This story is sponsored by Independence Bank.
What started as a pandemic garden project has grown into a small-batch hot sauce business for Owensboro native Josh Hamilton.
Hamilton, who launched Hams Heaters earlier this year, said the sauces are all fermented for a month before bottling — a process that balances heat with flavor. He bottles, shrink wraps and labels each jar himself with help from his mother, Theresa.
“These are all fermented hot sauces that I’ve developed recipes to. I age all the chilies for a month before I process it,” Hamilton said. “It’s taken me about two or three years to develop the recipes, and then another year to get all the labeling and the health department requirements done. I make it here in Owensboro, bottle it all myself, do all the shrink wrap, all the labeling. It’s kind of my little pet project.”
Hams Heaters currently offers three sauces:
- A green jalapeño and smoked chipotle with pineapple juice, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar and garlic.
- A red jalapeño blend with cranberry-grape juice, red wine vinegar, garlic and brown sugar.
- A habanero honey sauce with citrus, white wine vinegar, garlic and honey that delivers the most heat of the lineup.
Hamilton said the first two recipes fall in the mild-to-medium range, while the habanero blend is “pretty stout” but not overpowering.
“I shoot for flavor over heat,” he said. “It’s got to have a good taste where the heat really doesn’t mean anything.”
The sauces sell for $10 a bottle and take about six weeks to produce from raw peppers to finished product. Hamilton said demand has already outpaced his production as he works to balance the side business with his full-time job as a sales representative at Clark Distributing.
Hamilton traces the start of Hams Heaters to his pandemic gardening hobby. He began growing peppers during COVID-19 and eventually turned to fermentation as a way to preserve them.
“You basically throw some salt in, chop them up, let them sit. It’s called the lactobacillus ferment, and it raises the acidity to where it’s shelf stable,” he said. “I do recommend refrigerating it, but you don’t have to.”
The sauces can be found at Burley’s Harvest Market, and Fetta Specialty Pizza carries bottles while also featuring Hamilton’s red jalapeño sauce on one of its pizzas. Local restaurants such as Callus and Fetta have also used the sauces through the Owensboro Regional Farmers’ Market’s “Taste of the Market” program.
Hamilton said his favorite pairings include using the pineapple-chipotle sauce on pork, the red blend on chicken, and the habanero-honey on pork or fish. He often puts them on wings as well.
A graduate of Apollo High School, Hamilton grew up on the city’s west side and now lives in Sorgho. This year was his first selling at the Owensboro Regional Farmers’ Market, where he offers free samples each Saturday.
“I’m a big buy-local person. If you can support your local businesses over a big corporation, you should try to do that,” Hamilton said. “If you want to try it, we do free samples. With hot sauce, you just never know what you’re getting.”
Hamilton plans to remain at the market for the rest of the season and will also set up at Blocktoberfest in downtown Owensboro.
