Gindo’s – Project Fire buddies Nik & Ivy Helles Lager Hot Sauce
Bitter: 🟡🟡○○○
Salty: 🟡🟡🟡○○
Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡🟡🟡○
Sweet: 🟡🟡○○○
Umami: 🟡🟡○○○
Heat: 🟡🟡○○○○○○○○
Quick Flavor Notes: Tangy, Fruity, Mustard
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Medium thin and mostly smooth
Ingredients: Red Bell Peppers, Distilled Vinegar, Water, Nik & Ivy Helles Lager, Habanero Pepper, Yellow Mustard (Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Salt, Turmeric, Onion Powder, Sprices, Paprika, Natural Flavor), Onion, Himalayan Salt, Alaea Salt, Organic Cane Sugar, Brown Sugar, Black Lava Salt, Ground Peppercorn, Xanthan Gum
While the name is a mouthful this double-collaboration hot sauce from Gindo’s Spice of Life looked both delicious and appealing as it was for a good cause when I saw it on their website. Project Fire Buddies was founded in 2016 in Oak Park, IL (a suburb of Chicago) by firefighter and paramedic Kurt DeGroot. After a call involving a terminally ill child he was determined to see if he could do more. Project Fire Buddies now has chapters nationwide and provides moral support, gifts, medical supplies, and unique special experiences to critically ill children across the nation. This sauce supports their cause with the proceeds going to the organization. In addition this sauce is also a collaboration with Nik and Ivy Brewing, a Lockport, IL (also a suburb of Chicago) based family brewery. I love beer hot sauces so I was excited to give this a try.
Sometimes Gindo’s sauces are quite simple in terms of ingredients and sometimes they go all out with a kitchen sink approach. This one sits in between but has a lot of things that I love in it. The peppers used are red habanero for heat and fruitiness and red bell pepper for bulk and sweetness. The beer is paired with mustard which is a combination I absolutely love and one found in one of my absolute favorite hot sauces Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Vienna Lager Mustard Hot Sauce. The beer here, Nik & Ivy’s Helles Lager, is a style that originated in Munich Germany and is characterized by a clean and fresh malt-forward character with subtle use of floral hops. Gindo’s uses a prepared yellow mustard instead of mustard seeds which I’d prefer to see, but prepared mustard is common in hot sauces from Barbados and certain other areas of the Caribbean. Add some onions and black pepper and the rest is Gindo’s signature salt blend featuring pink Himalayan salt (which I’ve discovered is actually from Pakistan though Himalayan is obviously better marketing), Hawaiian lava salt, and Alaea salt which is another Hawaiian natural salt derived from sea salt that dries on red clay. Project Fire buddies Nik & Ivy Helles Lager Hot Sauce has a medium-thin consistency and a smooth texture. There’s some pepper and vinegar in the aroma along with that tang of mustard.
On the first taste this sauce is very tangy both from the vinegar and the piquancy of the mustard but the fruity flavors and quick heat bit of the habaneros also immediately come through. The red bells are probably also adding some sweetness to the flavor profile as is of course the brown sugar in the sauce, though I wouldn’t call this sauce sweet or even sweet-heat, there’s just a subtle background sweetness that compliments the other flavors. With the trio of exotic salts this sauce does have a salty-savory finish that makes it taste a bit saltier than it’s 55mg per tsp would indicate, but again it’s in an pleasant way and not overdone, tasting more similar to how a high quality finishing salt on a steak will give you that salty kick without making the dish taste too salty. The one thing I wish was more prominent was the beer flavor. A Helles Lager isn’t a particularly strongly flavored beer, so as compared to hot sauces I’ve tried featuring IPAs or with stouts that are naturally more strongly flavored beers the Helles Lager has a hard job to pull off. Instead of the beer flavor it seems to add a general fullness and a bit more richness to this sauce, the malty flavors helping to balance out the sharper flavors of the mustard and habaneros. This sauce still leans tangy with strong acidity but it’s well balanced and not too sharp. Heat level is just a step above minimal, a quick habanero sting followed by no lingering burn.
One of the things I’ve liked best with previous beer hot sauces is putting them on grilled sausages, and as it happened I had some bratwursts that needed cooking so I tossed them on the grill along with some onions and found Project Fire buddies Nik & Ivy Helles Lager Hot Sauce to be a great companion to them – the mustard and acidity were perfect with the fatty pork and that subtle malty and sweet background really helped bring out those sweeter flavors of the onions. I also found this to be a great hot sauce for pizza. I tried out a new local place that did a stuffed cheeseburger pizza and while tasty, could get a bit monotonous, so this sauce was amazing to wake it up, and again, mustard and cheeseburger flavors were made for each other. My final test was just a hot ham and cheese sandwich, something I’ve loved since childhood, and again this sauce was stellar – the piquancy and tanginess perfectly cutting through the gooey cheese and smoky ham and the mustard element being a natural compliment.
Gindo’s Project Fire buddies Nik & Ivy Helles Lager Hot Sauce is not only delicious it’s for a good cause so this is a hot sauce I heartily recommend. It appears to be sold out at the moment but the Gindo’s website does have a place where you can be notified when it comes back into stock. If you like habaneros, mustard, and making life better for sick kids, you’ll love this sauce.
