Starting Batch 24 Slow Fermented Hot Sauce

Changing things up for the 24th annual batch of fermented hot sauce

The hot peppers to start the ferment on Batch 24 hot pepper sauce. From upper left, Hidden Lake Hot, Hinkelhatz (green), Aleppo, Long Cayenne, Fish, Hinkelhatz (red)

Author’s Note: Every year since 2001, I’ve made a slow fermented hot sauce from a unique Cayenne hot pepper we’ve grown here since the early 1990’s. The hot sauce takes around six months to finish and, like wine and other fermented foods, each vintage is a little different from the other. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad. I write these notes to track the progress and hope I learn how to produce more good than bad.

Well, after a weird year last year, I’m pleased to say that this year’s batch of slow fermented hot sauce is beginning right on time.

This particular recipe takes around six months to finish (it’s called slow ferment for a reason), so I would expect to bottle it in late February. The big wildcard, however, is the pepper mix I’m using this year.

Most of the time my hot sauce is made from 100% Hidden Lake Hot, a cayenne / Thai pepper hybrid I’ve grown here for almost 30 years. But this year, thanks to a gift from my oldest kid, I have a really interesting variety of hot peppers, most of which I’ve never grown and know very little about.

So, rather than going 100% hottie like usual, I’m mixing it up with a bunch of different peppers to see what happens.

For the initial round of peppers (there will be 6 – 8 additional rounds), I’m using Hidden Lake Hot as the base pepper, but adding Aleppo, Long Cayenne, Fish, and a few Hinkelhatz.

As peppers go, most of these are modestly hot, but they’re also fairly high in sugar, so I suspect the initial fermentation will be faster than it is with the hotties alone. But who knows? Only time will tell.

First addition of peppers to Batch 24 of the Hot Pepper Sauce

Here we go, Batch 24!

How to make fermented hot sauce

Check out this post for simple instructions on how to make your own spicy, flavorful hot sauce. It’s easy!