Tried fermenting hot sauce without an airlock and got amazing results

I always thought you needed those fancy airlock jars for any kind of fermentation, especially hot sauce where mold seems to pop up fast. Last month I ran out of clean mason jar lids for my pepper mash, so I just used a regular screw top lid and burped it every morning. Three weeks later I opened it up and the smell was perfect, no mold at all, just a deep funky pepper aroma. I think the constant burping let enough CO2 out while keeping oxygen from getting in, and it just worked. The sauce came out way more flavorful than my previous batches with airlocks, almost like the occasional exposure added complexity. Now I'm wondering if I've been overcomplicating this whole thing. Has anyone else tried burp-lid fermentation for long projects like kimchi or kraut?

2 comments

2 Comments

rivera.hannah14d ago

Wait, are you sure it wasn't just luck with your specific batch? Ive had way too many jars of kraut go bad from trying the burp method. The problem is you can never really tell if enough CO2 is staying in there to push out oxygen, especially after a few days when the fermentation slows down. I used to think burping was fine too until I lost a whole gallon of sauerkraut to this weird pink slime on top. With airlocks you get that constant one way seal and dont have to mess with it every day. Not worth the risk of losing a big batch just to save like two bucks on a lid.

linda_butler14d ago

Replying to @rivera.hannah, sounds like you got punked by the pink slime monster, RIP to that gallon of kraut. I guess some of us just have a taste for danger and cheap lids.