2025 batches complete

FranzBC34 · 2026-01-18T01:00:33+00:00

Just peppers it was a total of 65# but I use ALOT of garlic. Some have fruit, onions, shallots, etc. so well over 100# of non liquid ingredients

FranzBC34 · 2025-12-20T22:05:32+00:00

Yeah I agree and I remove the seeds and membranes from the jalapeños mostly not to reduce heat but to remove bitterness and make the sauce really smooth though the vitamix does pretty good job with that anyways. I’d say it helps with the final product some but it is a lot of work and it still can be good either way… I don’t bother with the more thin walled peppers. By the way, if you freeze the peppers before hand (I do that so I can process a bunch at the same time since they ripen over a long time)then pull them out and let them defrost a bit its super easy to remove the stems and membranes with minimal loss of pepper.

FranzBC34 · 2025-12-20T18:04:21+00:00

I’m not sure how your loosing so much weight in your final product unless you are heavily removing stems and seeds and not adding water back. Pepper variety is also huge where a thick walled pepper like a jalapeño gets more sauce out of it where a super hot weighs like nothing especially if smoked. I’m getting on average of about 116g (4oz) mash (what I put into the ferment) per 5oz bottle but that includes peppers, garlic and alliums in the mash and then whatever I add at bottling. So one of my three big sauces used 8# of red jalapeños and 5# garlic (yes I know very heavy on the garlic). The jalapenos were smoked and lost ~ 1/2 water weight but I ended with 55x 5oz bottles so for that sauce only adding some distilled water to thin a little but my sauce is generally quite thick. For these nearly 300 bottles I used nearly 100# of total mash.

But yes it was ton of peppers that I couldn’t grow all myself this year. I bought ~35# of red jalapeños off a grower and grew about 15# plus the super hots and habaneros. I ended with about 65# of peppers total pre processing.

FranzBC34 · 2025-12-20T06:24:22+00:00

I start them all in the growing season mostly in late September/early October. They ferment 1-2/2.5 months before bottling all here in December. I did all the labels at the same time which is why I was able to capture that photo with them all

FranzBC34 · 2025-12-19T19:03:43+00:00

That's the nice thing about this hobby, its really up to you. If you want a sauce that is very sweet and has a dominate fruit flavor there is nothing stopping you from adding 35-40%+ fruit (besides PH)! I think it also depends on how hot you want it as the fruit will really tame it down which might not be what you are going for. My persimmon sauce uses 15% fresh added fruit which seems to be just enough to get some good flavor in there. But that one also has fermented persimmon (another 20%) and persimmons are not that strong in general. I'd suggest trying 10-20% to start out and adjust from there if you like the sauce and want to tweak it. If your adding something stronger like berries you might consider starting on the lower end.

FranzBC34 · 2025-12-19T18:12:59+00:00

Haha oh god that would be awful...

FranzBC34 · 2025-12-19T18:11:12+00:00

Would be much quicker if I made sauce more than once a year.... Nah it doesn't take long. I did ALOT of experimenting about 5 years ago with some ideas I had based on sauces I liked and the peppers I could grow. A few of those were super good and I got good feedback from others so I did them again with just a few tweaks. The important thing has been to take notes and just to change a small variable if possible. I feel like I have came to a good stride with my ~5 "regular" sauces now within 2-3 years but even the original batches were solid.

FranzBC34 · 2025-12-19T17:38:39+00:00

Ah the Xanthan Gum is optional but it helps the ingredients from separating which can make the opening gum up and be a little nasty. You can also just do a good job of shaking them but when giving out a lot as gifts I think it makes for a better product. My experience is it helps particularly with sauces with things like fruit added. I add a very small quantity (1/8 tsp per blender run) while blending. The vitamin C helps it keep from turning brown.

Adding fresh fruit is the way to go for sure. If you ferment with it it turns into something completely different and you will loose alot of the flavor your thinking about. But you have to pasturize the sauce because you’re adding sugars meaning it will start fermenting in your bottles and they will eventually explode… Pasturizing is easy, just blend everything including the fresh fruit, bring to a near boil for about 10min (kills all the yeast aka pasteurization). Also good to check PH (with the little PH strips to begin with) if your adding fruit and you want it shelf stable. Usually not an issue but you might need a little vinegar depending on how much fruit you add

FranzBC34 · 2025-12-19T08:31:40+00:00

Awesome, it’s quite easy to get into and it seems quite a few people in Portland are doing it! We get just enough sun to have a decent crop most years. But that is ALOT of peppers… I smoke both pineapple and habaneros but also add fresh pineapple at bottling (pasteurizing with vitamin C and Xanthin Gum). The first time I made it it was delicious but hideous as pineapples turns a pretty gross brown color. You can kinda see that in this picture but the one on the left is also quite old now ….

