Probiotic Fermented Vintage Hot Sauce - Limited Quantities

Traditionally, all hot sauces were fermented hot sauces, preserved through fermentation not artificial preservatives. This makes sense because it's simple, delicious and good for you.  At its most basic, only three ingredients are required for make a hot sauce: chilli, salt and time (which leads to probiotics). Once the fermentation process has completed, this probiotically spicy condiment has a fridge life of 2 years or more. Why add preservatives, stabilisers and flavourings when you can ferment?

About Gutsy Vintage Fermented Hot Sauce

Here at Gutsy, we decided to take it up a level for those who are after a good wildly fermented hot sauce. Crafted with a blend of Heirloom Spanish and Greek Chilies grown organically in the Sunshine Coast Region, this hot sauce was fermented for over a year in an oak barrel before being cellared for another year to achieve a deliciously unique, fruity, umami flavour profile.

The chillies used to in this hot sauce are hot and spicy.  But because of the long fermentation, some of the capsaicin (spiciness) is broken down and mellowed leaving the spice level of the final product medium to hot. For you who love the flavour of hot sauce but not ridiculous heat, this is perfect for you. This is a hot sauce that you will be able to enjoy without worrying about burning your tongue off!.

Vintage Hot Sauce Flavour Profile

Fruity notes, layered with citrus & floral undertones, finish with a tingling warmth

How to Use Vintage Hot Sauce

A small spoonful of this vintage hot sauce is all you need to add a spicy kick to all your favourite foods. 

Whisk a teaspoon of hot sauce into a peanut & miso sauce to dunk some noodles, jazz up any soups, stews, curries or casserole with a drizzle, or make a kick arse marinade for some hot wings this Summer’s bbq. 

Ingredients:

Organic Guindillas Chilies, Organic Stavros Chilies, Organic Smoked Garlic Organic Radish, Organic Carrot, Murray Rivers Sea Salt

• 100% Product of Australia
• Made with all organic ingredients
• Fermented in Oak Barrels (no plastics)
• Raw and Probiotic
• Gluten Free
• Vegan

During wild fermentation the bacteria on the outside of the chillies feed on the carbohydrates, sugars and fibres that make up the chillies.  This fermentation breaks down the hard-to-digest fibres (prebiotics) as the probiotics multiply.  Some of the by-products of this fermentation (post-biotics) are acids and vitamins (vitamin B and vitamin K2).  One of the acids that is created through fermentation is glutamic acid, this acid gives us the Umami flavour.  The longer the fermentation, the more umami.  

Glutamic acid is not the only acid created during fermentation.  Fermentation produces hundreds of subtle acids over the course of fermentation.  These acids create a range of flavours: fruity, sour, tangy, astringent and more; all overlapping and working together.

2. How fermentation makes hot sauce better for you

Chillies naturally have  good bacteria living on them (especially if they're chemical-free) as part of a healthy chilli microbiome, but during fermentation these bacteria multiply by 1000 times or more, depending on length of fermentation.  In one teaspoon of Gutsy fermented hot sauce there should be approximately the same number of bacteria as 3-4 probiotic capsules (lots of factors going on here).

All these bacteria have to feed on something.  These probiotics feed on the sugars that make up the chillies.  Chilli is a fruit, and (though you probably can't taste it) are usually made up of about 3% sugar, sometimes more.  As the good bacteria go wild, most of this sugar is eaten up in exchange for more bacteria, acids, and vitamins.

We've spoken about vitamins a couple of times.  Two of the post-biotics (by-products) of chilli fermentation are vitamins B and K.  Raw chilli has no vitamin B and tiny amounts of vitamin K, but these vitamins are created through fermentation...crazy right?  Read more about long fermentation here.

How to store Gutsy Vintage Hot Sauce

Keep your Gutsy hot sambal refrigerated before opening if possible. But if you can’t keep it in the fridge for a while, it’s not a big deal. Fermentation is a preserving process so this hot sauce will keep for weeks out of the fridge. If you keep your probiotic hot sauce out of the fridge it will keep fermenting. Further fermentation is fine, the only problem is that carbon dioxide is a by-product of fermentation. So if keep your bacteria-rich hot sauce out of the fridge for too long, you may be sprayed with hot sauce juice first time you open it. It’s not an unhealthy, just messy.

A Note on Shipping Living, Raw, Probiotic, Ferments

Our Gutsy Fermentery is based in Brisbane, QLD. If you buy Gutsy Fermented Hot Sauce online, we’ll ship it directly to your door anywhere in Australia. When we ship your fermented goodies we pack them into a thermal box with ice packs. This keeps the fermented products cool for a few days depending on the outside temperature.

The thing is that our Australian Summers get pretty hot, and if your package is traveling a long way your fermented hot sauce will eventually warm up. As per the storage instructions above, it doesn’t matter if your hot sauce warms up, it’s actually a good thing (as far as probiotics go). Just beware, if you’re ordering in the middle of summer, and you live far away from Brisbane (Tas or WA) your fermented chilli might be a little fizzy when you first take off the lid. If this is the case, refrigerate the jar for a couple of hours before you open is. Hold it over a bowl the first time you open it and use any juices that you catch!

This fermented hot sauce is HOT. Do you want something a little milder? Try our Apple Radish Kimchi or our Cauliflower Kimchi, both are very mild in spice and can still be used a condiment.