Chili sauce, fermented in oak for up to 120 days.
Four sauces, one process: fresh chilies mashed with sea salt, then left in Oregon white oak until the lactic acid does the work — 30 days for Verde, 120 for Oak. Nothing is pasteurized, thickened, or sweetened. Every bottle is 5 oz, $12.
Ships in 3–5 days · free over $40 · Portland, Oregon
Four sauces, in order of heat
Every bottle is 5 oz and $12. Ferments run 30 to 120 days; heat is given in Scoville units.
4 sauces · 1 barrel each · ~300 bottles per barrel
| Sauce | Chilies | Time in oak | Heat (SHU) | Tasting note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verde | Tomatillo, jalapeño, green garlic | 30 days | 1,500–3,000 | Green and bright, almost tart. The one you'll want on eggs at 8am. |
| Ember | Fresno, red jalapeño | 45 days | 8,000–12,000 | Smoked stone fruit up front, a long slow burn behind it. Our most-used bottle. |
| Oak | Chipotle morita, aji amarillo | 120 days | 30,000–45,000 | Campfire and molasses. The barrel does most of the talking in this one. |
| Oro | Habanero, carrot, fresh turmeric | 90 days | 60,000–110,000 | Tropical, sharp, and honestly quite hot. Respect the Oro; a little goes far. |
How the barrels work
Most hot sauce is cooked: chilies blended with vinegar and boiled, which is fast, stable, and tastes like it. We do the opposite. Fresh chilies go into a barrel with nothing but sea salt — 2.5 percent of the chili's weight — and the salt-tolerant bacteria already living on the skins do the rest. Lactic acid builds, the pH drops below 4, and the mash preserves itself without any heat at all.
The barrels are Oregon white oak, most of them retired from Willamette Valley pinot and chardonnay. They don't add smoke — we smoke peppers separately when a sauce calls for it — but they round off the hard edges and pull some of the fruit forward. Vinegar goes in last, only to stop the ferment where we want it.
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Day 0
Chilies arrive from Sauvie Island and the Willamette Valley, get mashed with 2.5% sea salt by weight, and go into the barrel under a weighted lid.
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Day 14
First real CO₂ push. We punch the mash down, take a pH reading, and top the brine back up.
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Day 30–45
Verde comes off at 30 days, Ember at 45. Both get one last pH check before vinegar and bottling.
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Day 90
Oro is done — habanero, carrot and turmeric, the only sauce with vegetables in the mash.
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Day 120
Oak is bottled last, because chipotle drinks the barrel slowly and we let it.
The Oak Club
Two bottles a month, chosen from the four sauces. Pick your heat or let the barrel decide for you.
$26a month, all in
- Two 5 oz bottles — any sauces you like
- Free shipping in the continental US
- Skip a month, swap the heat, or cancel any time
- First pick of seasonal ferments, before the shop
Join by the 20th and your first box ships the first week of next month.
Prefer to buy once? A four-bottle pack of every sauce is $44 — order a one-time set.
Where to find us
We sell wholesale to independent grocers. These are the ones carrying us so far.
- Meridian GroceryPortland, OR
- Alder Street FoodsMissoula, MT
- Salt & Cedar MarketBurlington, VT
- Rosemary & Co.Pittsburgh, PA
- Hearth ProvisionsAtlanta, GA
- Pantry on 4thAustin, TX
Run a shop and want us on the shelf? Write to wholesale@emberandoak.com — we'll send a case and a shelf card, no minimum order.