Brewing a different thing...

Have always known that Tabasco peppers were aged 3 yr... found this

http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/hotsauce.html

website that details a little more on the process.

So, in a spare plastic vessel, I now have 2 lb shredded cayenne peppers, 2.5 oz of salt, and a little sugar (fermentable!) aging away in the back of the closet...

Will keep y'all posted. Probably will do 30 days and then open it up and see how it tastes, then add vinegar, boil and strain...

wish us luck. Next on the list is cheesemaking.

Hmm.....the habanero plant I planted this fall is producing an awful lot of peppers....

3 days and all is well... smell very pungent and no rotting or nothing...

going to skip planting green beans in the garden next year and add another row of pepper plants...

alemonkey, go for it... outta be good. I personally would temper habs with some onion or garlic though, when bottling the sauce. My favorite habanero sauce to date is Brazos legends - habaneros, vinegar, onion, salt.

Ok, did it....1 pound of habaneros are sitting in a mason jar on top of my cupboard.

I'm thinking some onion and vinegar when I bottle it....I was also thinking some lime might be good, too.

onion vinegar and lime would temper those quite well.

my dad gave me 3.5 lb of red jalapenos, they're going as of last night...

cayennes getting a nice pungent smell (not normal hot pungent, like fermented pungent) - you can feel your lungs from the inside when you breathe it in....

Did you leave your container uncovered? I figured I would until it starts to ferment, then cover it win\th tin foil. I'm hoping I have enough wild yeast floating around to get it going.

uncovered for a day or so, then draped with saran wrap and a giant rubber band. kind of loose fitting. neither one hasn't puffed up and won't probably due to looseness of fit.

something going on though, cayennes (which are ~ a week older) getting a less sharp "fresh cayenne" smell and more of a deep, earthy, hot smell.

clothes all smell like peppers now... getting right in the closet...

might start renting it out to people with bad sinuses...

now, time to make and distill a little vinegar to go in 'em....

Well, since it was cold and raining outside today, and I didn't wanna venture out into the garage, I figured I'd work on the hot sauce.

Cayennes were AWESOME. Can't describe. I like the sharp fresh cayenne taste, but these were totally different. Very back-of-the-mouth pungent mellow heat.

So I ground 'em up in the food processor, they made right at 4 cups. Added 8 cups of white vinegar, boiled, and then strained. Then I boiled it again and bottled it in some sterilized bottles I been saving.

Will do the jalapenos one night next week. 3 months seems to be an OK fermenting time, since I couldn't smell 'em working no more.

Can't wait... Alemonkey, status on yon habaneros?

I ended up getting mold in them so I threw them out .