How to Make Fermented Garlic Sriracha Hot Sauce From Scratch

Choosing Peppers for Garlic Sriracha Hot Sauce

To make your own garlic sriracha at home, you need to start with quality peppers. Here’s my checklist for choosing good peppers: 

1. Density: The peppers should feel like they are hydrated and have good turgor pressure. It should not feel dried out, shriveled up, and floppy.
2. Check for surface mold: Look for indentions and soft spots in the peppers. You do not want to buy peppers that are squishy. Peppers that are close to molding will have dark, small, circular indentions or black “pocks” on the surface and near the stem.
3. Skip the bag: It’s important to note here that you should NOT use peppers that come “triple-washed” in a plastic bag. Or frozen peppers. These do not wild ferment well (or at all, really) because they lack the microorganisms necessary for the fermentation process.
4. Color: Peppers should have a uniform color, but some peppers do change colors as they ripen. For example, it’s fine to use a jalapeno that is green and may also have some reddish colors.

Fermented Garlic Sriracha Hot Sauce

You can use various peppers to make fermented sriracha hot sauce, but red jalapenos work best. We have a Latin food market in town, and I can always find red jalapenos there.

Other good options for red peppers include Cayenne or Red Anaheim. I’ve made a batch of this garlic sriracha with a mix of all three and it was amazing. Note that different peppers will yield variable heat levels.

If you are looking to make other kinds of hot sauce, you can use this recipe blog with just about any pepper type.

Also, I want to mention that some peppers contain too much capsaicin, so no beneficial fermentation microbes can grow when fermenting those. I’m talking about peppers above 500,000 Scoville units (Trinidad Scorpion, Komodo Dragon, Carolina Reaper, Ghost Pepper, Naga Viper, etc.). I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t any fermentation bacteria on the surface of a Carolina Reaper pepper, for instance. At such a high concentration, capsaicin is bactericidal.

If you want to ferment extremely hot peppers, mix them in with more mild peppers.

If you’re looking to mix peppers and try other kinds of hot sauce besides sriracha with this recipe, I suggest trying:

• Serrano Peppers
• Poblano Peppers
• Jalapeños
• Habanero
• Anaheim Peppers

Fermenting Peppers for Hot Sauce

Regarding fermentation times, the longer the peppers ferment, the more the flavor develops. I love peppers that have been fermented for about five weeks. After five weeks, they’re perfectly tart and preserved, ready to be made into hot sauce.

When fermenting peppers, it’s better to use a slightly higher salt concentration than for other vegetables; about 3.5% of the total weight in salt is a good place to start. I like peppers fermented anywhere between 3% and 6% total salt concentration. (Read more about salt concentration here).

While some people make hot sauce by blending and mashing the peppers first, I do not. I prefer to ferment everything in slices, so it all stays submerged with a fermentation weight during the 5-6 weeks of fermentation. Once fermentation is complete, it’s time to cook it down and blend it into a sauce.

Supplies You Need to Make Garlic Sriracha

• 32 ounce Wide Mouth Mason Jar
• Fermentation Weight
• Standard Metal Mason Jar Lid (this can rust in the presence of salt)
• OR Rust Free Plastic Lid
• or you can use a Weck Jar (without the gasket; only use the clips to secure the lid)
• Sea Salt
• Scale
• Mixing Bowl 
• blender
• pot for cooking

To learn more about the best fermentation jars and lids to use, CLICK HERE.

How to Ferment Sriracha Hot Sauce

The process starts by wild fermenting peppers and garlic for five weeks at room temperature.

During the first few days of fermentation: carbon dioxide and bubbles will be produced. Sometimes, jars will become very full of liquid, and this liquid can seep out. It’s important to “burp” the jar during the bubbly stage.

• If using a standard mason jar lid: remove the lid and tamper everything back down using a gloved hand, tamper, or spoon. Make sure everything is still submerged below the brine, and re-secure the lid.
• You may notice pepper seeds floating. You can scoop them out with a clean spoon.

Hot Sauce Fermentation Timeline

Here is the timeline of pepper fermentation at a moderate room temperature (about 76° F).

 
24 – 72 hours: All contents in the jar should be submerged beneath the brine. At this time there are still Gram negative bacteria and possible pathogens present. 

72 hours – 9 days: After 72 hours you should start to see lots of bubbles being produced. This is the stage in which you will burp the jar (open the lid and make sure everything is submerged below the brine). This is when the ferment enters stage two of vegetable fermentation. Leuconostoc bacteria begin to thrive and produce a lot of carbon dioxide. Gram negative organisms die off. You may notice an acidic smell and color changes during this time.

