The Sauce Forge didn’t start in the expected way—with fiery hot sauce. Instead, our journey began with pickled eggs. We were tired of paying premium prices for store-bought pickled eggs, especially with our daughter claiming them as her favourite snack. So, we decided to try making our own. From there, a few birthday and holiday gifts—a pickling book, a fermentation crock, and more mason jars than we knew what to do with—led us to experiment with pickling different things, including kimchi. And with a good grasp of lacto-fermentation under our belts, we decided to go one step further and try crafting our own hot sauces.
Our first attempts at hot sauce were far from perfect, more fruit than peppers. We branded our early batches as “Dan Clarke’s Hot Sauce” but we considered ideas such "DANtes Inferno sauces" or more cringey "Damn Clarke's Hot Sauce", and started refining our recipes, fine-tuning flavor profiles and heat levels. Friends and family quickly volunteered to be our taste testers, and soon we had a fan base eagerly waiting for our next batches. This encouragement gave us the confidence to take things further.
Our first labelled sauce "Pyroclast Draught" was a proof of concept—a small batch, fermented for three weeks, yielding just 12 bottles. This recipe, which combined roasted Scotch Bonnets and Red Dutch peppers with lime, mango, and white wine vinegar, had a smoky edge that our taste testers loved. But it wasn’t just about flavour; this initial project taught us everything about producing a hot sauce from scratch, from bottle sourcing to shrink-wrapping capsules, designing labels, and printing them. The positive feedback from friends and family pushed us to continue, and an empty bottle from that first batch now sits proudly on our kitchen shelf as a testament to our early days.
With newfound confidence, we quickly developed our second labelled product "Surtrs Elixir". This time, we upped the ante with dried Ghost peppers, cardamom, and orange, yielding around 15 bottles after nearly three months of fermentation. The aged, smoky flavour was a hit, but the batch vanished as quickly as it came. While we hadn’t kept the most meticulous records in those early days, we know Surtr's Elixir is one to revisit—and this experience taught us the importance of consistency and tracking our recipes precisely.
Our third test product took things in a fruity direction. By adding pineapple to the fermentation process and finishing with a citrus burst of limes and grapefruit, we created a sauce that balanced sweetness and spice perfectly. Friends and family were clamouring for more, and with nearly 33 bottles produced from this batch, we knew we had reached a turning point. It was time to go official.
We knew we wanted to go to the next level, but first we needed to come up with a name. Rebranding from Dan Clarke's Hot Sauces was pretty tricky, Juggling familiar uniqueness while not falling afoul of treading on existing trademarks in the hot sauce space. We tried "Fire Punch Hot Sauces" but found a company called "Face Punch Sauces" in the US, that somehow had nearly identical branding to our initial concepts.
So we went back to the drawing board. We live in a place called Forge Wood, it felt right that perhaps we should name our company about where we live, to give a little but of authenticity to our brand name. We trialled names like "Forge Punch" but this sounded clunky and nonsensical, then one morning "The Sauce Forge" came unbidden when just throwing ideas at the wall, we instantly knew this made sense. Forges are hot, and forges are where things are created, it was a perfect union of ideas that we knew we had to take. We tentatively checked companies house and the UK IPO database, and saw that no companies or trademarks where using the this brand name, and we also found that thesauceforge.com was available for purchase, and so we decided to run with the name!
With our signature recipe honed and the enthusiastic support of our taste-testing circle, we decided to turn our hobby into something official. Thus, The Sauce Forge was born. These months are bringing exciting new sauces, including our first evergreen sauce "The Original" and some limited-edition drops namely "Doom Brew", "Pepperstorm" and "Honey Habanero", using this year’s crop of homegrown chili peppers.
The path from concept to reality hasn’t been easy. We’ve had to learn about food safety, allergen management, nutrition labelling, and the requirements of the Food Standards Agency. Each step has been a challenge, but one that we are tackling with enthusiasm. In the coming months, we’re excited to bring our debut sauces to the world under The Sauce Forge banner.
Our journey from pickled eggs to hot sauce has been unexpected, full of learning curves, and immensely rewarding. We’re thrilled to share our passion for big, bold flavours with you, and we can’t wait to see where this fiery path takes us next. 🔥
We will also be popping up at local farmers markets across Surrey and West Sussex in 2024 / 25. Keep an eye below for details about where we will be and when!
