MMA legend Georges St-Pierre, Brant barrel maker collaborate on Lord’s Hot Sauce
A hot sauce with an unusual production method brought together a Brant County, Ont. barrel maker, a model manager and a Canadian mixed martial arts legend.
Michael Lord had been experimenting with fermentation—things like kombucha, various vegetables and peppers in mason jars—for some time, when a thought occurred to him.
“It’d be really cool if I could ferment this in oak barrels like they do with whiskies or wines,” the Montreal-based model and talent manager.
The idea brought him to St. George resident Jim Hedges, a retired physician who has been making Canadian white oak barrels for over 25 years on German School Road.
It started as “a fun little hobby” and then blossomed into a business.
His property has a sawmill and several workshops, shared with other local woodworkers and cabinet makers, according to his website.
His barrels are used by wineries in the Niagara region and France, tequila-makers in Mexico, in Maryland to make cider, and in Brazil for rum.
But when Lord reached out about using them to ferment hot sauce, it was a first.
READ: Four things to know about hot sauce
Hedges—who also grows organic produce on his 12 acres — was already growing the Trinidad Moruga scorpion—one of the hottest peppers out there.
Although Hedges said he “can’t handle hot peppers” himself, he has friends who visit from the Moruga region each year to help him farm produce sold in local markets and restaurants.
“So they wanted to try growing some of these hot peppers, and ultimately, we grew those just for them and their family,” he said.
When Lord mentioned he was having a hard time getting enough peppers, Hedges offered up some land.
The result is a flavour profile reminiscent of an aged wine or whisky, “different layers outside of just heat,” with gut-friendly probiotics, Lord said.
He compared the effect of wild fermentation to the difference between eating roasted and raw garlic. “It absolutely changes the taste, texture, everything.”
The magic starts to happen after about 30 days, but they let the pepper mash ferment for a minimum of a year. A stock vintage they’re working on has been sitting for around five years.
It’s not a typical process for hot sauce, Lord said.
“It’s more like running a vineyard, because you start a vineyard and maybe you can start selling stuff a decade later, this is the same thing.”
But unlike something like spirits or wine, there’s no alcohol, because there isn’t any yeast and there’s a low sugar content.
Lord’s Hot Sauce went to market last year, after starting the process around 2018 or 2019.
Retired mixed martial arts fighter Georges St-Pierre—widely regarded as one of the greatest—tried the sauce, and his team reached out about doing something together.
“Which, of course, I mean, you’re not going to say no to Georges,” Lord said.
St-Pierre helped develop RUSH, a jalapeno and habanero mash with roasted bell pepper and onions, sesame oil, black garlic and lemon juice; and K.O., the “turbo charged heat-bomb version” of RUSH, according to the website.
Through Lord’s connections in the modelling and talent world, other names have helped boost his brand, like Instagram chef @franciscocooks, who made a recipe for aguachile tostadas showcasing the LIMEY BENDER sauce.
In a market saturated with hot sauces—Lord likens it to the explosion of micro breweries in the ’90s—these collaborations help get attention.
“You can have a great product, but if people don’t know you, it doesn’t really matter,” he said.
There are seven varieties on the shelves, and Lord teased another one coming soon.
“I’ll be in New York in September to sign a new deal with a very, very big music artist for a new sauce coming out. I can’t say who it is yet, but she’s huge.”
