Columbus' Own Black Cap Hot Sauce Favors Flavor over Hot Hot Heat
We caught up with Jack and Nicki Moore, the owners of the growing hot sauce company, about their recent collaborations and what's next.
Catching Up with Jack and Nicki Moore of Black Cap Hot Sauce
By Erin Edwards
“What’s the hottest thing you got?”
Chef Jack Moore, who owns Black Cap Hot Sauce with his wife, Nicki, says he doesn’t participate in a lot of hot sauce festivals. When he does, the first question he often gets is about the heat.
“I'm like, this is the wrong booth. We're not here to blow your wig off,” Jack said during a recent interview (while wearing his standard backwards black cap). “We're here for you to put this on your food, put a lot of it on your food, and for it to taste good.”
The hot sauce market is a crowded one. Differentiation often comes down where your sauce ranks on the Scoville scale and how over-the-top and NSFW your branding is.
For Black Cap, which turned four years old back in March, the emphasis is not on the heat. It’s the flavor that’s paramount. Flavor developed through fermentation.
It’s a different approach that has customers following Black Cap, which is not self-stable, all the way to the refrigerated section of local markets.
Creating a Living Culture
You may know Jack Moore from his time as executive chef at Watershed Kitchen & Bar, which he helped open in 2017, leading it to become one of the best restaurants in the city.
Moore says he’s always loved playing around with fermentation, and Black Cap was born when restaurants shut down in 2020 and the chef suddenly had more time on his hands.
In early 2021, he sold the first bottle of Black Cap Hot Sauce at the Watershed Distillery bottle shop. The mild, fermented condiment—featuring only Fresno peppers, garlic, ginger, lime zest, chia seeds, salt and water—continues to be the Moores’ core product. There’s no vinegar—and no raunchy, scatological label.
Jack says that it’s a different type of customer who’s looking for hot sauce in the refrigerated cooler, next to the kimchi and sauerkraut, rather than in the aisle next to the Frank’s RedHot, Texas Pete and, say, “Satan's Bootyhole Puckers” (his made up name, not mine).
“I get it. How else do you stand out in a sea of hot sauce?” he says. “So for us, more often than not, we're the only refrigerated hot sauce, and that refrigeration comes down to fermentation.”
Making Black Cap is a similar process to making sauerkraut or kimchi. The peppers are brined in saltwater and fermentation takes place at room temperature. Black Cap’s bright, tangy profile is thanks to that natural process of fermentation.
“There's things that can happen in that 30 day process: mold growth, yeast growth, all that kind of stuff. So you gotta monitor it. You gotta baby it. You gotta make sure the temperature is in the right spot,” he explains. “So after I spend a whole month doing that, why would I wanna just cook it and kill everything that I was just passionately you know, bringing along?”
Busting at the Seams in Mansfield
Black Cap is currently operating out of a production space in Mansfield, Ohio, about an hour drive from the Moores’ home.
In the beginning, Black Cap was filling four to six 6-gallon fermenter buckets with about 200 pounds of peppers per month.
“Where we are now, we have about 45 fermenter buckets, and we try to fill them and empty them as quickly as possible within the fermentation window,” Jack says. “So the volume of peppers that we're processing now is probably anywhere between like 300-700 pounds a month, just based upon how hard we're pushing production.”
That kind of ramp up in production means Black Cap is outgrowing the space in Mansfield.
“We’re actively looking for a spot. We’re trying to find something closer and much bigger,” Nicki says.
The two-person operation has also added some help recently: Chef Jack Dale Bennet, who recently left Cobra as head chef, is now working with Black Cap (and his own projects as well).
Where’s the Secret Stash?
In the early days of their business, the Moores envisioned a large, diverse portfolio of fermented products under the umbrella LLC, Ruffle Feather Ferments. Now four years into the business, he and Nicki have decided to focus on growing awareness of their flagship hot sauce. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t dabble in R&D, which gives them a chance to test out new recipes using great local produce and flirt with sauces higher up the Scoville scale.
