bottles-jars What a day...bottled and waiting

This is all part of the bottling, packaging process, so I thought this board was appropriate - I'm a couple weeks from sales because the state has to test remotely and sample on-site for the new product process. By then my site will be up and my distributor in place...but many of y'all have been on board my roller coaster of a start-up process, so welcome to the next step! :cheers:


Last night I drove out to my co-packer. I was like a kid on XMas eve, fitfully sleeping for all of 5 hours, not knowing what the day ahead would be like. Would everything go horribly awry? Would it be like Lucy in the pie factory? Did my ingredients get sourced right? Am I going to have control in the production kitchen?


Unbelievably, everything went perfectly. Not a hitch. Made each batch to spec, but tweaked to scale by me personally. Started with 1/2 my recipe's salt & 1/2 the sugar. Sagely, they advised that you can always put more in - you can't take it out. I'm glad - the finals had 65% the original salt and sugar. They all came out delicious! At least they taste like they're supposed to - I'll let others judge. :D

The quality of the production kitchen was amazing. You could eat off of any surface. All equipment finished stainless steel - the fit & finish of the production line was amazing. Every machine the Cadillac of its class. (I know that equipment well from my day job).

The manufacturing process was pretty awesome. Super-heated 100 gallon kettle (with agitator), which was his small kettle (lg = 300 gallons), grinder, piping to bottle filler, capper, heat tunnel, labeling machine, accumulation table, case packer.

It takes me 9 hours to make 60 (5 cases) bottles. It took them (including my taste tests/tweaking) about 1 hour to make 1800 bottles (150 cases). Amazing.

No wax sealing - ah well. Time for that change later perhaps, but it is what it is. The black over-wrap looks excellent and is easier for people to get off.

Bottled piping hot, pH all in the 3.6 - 3.8 range for all 3 recipes, 24 month shelf life easy. With the grind there are NO whole seeds in my sauce nor are there any hard bits of garlic, yet it retains my pepper flakes and bits of char from the fire-roasted peppers.

This is where we made it:

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This is the line:

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This is 70-ish gallons of my Green Label being super-heated:

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This is what we made:

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A lot of it. 135 cases of Green Label, 150 cases each of Red Label & Orange Label. It's going to be a long 2+ weeks waiting on the great state of CA, but this is expected to be a cursory inspection with a predictably favorable outcome anticipated based on a reputable mfgr and in-process testing.

The sauce in my hands was about 185 degrees - taking those pictures was a little painful!
:mouthonfire: :crazy:




Now go on, dance you glorious little bastard, dance! :dance:
 
This is absolutely a delight to read!!!! So happy for you! Would you mind sharing your co-packer with us???
Thanks a lot :)

Hi Magatania & I'm glad you enjoyed the pics/topic. :welcome: To THP!

Reading your other topic I'm aftaid my co-packer would be Ill suited for you - minimums larger than you cited. The batches I posted above were smaller thank my production batches will be. Plus you'd probably want to find one local to you. My threshold was 60 miles. I don't want to pay for all that shipping. Trucking sauce from NCAL to SCAL would eat away at your profit.

Good luck though & if you'd like to do a swap I'd love to try your sauce(s).
:cheers:

Good to hear, yea I have been peddling local hot sauces (until I learn to make my own!) :} for years on the side on a shelf in the show booth next to my rustic woodworking pieces, to me they come from the same vein, the vein of creativity, I might get a case of each off ya to put out for this summer's shows and test the waters. PM me a QT..I am going to be working tourist towns pretty heavy.. I will see if I can get you a foothold out here in Texas...Be well

Thank you!!! That would be great - i'll be in touch once the sauce is cleared.
:cheers:
 
That's awesome (and inspirational)

Congratulations!

Just curious, how did the per unit costs compare using a copacker vs doing it yourself?

I've posted about that a few times - in short it's actually cheaper for me with the co-packer. I shopped around to find a co-packer that sources some of the same ingredients - roasted garlic & sliced onion for examples - I think he said he's buying 20,000 lbs of onion a year, so obviously he's going to pay a LOT less than I would for them. Same with the salt, sugar, etc. plus he has a production kitchen with several hundred thousand dollars in equipment that makes short work of a 2000+ bottle batch.

Without going into too much detail about my pricing, I calculated about a 15% reduction just in materials cost with the copacker (ingredients, bottles) and substantially lower labor since his line is 90% automated.

For me it was worth it. Can't speak for anyone else of course. Good luck!
 
Thank you Lucky Dog Hot Sauce!!! I am going to buy your hot sauce as soon as it's out there! Go get them and thanks for all your openness. It really helps us all here!!!!! Have an awesome day!

You're welcome. Happy to share what info I've learned.

What kind of sauce do you make that you're trying to take to market? It sounds like you're close to taking the next step?
 
Fantastic. It's like I am dreaming of my own future...

Congratulations on the accomplishment.

Did you already have the bottles selling commercially and then just upped the ante with the co-packer and increased production?

Cheers.

No - hobby for many years. After about 6-7, people started gobbling up my sauces leaving me with none for myself. I probably gave away a couple of thousand bottles over the last 5 years. Feedback was good - friends started hounding me to sell it.

I looked at my options, pulled together some funds for a budget and I'm making it happen. We'll see how successful it is, but it's a lot of fun and people seem to like the sauce so far!
:D

In a few weeks we'll see if it's selling and in stores. I'll be out hustling even more than I have been - sauce doesn't sell itself. Making it's the easy part.
;)

Good luck!


Scott
LDHS
 
Very inspiring thread my friend, yea I can relate to the friends requests and there addictive need for more of your Hot sauce...
But pretty much that is what gives the spark of an idea and the feedback and the guts u need to move forward...

Good Luck ....and Be Well
 
In a few weeks we'll see if it's selling and in stores. I'll be out hustling even more than I have been - sauce doesn't sell itself. Making it's the easy part.
;)

Good luck!


Scott
LDHS

You've got it right there - I've taken a conservative approach - getting the sauce into a couple of independent grocery stores, and then trying to build the demand in the local geographic area around those stores. Doing demos, giving away bottles to the local hot dog and hamburgers joints etc. It's satisfying to see the sell through - product moving off the shelf, but, the promotions are costing more than the sales are bringing in at this point.

Hopefully at some point my sales and expenses lines will cross each other & I can actually make some money!

Good luck!
 
BTW is the dog on the label an idea or your pet pooch?

Sort of? It's my graphic artist's mental image of my dog. Heh.

You can see my dog on my Facebook page. He's a skinnier lab-mix. :cheers:

Hell yeah man, congrats! Awesome story and the bottles and labels are catchy! Best of luck man, and I'll def try a few bottles once your site is up!

Thanks!

The site's been up alfor a few weeks - the graphics/branding all translated well to the web.
:woohoo:
 
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