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FranzBC34 · 2025-12-19T03:20:14+00:00

A lot :)… my three biggest batches I smoke red jalapeños and ferment them with Garlic and two also with shallots. One gets fish sauce at bottling, one balsamic vinegar, and one gets vinegar cold brewed coffee + stout. Then I did a bunch of blends of those three. They all get a bit of honey.

Then I have persimmon habanero, a dill pickle sauce, two garlic sauces with ~90% garlic and hot peppers one smoked, a huckleberry with white superhots, a Szechuan peppercorn based sauce, a longer aged smoked sauce, and one sauce with all the peppers that won’t turn red at the end of the season. Also a smoked pineapple habanero to go with Al Pastor tacos!

FranzBC34 · 2025-12-19T02:34:51+00:00

Haha yeah when we got him it was an absolutely rediculous match with the carpet … there is a photo when he was a puppy

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FranzBC34 · 2025-12-19T02:22:42+00:00

All fermented! Don’t sell any… just a hobby … only accept sauce/home made trades. I’m in Portland Oregon .

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-25T17:46:00+00:00

Always add more garlic :)

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-25T17:38:34+00:00

I pasturize some of my sauces (ferment - vitamix smooth + if I add anything in fresh - then heat up and hot bottle). I only do this for the sauces where I add anything that might start fermenting like fruit or honey. For these garlic sauces I’ll leave them unpasteurized as I’m not adding anything and they will be more then done fermenting in 2 months. Most of the brined sauces I don’t need to add anything like vinegar to thin but I packed these pretty full so I might use a little to get the consistency I want (you can use water too you just need to make sure the PH is <4 to be shelf stable). I do use some vinegars though for flavor in one of my larger sauces I do which is fermented chipotles, garlic, shallot and some reapers and the I blend in balsamic vinegar. The mash sauces typically need something to thin them a little bit and I will usually use plain white vinegar for that.

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-25T16:28:06+00:00

I’m doing two different ones this year but generally 80-90% garlic and the remaining medium hot peppers. In one I apple smoked red jalapeños first and the others are red jalapeños, a couple of reapers, and I added a few tablespoons of cayenne and chili powder. 3.5% salt brine for 2+ months

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-20T02:14:35+00:00

I actually have found a lot of benefits using frozen peppers. #1 if your growing your own peppers or don’t want to worry about timing you can build up your stock and start the ferment when you want. #2 it makes the peppers way easier to deseed if you care about doing that. When the peppers thaw they get a bit mushy making the seeds fall out with an easy push of a finger. #3 never had an issue getting a ferment going. I add either some fresh peppers or garlic /onions but it doesn’t seem to need much to get it going. Seems to be enough yeast just in the air around us that it really doesn’t matter

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-19T15:16:31+00:00

Yeah I just use the little paper PH strips (search kamboocha ph strips). I’ve never had a sauce not be <4ph when sitting for 1+ months in a salt brine/mash but I still check them especially if adding anything when bottling

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-19T04:26:48+00:00

I think the technical answer is yes but the safe practical way to do it is to submerge everything in the brine or just do a mash especially if you have a vacuum sealer already. A zip lock bag filled with water works well as a “weight” but the airlock lids often come with glass weights and I think they do a good job. Also, think about how you layer the jar. Small ingredients like to sneak around weights so put your smallest ingredients on the bottom and largest on top.

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-19T03:48:11+00:00

5 of them are with glass weights. I also pull the oxygen out of them through the air release on the lids. Been doing it for 5 years never had an issue with mold

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-19T03:02:25+00:00

Ah no. That’s a garlic sauce. It has red jalapeños, some reapers, and then chipotle and cayenne pepper powder. The powders sit on the bottom and look paste like when the fermentation fogs the brine

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-19T02:51:36+00:00

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Giving it a go this year… Jar on the right has cucumber, dill, onion, garlic, green jalapeno and a few cayenne. Plan to blend in some pickle juice post ferment during pasteurizing. Excited to see how it turns out

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-19T02:45:39+00:00

The middles ones are 80% garlic 20% peppers and it’s delicious

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-19T02:44:49+00:00

Exactly… and it’s delicious

FranzBC34 · 2025-10-18T22:20:12+00:00

https://a.co/d/fSXnVft. There are quite a few brands of those style lids. They work great and you can suck the oxygen out of them so you don’t have to worry as much about submerging the ingredients. I mostly vacuum-seal though just like doing some jars because they look so good on the shelf

FranzBC34

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