These special one-off hot sauces are dubbed the Secret Stash, and you can find them out in the wild at local farmers markets. Black Cap often rotates during the season between Dublin, Worthington, Clintonville and Grandview Heights farmers markets rather than sticking to one market every week.
“It was a way for me to stay sane, [being able to] cut anything other than a red pepper,” Jack says about his Secret Stashes, which have included a Serrano Hatch sauce and a Habanero Pilpel variety. “What we realized, more importantly, is that our customers loved the fact that they felt like they were getting something special and had an opportunity to try something else. Anytime that we have an available fermenter vessel … we just put a random recipe in it and make 80 bottles. And when they're gone, they're gone.”
What’s Next for Black Cap?
The Moores’ goals for 2025 are to find a larger production space and to identify strategic partnerships with like-minded businesses. The biggest one to date, a collab with Swenson’s Drive-in, took place throughout May. They partnered with the Akron-based fast food chain to bring customers three new menu items with a local spin: a Black Cap hot chicken sandwich, hot chicken nuggets and loaded fries.
Black Cap has also collaborated recently with local outfits like Ray Ray’s Hog Pit and newcomer Bobby Jo’s Pizzeria, a pop-up that is gaining fans fast. Bobby Jo’s has been featuring a Back Cap hot honey on its pies.
Soon, the Moores hope to unveil a cold brew hot sauce, a new collaboration with Cleveland-based Guardian Cold Brew. (Jack has a lot of ties to The Land thanks to his time in kitchens such as Greenhouse Tavern and The Black Pig.) Nicki says she was skeptical about the odd combination, but describes the sauce as being very aromatic, with a chocolatey, almost mole character. “I feel like it would go good with a beef dish,” Jack adds.
Longterm, once production space is not an issue, you might see the Moores expanding their permanent product line. “Eventually, I imagine there's gonna be a year-round, not just seasonal, secondary product to sit along the shelf with Black Cap Hot Sauce,” Nicki says.
Currently, you can find Black Cap Hot Sauce at more than 75 locations in Ohio, including in the refrigerated section of local retailers such as Weiland’s, Giant Eagle Market District, Charmy’s and Lucky’s as well as spots like Colo Market & Oyster Bar, Ray Ray’s and others. (Black Cap recently landed on deli shelves at Heinen’s in Northeast Ohio.) You can also purchase Black Cap bottles online at blackcaphotsauce.com.
WE RECOMMEND>> Black Cap’s limited-run, garlicky and tangy Jalapeño Ramp sauce makes just about everything it touches better—though we haven’t tried it on ice cream yet. The flavor is fleeting, so get this sauce before it’s gone.
Notes
Around the Columbus Food & Drink Scene
Budd Dairy Food Hall will soon welcome two vendors to its family of food partners. Elevated Wood Fired Pizza celebrates its grand opening today, June 17. The pizzeria replaces Borgata, which closed in April. Meanwhile, McGinnis’ Grill, run by chef John McGinnis, is set to open next month in the former Poke Bap space. McGinnis specializes in burgers and sandwiches like a gourmet grilled cheese, braised brisket melt and more.
Mecca Beverage House, which will be an incubator for several minority-owned businesses, opens this Friday, June 19, at 745 Taylor Ave. in the former Pretentious Barrel House space. Mecca will house DFQ Beer Company, Crafted Culture Beer, Outlaw Cider Co. and Meulanated Meadery.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that two minority-owned businesses are coming soon to Downtown Columbus thanks to the city's Ground Floor Growth program, which assists small businesses through rent subsidies. The hispanic grocery chain Toro Meat Market will open its fifth Central Ohio location inside the renovated skyscraper at 150 E. Gay St. The other business is Dos Hermanos, a popular Mexican eatery with five locations around town. The sixth Dos Hermanos is coming soon to 16 N. High St., joining neighbors such as Elia Athenian Grill and Black Kahawa Coffee near the intersection of High and Broad.
Learned a lot about making hot sauce. Thanks E
Ok I keep seeing Black Cap at farmers markets - this article is tipping me over the edge! Next time I see it, I'm grabbing a bottle. Ive been in need of some new hot sauce options ever since Cajohns closed (which I guess has been a while at this point 🫠).