Lacto-Fermented Hot Sauce

I've made hot sauces before, but haven't ever really been pleased with them, as the vinegar seems to wash out a lot of the natural flavor of the peppers.  So at the end of October, with the farmer's market season on a week or two away, I came across a late flush of hot peppers.
There were beautiful Hungarian carrot peppers, plus a good number of red serrano peppers for sale.  I picked up both and thought it was time to give homemade hot sauce another swing.  Following this blog article, I split and gently crushed the peppers into the bottom of a glass jar, along with star anise and fresh garlic.  I topped the peppers up with salted water, then inoculated the peppers with a ladle full of the juice from my fermenting sauerkraut crock.
After about 2 weeks the peppers had softened and began to gently bubble.  All the while the peppers kept a bright, fresh aroma.  At the six week mark I decided it was time to get my sauce on.  I pureed the chilies into a mash, then added some more fresh garlic.  The pepper mash was thick, so I thinned it out into a pourable consistency with the fermenting juice.  The hot sauce came out with a super vibrant flavor, some garlicky undertones, and a searing heat in the end.  For a first time making lacto-fermented hot sauce, I can't see doing anything else in the future.
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