9 – 14 days: The bubbles in the brine will decrease as the ferment leaves stage two and enters stage three. The peppers will become cloudy and start to develop a pleasant sour smell. They will also start to change color from vibrant to more muted colors. Lactobacillus species are most abundant during this period.

14 – 28 days: Lactobacillus comprise most or all of the microbial population. They produce copious amounts of lactic acid, making the ferment smell even more pleasantly sour. This is the time in which the pepper and garlic mixture becomes preserved.
 
 30 days: Wait for the peppers to smell and taste as you like, then move on to blending and cooking the hot sauce. (We cook it because we add sugar to the hot sauce and want the sweetness to remain in the flavor profile. This kills the microbes, but makes for the best flavor).

How to Make Hot Sauce

Once the peppers and garlic are finished fermenting, it’s time to make the sauce. Here’s how you turn the fermented jalapenos and garlic into sriracha:

• Add all of the fermented peppers, garlic and brine to a blender with the sugar and vinegar. Blend on high until smooth.
• Scoop everything from the blender into a pot and cook for about 10 minutes at a simmer.
• Place a colander over a large bowl and strain the sauce. You can mash the pulp a little with a spoon to get all the juices out. (don’t forget to save the pulp!)
• Return the strained liquid to the same pot and cook for 10-15 more minutes at a simmer.
• Using a funnel, bottle the sauce. Wait to cap the bottle until the sauce cools down a little.

Bottling and Using All Parts

Since you strain the sauce, you will have some pepper pulp left over. Please do not throw it away! Put it in a mason jar and keep it to cook with. It is fantastic in soups, stews, braises, and especially ramen.

Essentially this recipe gives you two sauces, garlic sriracha hot sauce, and a garlic pepper paste. yay!

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How to Make Fermented Garlic Sriracha Hot Sauce From Scratch

Learn how to make your own fermented garlic sriracha hot sauce at home. It’s easier (and cheaper) than you think! To make sriracha you’ll need red jalapenos. However, this recipe can be adapted to make garlic hot sauce with many types of hot peppers.

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• Prep: 10 min 10 minutes
• ferment: 5 weeks 5 weeks
• Cook: 30 min 30 minutes

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Ingredients

• 700 grams red jalapeños
• 50 grams garlic
• 180 grams water
• 40 grams salt
• 100 grams sugar (after fermentation)
• 100 grams vinegar (after fermentation)

Instructions

1. This recipe at 1x works best with a 32-ounce jar for the fermentation and a 12-ounce bottle for the sauce. Wash your fermentation equipment, including the jar, weight, and lid.
2. Wash your jalapenos and slice them. (Wear gloves if you are sensitive to peppers). Crush and peel the garlic.
3. Place your kitchen scale on the counter. Turn it on and set it to weigh in grams. Place a mixing bowl on your kitchen scale and tare/zero the scale.
4. Add your peppers and garlic into the bowl, measuring out the designated amount.
5. Remove the bowl from your scale and set it aside. Place your empty, clean mason jar on the scale, and tare/zero the scale. Ensure your scale is still set to grams, and add the designated amount of filtered water to your mason jar.
6. Place a small bowl on your scale and tare/zero the scale. Weigh out the sea salt. Then add the salt to the jar with the water. Stir until all the salt is dissolved.
7. Add the peppers and garlic from your bowl, into the mason jar with water. You will need to mash the peppers into the jar with a tamper or wooden spoon to pack them in, as you do the brine will come up.
   
8. Place your fermentation weight in the jar making sure to submerge all of the pepper pieces and weight fully in the liquid.
9. Secure the lid to the jar and ferment at room temperature for 5 to 6 weeks.
10. After fermentation, add all of the fermented peppers, garlic, and brine to a blender with the sugar and vinegar. Blend on high until smooth.
11. Scoop everything from the blender into a pot and cook for about 10 minutes at a simmer.
12. Place a colander over a large bowl and strain the sauce. You can mash the pulp in the colander with a spoon to get all the juices out. (don’t forget to save the pulp!)
13. Return the strained liquid to the same pot and cook for 10-15 more minutes at a simmer with regular stirring.
14. Using a funnel, bottle the sauce. Wait to cap the bottle until the sauce cools down a little.
15. Store in the refrigerator. Use within a year for the best flavor.

Notes

• You can use other peppers in this recipe. Peppers above 500,000 Scoville units contain an extremely high concentration of capsaicin. At those levels, capsaicin is bactericidal and can prevent natural fermentation. Choose your peppers accordingly.
  

Kaitlynn Fenley Food Microbiologist and Fermentation Specialist

Kaitlynn is a Food Microbiologist and FSPCA-certified fermentation specialist. An alumna of the LSU College of Science, she combines her academic background in microbiology with her Cajun heritage to create safe and delicious recipes.

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