where your sauce is made

[Dyce51]

How many people on here have their own facility to produce their sauce...and how may are useing a co-paker or other facility? Just curious...

[stillmanz]

I make all my stuff at out cafe. bottle it all, label it all..
I like it that way, gotta have your fingeron the pulse IMO
Mick

[AlabamaJack]

I make all my stuff at out cafe. bottle it all, label it all..
I like it that way, gotta have your fingeron the pulse IMO
Mick


Stillz...what percent of the peppers you use in your sauce would you say you grow yourself?

[DevilDuck]

I will be making my sauces out of a commercial kitchen, eventually. I will continue to do so until either I can't keep up with the demand, or I can open my own kitchen and hire a few people to help.

If I can't open my own kitchen, I'll have to find a co-packer.

[stillmanz]

certain sauces 100% ie devils tongue and pequins.
but most ofmyO habanero based sauceis commercial. it just depends, I got about 3 kiloof O hab in the freeser for new sauce, but its hard tokeepup with supply.
Mick

[ring sting]

hey stillmanz, might come up to the rainbow today..

where do you source the habs from?

[Dyce51]

I currently make my sauces in my kitchen....I have talked to a co-paker and they will only make the sauces in 100 gallon batches. I have been exploring other avenues lately and even thought of opening my own commercial kitchen to produce my sauces in. I'm just concerned with the investment and the rent on a commercial building, that it wouldn't pay in the long run.

[kato]

We used to make our sauces but found it to be more profitable to use a co-packer. it was fun to make our own sauces but when our co-packer won us a Scovie award we decided if they can win us an award then we would go that route.

100 gallon run is really not that much.Just sign a non-disclosure with them.

Good luck
Mick
Kato's

[Dyce51]

for me 100 gallons is to much right now...especially at about $2200 per 100 gallons and I have 6 BBQ Sauces and 4 Hot Sauces....you're talkin about $22,000 for all of them....That part that stinks is I have a come-back customers that want different flavors so I really need all the sauces made at once....If I could make say 40 gallons of each I could work up to the 100 gallon batches....but not in the get go...Thats one of the big problems I am having. the other problem is that I need one sauce to make another ....for instance I use one of my hot sauces mixed with one of my BBQ sauces to create my Bold and Spicy BBQ......I'm just trying to figure out hot to go about doing this.....I almost bought a Vulcan 40 gallon steam kettle the other day...I still may...the price is almost to good to pass up. It is used but it works well though...less than $200 for a $15,000 - $20,000 kettle....

[stillmanz]

How many litres in a gallon again?. $2200 is with labels, bottles etc?

[stillmanz]

so would I be right in saying there is about 4 litres to a gallon.
If they supply bottles and my mathes is on track which it may or not be lol thats really cheap. If they don't, take into account cost of labels and bottles depending on the prices you can negotiate its ok but not that great. IMO (remembering I'm in OZ and many variable costs compared to US)
What size bottle you use? IS it glass? Labels? you may just want to push 1 type sauce initially a whole range can be a pain in the arse.

Remember 100 gallon makes A LOT OF 5 OZ BOTTLES you got a market for them?

With my gig I just got in and started slow I let word of mouth push it now I struggle to keep up with demand. In the beginning if I had a lazy couple thou=sand bottles of sauce lyin round I probably would have given most of it away lol remember always make em pay either cash or a as a marketing tool ie giving it to a pub bar restuarant etc you never know,

Just my two cents .
Good luck with everything regardless.

[bentalphanerd]

stillmanz - add this link to your favourites list.

http://www.onlineconversion.com/

It will Convert just about anything to anything else. including currency, weight, mass, volume, distance etc., etc.

I also recommend using Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer...firefox will spell-check for you ;)

[stillmanz]

you no likemy brok3n english?
lol

[DevilDuck]

There's a little less than 4 liters in a gallon. 3.75-ish I think.

Dyce, I know a co-packer that will do 40 gallon runs, but he's in Colorado. I was thinking about using him, but getting my sauce here will cost more than making it, so It's not feasible.

The commercial kitchen I'm looking at using charges $12/hr., with no minimum blocks. I can crank out a bunch of sauce 2-3 hours (because I won't be drinking beer and jamming out to some tunes). The only problem, is that kitchen is across town and I will have to drag everything over there and back. Not to mention it's not in the best part of town. I have an appointment there in February, so I'll know more then.

The biggest thing I'm running into is having to take a canning class. I keep telling them, "I'm not canning anything. Hot sauce, not salsa." All I get is a blank stare. I don't think the people at the Health Department know the difference.

[Dyce51]

Ya I know that "canning class" it's basically a safe processing class theaches you everything you need to know about thermal processing (canning) I have to take that class as well. But it will be covered in my next semester I believe. (I went back to college....my major is Hospitalty Managment in Culinary Arts....when I graduate I will be an Executive Chef as well).

[Bill Kamman]

Interesting discussions about co-packing. Make sure you get a "Non-Disclosure" from the company you talk to. Also ask if any modifications they make to your product, that is, xanthan to hold viscosity, etc., the formula is still yours. I know that a company I talked to had a rep for ripping peoples formulas off.

[Alaska Hot]

Here in Alaska we can make it at the crib, problem is the cost of everything.....ie bottles, peppers (9.99 lb for habs), onions, vinegar (3.09 a ltr), labels, salt, everything has to be shipped up and is very spendy to say the least. I sell a bottle up here for $6.00 and only break even. Only good thing we have is the "Made in Alaska" logo that we use to show that the product is made totally in AK, that helps with the flatlanders that come through wanting to leave large amounts of cash in their wake.

John

[DevilDuck]

Up the price to $7 and make a few bucks. People will pay it.