New Book- and I Helped!

Setup my 1st ever pepper ferment using the habenero recipe from the book, but I subbed in jalapeños because I'm a wuss :)
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So my ferment was going well, cloudy and pumping out CO2. Now after about a week, the liquid is clearing up and it seems like most of the bacteria has precipitated out to the bottom. Is it time to blend and make hot sauce? The recipe in the book recommends fermenting for up to 4 weeks but this has only been going for 1 week.
 
Sunfire96 said:
So my ferment was going well, cloudy and pumping out CO2. Now after about a week, the liquid is clearing up and it seems like most of the bacteria has precipitated out to the bottom. Is it time to blend and make hot sauce? The recipe in the book recommends fermenting for up to 4 weeks but this has only been going for 1 week.
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It would depend on the temperature it works faster warm.
Taste it I'd say then decide.
 
Trialben said:
It would depend on the temperature it works faster warm.
Taste it I'd say then decide.
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Are there any downsides letting it ride longer even though the bacteria have visibly dropped out? I guess I'm worried that the pH or salinity had become unideal for the lacotobacillus and it will spoil soon. I like hot sauce but I'm not jumping at the chance to bite a hot fermented pepper as is lol
 
Sunfire96 said:
Are there any downsides letting it ride longer even though the bacteria have visibly dropped out? I guess I'm worried that the pH or salinity had become unideal for the lacotobacillus and it will spoil soon. I like hot sauce but I'm not jumping at the chance to bite a hot fermented pepper as is lol
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It's my understanding (limited albeit) is that the lactobacillus create the lower PH therefore preventing spoilage therefore preserving whatever it is your ah preserving :).

If I remember the hot sauce I did fermented in a week I did the brine in summer time.
 
Here's a photo of the ferment. Like I said earlier, I think the bacteria have all, or mostly, dropped out
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Bacteria are microscopic- there are still plenty in the liquid that are alive and well. The bottom may be spent bacteria, but also other microbes that find the environment inhospitable. You can take a smell/taste and see if it's tart enough for you. We like ours really tart, almost puckeringly pickle-ish, so we allow ours to go longer
 
You also reach a point where the microbes survival trick of creating acid starts to backfire and they stop producing acid because they can't survive as well. The solution doesn't get any more tart, but whatever you're pickling will still keep changing slowly from the acid already produced and anything else you added for flavour. First batch of a new pickle approach we let them go for a month or two, but try to sample every couple of weeks to work out our preferred time length.
 
Congratulations on the book!
I'll have to put it on the buy list!
Cheers!
Brian
 
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