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! 
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.
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:
This is the line:
This is 70-ish gallons of my Green Label being super-heated:
This is what we made:
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!
Now go on, dance you glorious little bastard, dance!
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.
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:
This is the line:
This is 70-ish gallons of my Green Label being super-heated:
This is what we made:
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!
Now go on, dance you glorious little bastard, dance!
