When it comes to hot sauce, Roy Rumaner of Aurora says it’s all about the tolerance of the tongue.
“On the heat scale from one to 10, I’m about a nine,” Rumaner said Saturday afternoon at the second annual Midwest Hops and Hot Sauce Festival at Wilder Park at 350 N. River St. in Aurora.
Hot sauce and craft beer were the stars at the fest, which brought together a combined total of 50 brewers and hot sauce makers as well as live music, nearly half a dozen food trucks, games, contests and more.
According to the event’s website, the event featured “a variety of delicious hoppy beers, ciders and canned cocktails from some of the best local craft breweries the Midwest has to offer alongside local artisanal hot sauce and spicy food makers.”
Batavia resident Chris Ginder, owner of Gindo’s Spice of Life Hot Sauce in St. Charles, once again organized the event and said that about 30 Midwest breweries and 20 hot sauce vendors were on site, a number that compares favorably to a year ago, he said.
“We didn’t want to grow this too much as we want to keep things manageable,” Ginder said before the event. “We see craft brewers and hot sauce guys coexisting well together. At Gindo’s, we’ve always sort of modeled ourself after craft breweries. If you look at our lineup, we have six year-round flavors and we come out with limited releases. It’s a very similar model to what craft breweries do.”
Ginder added the “passion for their craft and what they do (brewers) is very similar to how we approach our business,” adding that he “collaborates with a lot of local craft breweries and usually have one or two hot sauce collaborations going at all times.”
“I’ve probably had close to 100 collaborations with making sauces with brewers over the years,” he said. “To me their passion for the flavor of their beer and what we put into our hot sauces is very similar.”
Last year, the event drew about 600 people, Ginder said before the event Saturday, adding that “we’re hoping to double or maybe triple that this year.”
Contests included the naming of a fan favorite beer as well as a fan favorite hot sauce.
Joseph Salamone of Wheeling said this was his first year coming to the fest.
“I like both beer and hot sauce,” Salamone said. “I feel these two things go together. I mean, why not?”
His daughter Dani Salamone said she was a “sometimes hot sauce fan,” adding that she was comfortable in the medium range.
“I like hot sauce on just about anything,” she said.
Nick Palos of Little Rock, Illinois, said he is a big hot sauce fan.
“I’ve got about 30 bottles of hot sauce at home,” he said Saturday at the fest in Aurora. “I like it on just about everything, from scrambled eggs to tacos to Hershey bars. I’m dead serious, I’ve had it on a Hershey bar. I mean, why wouldn’t I?”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
