nukadoko yet? can't tell

I have two big glass mason type jars under the sink right now, about 2/5 full of brown mush. They have to be pulled out and stirred by hand every day, at least once. The texture is sort of too mushy for bread dough, but finer than oatmeal. There is something satisfying already about taking care of the stuff, but every time I stick my hand in, random spots on my arm sting slightly, and I always have to remember that there's actually a lot of salt in the mixture that I keep forgetting about. I originally bought one jar, but found out that sticking my forearm in to stir a full jar of the stuff was just too crowded, and it's only going to get worse when I actually start throwing full sized vegetables in there, too. It's been several days now, and it's definitely beginning to smell ...different. In the beginning it just smelled like warm grain mush, but I did put garlic and chili peppers in, which started to show up in the odor after a few days. I also split a bottle of beer between the two of them, which is supposed to speed up the start of fermentation. Yesterday, I think, was the first day it began to smell like more than just grain and garlic. Everyone who blogs about this stuff just describes it as 'pungent', and my own memories of eating these pickles in Japan are blurry, so I'm hoping that instinct will tell me that it's a good fermented smell rather than a bad fermented smell. Just tonight I cut up a few old peppers and buried them in the nukadoko - I read that you need to pickle 'throwaway' vegetables just at the beginning to help get it going - they're not really supposed to be very good to eat, since things aren't quite up to speed yet. I think I'm going to have to eat them in a couple of days anyway, though, just to monitor what the hell's actually going on in there. And I've already flapped my gums and told a friend with a Japanese wife that I'm starting to make nukazuke at home, so now I have their hopes up, and need to follow through properly and make sure I have pickles I won't be insecure about sharing with other people who know what they're really supposed to taste like.