Mold on homemade sriracha

Question

We found a recipe online for homemade sriracha hot sauce.

3lbs red jalapeños
1 cup brown sugar
⅛ cup salt

Everything was blended together, then set in a dark closet. The lid is not airtight but has an elastic band holding it shut. This was to let pressure escape as the recipe suggested.
It was supposed to be left for 2 weeks in a dark place. It has been one week but I am worried about the mold on the top.
After about 2-3 days it had a white layer. I read this might be yeast so ignored it. However, it now has fuzzy black mold and I am worried.
Most hot sauce recipes I see need vinegar or something to keep it from rotting but apparently this fermentation method works fine.
Is this sriracha still ok? Can we scrape the mold off after 1 more week?

J. Mueller · Accepted Answer

Do NOT eat this. You figured out right that the stuff on top is mold. The thing that makes mold dangerous is the mycotoxins produced by it and these will likely remain in the sauce even if you scrape off the furry stuff. So eating this comes with high risk of affecting your health. Move it to the trash bin right away.
I would recommend to try again with a recipe with vinegar added and also to use containers that are more appropriate for doing fermentation. This means to minimize the amount of air in the container that could possibly contain any spores and to minimize the surface of the food exposed to the air. So using a bottle will serve your purpose much better than the only half-full glasses on your pictures.
Also be very careful to sterilize the containers and tools getting in contact with the sauce before starting the fermentation.

Mold on homemade sriracha

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