If the sauce is too thin, pour it in a pot, turn up the heat, and reduce it to your desired consistency.

OK, I can try that, it will definately concentrate the flavor, thanks.

I sterilize my bottles with "5 Star Saniclean " then boil them in 185+ degree water.
Saniclean is from the homebrew shop(Beer Wine and Cheese-
http://www.homebeerwinecheese.com/).
I use it to sterilize my beer bottles.
It's a no rinse product.

I don't think 165 is hot enough,even though it's supposed to be ok to use lower temps.

Make sure to check sauce PH too before bottling.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hot sauce

This post was edited by smokemaster_2007 on Thu, Jun 6, 13 at 18:22

Interesting. I am growing my peppers in order to make both hot sauce and hot pizza sauce. I had thought that I needed to pressure can/process everything to avoid the possibility of botulism. Does the capsicum remove the need to do this?
many thanks for setting me straight here.

As Smoke stated check the PH. Boil Boil Boil. I boil my hot sauce bottles 30-45 min, I time it with the boiling of my hot sauce and put hot hot sauce into hot bottles both taken from a boiling state to capping then I let them cool. To preserve I use sea salt and lemon or lime juice fresh squeezed.

I use a cast iron skillet on a propane grill to boil my sauce. As I learned boiling inside gets you in trouble with everyone as they go into a coughing fit. Lesson learned lol.

Do some research below is a getting started link.

Mark

Here is a link that might be useful: Ball preserving

Yep. Ph is the main factor between normal canning and pressure canning.

Kevin

Okey dokey - I will either pressure can or raise the ph with acids (lemon) just like I do when I'm water bath canning nude tomatoes. Many thanks

I find that cooking the peppers takes that raw taste off. My sauce is pretty basic, ground peppers, usually a mixture of what is ready at the time, tons of garlic, a goodly amount of vinegar and salt to taste, a bit of sugar if I need to cut the vinegar a bit, strictly to taste. I've never "canned" it, it usually lives in the fridge until it is gone, which generally is not very long. I did recently open a jar from last fall and it was as bright and fresh tasting as when I jarred it.

If you're using lemon juice instead of vinegar, always use bottled juice as the acid level is more consistent than fresh fruit. Check the NCHFP2 web site for the latest info as well as a good beginning canning tutorial.

Steve