I've got a batch of Cayenne fermented in a salt and sweet wine (Muscatel) solution ready to bottle (I think!) and I'm unsure at the moment what bottles to use for my sauce. Its been fermenting for about 4 weeks now. Bubbling ceased about 3 days ago so im gonna need to bottle soon. I was actually thinking of buying a couple of vinegar bottles with the lids that restrict flow but im cluesless as to sterilization methods. I actually bought some brucleanse sterilizer (the rinse kind, not the 'no-rinse kind) usually used for homebrew, I used this to sterilize my fermenting vessels (I used some BBQ sauce bottles that were the right size to use a bung and airlock with). I assume I could use this again to sterilize my bottles and lids? Or should I boil the bottles and soak the lids in sterilizer? Or is there another method?
As this is my first batch I'm obviously eager to get it right and not kill everyone with food poisoning/botulism (although I know botulism isnt a possibility). But I imagine that with the sauce being equal parts vinegar, that sterilization doesn't need to be quite so militant as canning. Am I right or completely off base?
On a completely different note... Most recipes I've seen call for the discarding of the mash and saving the brine. Ive seen another recipe that actually calls for discarding the brine completely then blending the mash with vinegar in a food processor. I kinda like the sound of that. Anyone had any experience doing that?
Final question, I promise! Once in the fridge how long before I should be concerned about spoilage?
As this is my first batch I'm obviously eager to get it right and not kill everyone with food poisoning/botulism (although I know botulism isnt a possibility). But I imagine that with the sauce being equal parts vinegar, that sterilization doesn't need to be quite so militant as canning. Am I right or completely off base?
On a completely different note... Most recipes I've seen call for the discarding of the mash and saving the brine. Ive seen another recipe that actually calls for discarding the brine completely then blending the mash with vinegar in a food processor. I kinda like the sound of that. Anyone had any experience doing that?
Final question, I promise! Once in the fridge how long before I should be concerned about spoilage?
Most people cook-blender-cook-bottle their fermented sauces, sometimes with some additional flavor tinkering before the final bottling. If you add other fresh ingredients during the end processing Make Sure to follow the cooking/bottling techniques in Hot Sauce 101 as the new ingredients haven't been fermented and need to be treated as a fresh sauce would be treated.
