Down to Ferment – Dadbod Kombucha Hot Sauce

San Diego’s Down to Ferment, or as they sometimes cheekily call themselves DTF, has a good sense of humor as well as a unique take on hot sauce. Using fermentation to create lactic acid and combining that with acetic acid from their own brewed kombucha they’re able to make shelf stable sauces without the addition of vinegar (though it should be noted that acetic acid is the component of vinegar responsible for its acidity, so kombucha is a vinegar in a way). They have a range of sauces with fun flavors and names including their latest elote flavored creation, Corn Hub, a beet infused sauce called Beet your Meat, and the subject of this review: Dadbod.

Dadbod is a take on a Mexican style salsa verde using many of the ingredients common to the style including a serrano pepper base, tomatillos, lime juice, garlic, cilantro, and onion. The addition of kombucha is the signature Down to Ferment spin, but they take it a step further with this sauce and also include Cascade Hops. Cascade Hops, named after the mountain range in the PNW, have a citrus-y floral flavor with a complex spice and bitterness, many reporting flavor elements of grapefruit. They’re famously used in Anchor Brewing’s Liberty Ale and Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale, two pioneers of American craft beer and early examples of what would eventually become the American IPA craze.

Those Cascade Hops are very forward in the flavor of Dadbod. The first element I was hit with was that bright citrusy and fresh flavor of the hops, followed by the grassy and vegetal green serranos. There is a level of complexity and a bit of sourness from the fermentation but the overall flavor is still very clean, not a lot of funkiness in this sauce. The tomatillos, and lime juice help with the acid component and reinforce those fresh flavors from the hops, cilantro, and serranos. The addition of garlic and red onions add some deeper savory notes, but the kombucha and hops keep this from tasting anything like any Mexican style salsa verde that I’ve had before. Each time I tasted this sauce it threw my mind and tastebuds into loops. The appearance and base flavors are all familiar but those hops being so forward completely subvert those flavor expectations.

Being unique and subverting expectations isn’t a bad thing, and I did find this sauce enjoyable. I found that while it was OK on tacos, the flavor profile was off enough from what I expected in a green taco sauce that it never felt quite right in that application. Instead of trying to force it into places where I’d normally use a verde sauce I tried out pairings that would normally go well with a hoppy beer and found it was much better suited to that application. Paired with grilled shrimp and scallops, fried calamari, and a bacon and horseradish pizza this sauce really began to shine. While this sauce is just low-medium in heat it packs a big strong flavor so I found it best with foods that could benefit from its freshness or which had strong flavors of their own to stand up to it.

I can recommend Dadbod, especially if you’re a hop-head who just can’t get enough of IPAs. While it didn’t scratch my itch as a taco sauce, it does have a unique flavor profile that makes it a great addition for other dishes. This sauce is all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.

Ingredients: Serrano Peppers*, Tomatillos*, Kombucha* (sencha/oolong blend), Red Onions*, Garlic*, Lime Juice, Cilantro, Salt, Cascade Hops. *=fermented ingredients

Heat Level: 3/10. There’s a little bit of a delayed heat punch from this, but it’s a nice low-medium heat.