Batch 24 Fermented Hot Sauce Pepper Addition Number 6

Fresh peppers are still growing here in mid-autumn, so are the fresh additions to the hot pepper fermenter

This week is an even split between Fish and Cayenne/Thai peppers

Autumn is here in earnest now. This time of year in San Diego (and Southern California in general) is dry and warm during the day and considerably cooler at night. While the Santa Ana winds out of the desert keep the days in the mid-70s, the lack of humidity in the air means the nights get quite cool. Recently, the overnight lows have dipped into the high 30s just before dawn.

While those cool (and longer) autumn nights have pretty much put an end to the tomatoes, squash and beans, for whatever reason, the peppers seem to be doing quite well – maybe even better than they were doing at the end of summer when both days and nights were warm.

Green fish peppers ripening in early November

Hidden Lake Hot Cayenne/Thai peppers in early November

In fact, a couple of weeks ago I made addition number 5 of fresh peppers to the fermenter (the second 1-gallon fermenter – the first one is full), but there were so few peppers I didn’t think to take a photo. Now, however, all of the peppers — Aleppos, Hinkelhatz, Cayennes, and especially Fish — are flowering and fruiting once again.

So, this week we’re doing a fairly big addition — around 8 ounces — of fresh hot peppers to the fermenter. They’re evenly divided between the Hidden Lake Hots (the Cayenne/Thai cross that’s usually the base pepper in my hot sauce) and Fish peppers.

Given what I see still on the plants, it looks like we’re going to finish off with one more big addition of the Fish and a slightly smaller one of the HLH peppers. The Aleppos are going to get smoked and dried while the Hinkelhatz will be pickled (they’re delicious pickled).

Looking at the calendar, I am guessing that next week or the week after will be the final addition of fresh peppers. After that I will blend the two jars holding the fermenting peppers and send them off to a cool, dark spot in the garage where they’ll rest until late January before we bottle.

Addition number 6 is an even split between cayenne/Thai and Fish peppers

The weather service says it’s going to be a La Niña year which means it’ll be warmer and drier this winter than the past couple of winters. My experience tells me that means Batch 24 will probably be ready to bottle sooner rather than later, and the flavor will have a more pronounced fruitiness than cooler years when it turns out funkier.

Of course, this year I’ve used a multitude of different pepper varieties, so I’m expecting some flavors surprises as well.

We shall see.

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.

Batch 24 Timeline