No, you didn't do anything wrong, they should be fine. Mine always do that, no matter how tightly I pack them.

Once the jars were processed, the veggies floated to the top, leaving about an inch or so of liquid at the bottom of the jars.

I agree that things float after processing and are usually still safe but there should be much more than an inch of water left in the jars.

Could we have more details please like what size jars you used and which recipe you used. Plain peppers are pressure canned, pickled peppers are water bathed.

Did you roast them first, did you poke holes of cut slits in them?

Dave

Dave,
I think the OP meant that there's an inch of liquid at the bottom of the jar with no peppers in it! You know, like how peaches float and tomato sauce sometimes separates and leaves the bottom looking different than the top.
I think there still liquid at the top, it just has peppers in it!

Ambarsa, Please, please, correct me if I read your post wrong and there's only an inch total of liquid left in your jars.

Sometimes your peppers will sink as the brine and water in the peppers equalize.

Deanna

Thanks to all of you for your help.

Just to clarify, the jars are full of liquid. What I was meaning to say was that the peppers floated to the top and left an inch of empty space (liquid) on the bottom of the jars.

I sliced the raw peppers into rings and used water/vinegar/salt for the brine. I was thinking that maybe the peppers got cooked because of the temperature of the brine and the temperature of being in the water bath & maybe that's why there looks like there are less peppers in the jar than what I initially put in.

But, I think I did ok for my first time. Thanks for the help!

Yeah, with your clarifications, you did fine. Had me worried there for a bit. ;)

They float because of the air in the peppers and will sink with time as Deanna said.

Dave

I'm no expert, but I've pressure canned raw pack, "crushed", and stewed tomatoes cooked 0, 5, and 10 minutes respectively before packing (the stewed tomatoes actually got a few minutes more of cooking time because I packed them after the crushed tomatoes). The raw pack separated and floated the worst, the crushed were intermediate, and the stewed tomatoes not at all. Since the crushed and stewed tomato pints needed the same amount of processing time, I canned them in the same canner load so I know that they had the same canning process. There was also no increase in head space in the stewed tomatoes while the head space did grow for the crushed tomatoes.

I have some recently canned peaches that are still floating although they were hot packed and some pickled peaches from the beginning of the peach season that have dropped down into the bottom of the jars.

I worried about safety too, but now I've decided that it's to be expected.

Stuff shrinks in a vinegar brine. Its natural and will not affect safety. I made very sour pickles and the first batch had almost 2 inches of brine at the bottom after canning. The second batch of cukes were placed in a big bowl with pickling salt and allowed to sit in it over night. That drew out some water and made the cukes a bit flexible. They were also tightly packed in jars and got the same sour brine and still shrank with about an inch of space at the bottom. My batches of mustard pickle also shrink and my mom used to comment that I didn't add enough cukes, as the mustard mixture was more than she expected. I tried presoaking the cukes and veggies prior to fillng jars and even packed jars tightly and added the mustard mixture, but it was not settling down and left many small air pockets, so I just poured it all back into the big pot and used a slotted spoon to fill the jars and then topped them off with the mustard mixture. Still they shrink, so its a natural thing.