If you're just making a fermented hot sauce, why not just use serranos? The serrano is basically the consistently hot jalapeno you're looking from; it's just less plump and so less useful as a popper or whatever. And, of course, if you really wanted heat, you'd be using scotch bonnets anyways.
Each of these chiles have very different flavors friend. Serranos and jalapeños are much closer than habaneros but still cleanly separated by bitterness, brightness and acridity.
Eg a grandmother’s salsa ranchera with jalapeño only is a much sweeter affair than when supplemented with serranos, and equally much less fruity than when pequins are used.
I think this is the biggest point a lot of people who aren't used to consistently spicy/hot food miss. Yes, the peppers will be hot but the flavors will be wildly different between them and that's the more interesting/important thing. The right pepper can really make a dish amazing, but just adding heat won't.
I don't know that jalapenos and serranos are different enough to say this about. Serranos are more vegetal, I guess? But jalapenos are pretty variable, especially depending on ripeness, and I would claim right now (without being able to back it up) that serranos fit into the spectrum of possible jalapenos (like: there is a jalapeno somewhere that tastes just like the median serrano), minus the capsaicin.
Which is what people are saying they want from a non-industrial jalapeno.
The boy has a rotavap in the basement, I just need to convince him to let me run up some peppers in it to do the comparison. :)
I don't think of cooked Serranos as too different from cooked Jalapenos as long as they haven't ripened too much and turned red. I made a large batch of pozole this weekend with jalapenos and it was disappointingly mild, I plan to add some serranos to the leftovers to bump the heat up a little bit.
