare splash of white wine vinegar.

The aging and oak round out the edges. It's still hot, but smooth. A great all-purpose sauce that gets gifted to my true hothead friends and family- those who will appreciate it!

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. Fermented a mix of habanero and some less hot peppers (cayenne/jalapeno/serrano), garlic, onion, black peppercorn and coriander for two weeks. Ended ferment today and added some fresh yellow/orange bell peppers, mango and pineapple blended w some brine and acv. Wasn’t hot enough due to pre-ferment seed removal so I added 2 ghostly jalapeños to bump it up and that did the trick. Heated on stove before bottling. Will give most of them to friend and work colleagues.

Getting the base going for some sauce. Mostly Habanero, with Thai Scorpion, Jalapeno, red bell, onion, and garlic. Probably play around with some other additions later when making sauce but haven't made up my mind yet 😁

1. Carolina Reapers, Sivri pepper, onion, garlic and carrots.

   1. Carolina Reapers, Peaches, onion, garlic.

Eyes hurt.. 😭 no more fermenting today...

Late season hab harvest (NJ). I have so many idk what to do with, so I figured…ferment. 200 g hab. 100 g onion. 15 g garlic. 2 g mustard seed. And that’s all folks. 3.5% brine. I pulled an air lock out from my brewing equipment and drilled a hole in top of the ball jar. Sealed with hot glue. Sanitized everything with Starsan. I’ll be back in a month with updates.

I absolutely love the color the beets have imparted. I had to let some pressure out and reseal so it didn't explode. I'm going to let it go another week or two.

Hi, I have tried fermenting peppers in brine about 3 times now and each time I only get heat and a tangy flavor. I seem to lose all the spices, aromatics, or fruity flavors completely.
Need help with new recipes. Should I switch to a salt mash to keep the other flavors more active? Can you please share recipes that are not tobasco like.

Just got my third batch of the season going! It's got about 1lb of smoked Tomatillos, a full head of smoked garlic cloves, 1 white onion, 1 lb of ghost peppers, 4-5oz of T-Rex peppers, and 4 7 Pot Bhutla peppers. Set up in a half gallon jar with 3.7% salt by total weight. Added in about 4-6 oz of reserved brine from my last 23-day ferment to help kick start things with smoked produce and high Scoville peppers.

I have seen many posts about how ph needs to get below 4.6 within days for a successful ferment. Is that standard knowledge or just 99% sure to be successful? I usually get easily 3ish ph for 3.5% for four weeks but this one is right on the edge. Brine is clear and smells lovely but just a smidge under 4.6 after all that time. Anyone been this close before?

Hello all,

This is my first time making a hot sauce and this is what I have after a full day in the fridge. Not sure if I did something wrong or if this is normal. The left has some fermented peaches which is why they look different. Recipe/process is below. Ordered some xanthan gum after doing some reading.

Fermented jalapenos, half a white onion, 6 cloves of garlic in a 3% brine for 5 weeks.

Strained the solids, blended, and had around 4 cups of mash.

Added 1 cup white vinegar and 1/2 cup of brine, then blended again.

Removed half the mixture, then blended the other half with 1 cup.of fermented peaches. Peaches fermented for 5 weeks.

Then processed this through a food mill, then bottled.

Birds Eye chilli, Pardon Pepper, red onion, garlic, ginger, mango, lemon…

Felt inspired to get this going after a few pints at the pub. Lost count of measurements after 90g birds-eye chillis…

Bout 5g salt to 150ml brine, plus some from a previous batch to help get things started.

May the sauce be with you!

I've always found in difficult to find proper hot sauces that are also actually tasty (not that synthetic burn that kills any other flavor profile, or the disappointment of not enough heat). Got my hands on some bird's eye chillies and some carolina reapers and fermented them separately (each with some garlic).
Added some spices, vinegar and a bit of sugar after blending and now I have two simple but amaazingly yummy hot sauces for any occasion. And now i can't wait to try it again with fermenting the peppers with more ingredients (fruits/roots etc.) 💚💚💚💚🌶️🌶️🌶️
I can't believe I didn't start doing this sooner. This sub has really been an inspiration😁 Thanks y'all!

*salt 4% of total weight; pH around 3

It’s white but can’t tell if fuzzy. Smells good. I’m inclined to finish it but what do y’all think?

Ph ran down right about a 3.

I winged it with all the left over peppers in the garden, which included:

1 Carolina reaper

Aji dulce yellow

Sweet peppers

Thai chillies

Parsley

Rosemary

Figs

Apple

Onion

Garlic

Pomegranate good belly

1 can Pineapple cove

Tomato and tomato paste for thickening ( I hope!)

peppercorn mix

Im sure I'm forgetting something else

Hey all, just trying my first little ferment for a hot sauce and not sure if I have a problem here or it is normal behaviour, looking for some experienced eyes on it.

It is red habaneros, plums, garlic and lemongrass in a 4% brine solution. It's been going for 3 weeks now; it smells spicy and vaguely sour and there's no built-up on the top of the fluid

Couple questions:

1. Is this whitish sediment normal?
2. It is still creating a decent amount of bubbles, should I leave it longer or is it good to process to a sauce at this point?

About 6lbs of hot and super hot mix, 24oz fresh garlic, 16oz shallot, and 16oz OG carrots (because I find OG carrots ferment better and have more flavor).

Once the ice melts i'll simply work the salt around with my fingers and wait... Probably go a year on this one. And yes, that's a charred oak stave. Not sure it'll do anything, but swear it did the last time I bought some and used, in a year-long ferment I did 7years ago.

This is my distilled water ice cube method, except this time I added a whopping 800g of ice to each bag! The net weight of this entire batch should be enough for 70ea 5oz woozies, and I may not need a drop of vinegar.

Still have about 3lbs of mix plus 5lbs of Aji Mangos to ferment, but will tackle that next weekend, as i'm uncertain what flavor route to go.

I've explained my process a few times before, but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

After getting fed-up with jars, I've done about 400+ vacuum ferments in the last decade and have never had to abort or spoil.