WHAT ARE YOU CANNING TODAY?

[flowerbug]

There is a layer of kahm yeast on the top.

is that something you are adding?

i don't do much fermenting here so it hasn't been a common thing to see, here are a few comments on it and approaches to preventing it:

Kahm Yeast 101: Prevention, Treatment, FAQs | NW Ferments

Learn everything you need to know about Kahm yeast - from prevention to treatment and FAQs - with NW Ferments' Kahm Yeast 101 guide. Start fermenting with confidence.

www.nwferments.com

 

[LaurenRitz]

is that something you are adding?

i don't do much fermenting here so it hasn't been a common thing to see, here are a few comments on it and approaches to preventing it:

Kahm Yeast 101: Prevention, Treatment, FAQs | NW Ferments

Learn everything you need to know about Kahm yeast - from prevention to treatment and FAQs - with NW Ferments' Kahm Yeast 101 guide. Start fermenting with confidence.

www.nwferments.com

Kham yeast is not generally considered a bad thing. It's a wild yeast that gets into many fements and it's completely harmless. But its presence indicates that there might be imbalances in the ferment. It usually feeds on sugar (I didn't add any sugar, so obviously from the peppers) and can't tolerate high levels of acid or salt.

 

[LaurenRitz]

I did find some additional information, though. Hot sauce is fermented without water. I hadn't caught that before. The ratios are for the material (peppers) and not the water. So that suggests there is a great deal of water in peppers and the normal salt ratios wouldn't work.

Most ferments you add the salt to the water. Material ratios are pretty much ignored. Cucumber pickles, fermented beets, fermented tomatoes, etc.

With things like saurkraut, the salt is used to pull the water out of the cabbage. It creates its own liquid. If you add water, the ferment is going to be nasty.

Peppers are apparently a step above that.