Thorin Tungtol – the idea of a unique Beer-BBQ-Spicy Sauce

The history of its creation

This blog post is a guest post by Raffaele, the founder of Fermento Brewery. He describes the creation of our collaboration sauce from his perspective. You can find the original blog post here: Fermento Brewery.

While on vacation on the west coast of Canada, I had an idea: we need a beer BBQ sauce that is different from what is available on the market. I sat on the beach and watched whales and enjoyed some really delicious craft beers. Beer and the sea is the combination that allows me to completely switch off - and then there's a great BBQ. And in the USA and Canada, people know how to grill. In the summer months, everyone gathers on the beach, the coolers are filled with craft beer, meat and vegetables, and the whole afternoon until after sunset we grill, eat and use very fine sauces. It's really extraordinary to walk on the beach and at the same time enjoy the fantastic BBQ smell.

As a foodie, I've been able to try out a lot of things that aren't available in Switzerland. For example, I was able to try a BBQ sauce that was made with a very well-known dark beer. Unfortunately, it didn't convince me because it was extremely sugary, the beer flavor was actually gone and you could only taste a 'fancy' ketchup.

When I got home, I could hardly wait to start the new project: a beer-based BBQ sauce that doesn't just taste like ketchup and uses one of our beers from the Fermento Brewery. This is where our partners from Gipfelhirsch come into play: they make really good hot sauces and know a thing or two about extravagant flavors. As absolute pioneers in Switzerland when it comes to intense flavors, we clearly joined forces and started experimenting. The result is the Thorin Tungtol beer BBQ sauce - a collaboration between Fermento and Gipfelhirsch. The result is really impressive - the sauce is wonderfully rounded and gives many dishes an interesting touch, but more on that later.

The ingredients of the beer sauce

The beer sauce is made from a reduction of the delicious Liberica dark beer from Fermento. The reduction creates an unmistakable malty taste and the alcohol is boiled off. Added to this are concentrated tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, a little sugar and salt and la piece de la resistance: fermented chilis. The chilis are something special - not just because of their spiciness but also because of their taste. Lacto-fermentation not only preserves the Habanero chilis, but also makes them taste much more complex. However, since we did not develop the sauce as a hot sauce, we only add a small note of the hot chilis so that the finished beer sauce has a hint of spiciness (0.5 flames out of 5 maximum flames).

The sauce embodies everything that can further refine a successful dish: a big load of umami (savory) with the roasted malt flavor of the beer, sweetness, acidity, spiciness and a certain funk from the fermented chilies.

The Beer BBQ Sauce in Action

We have put together some really delicious recipes for you to use the Thorin Tungtol sauce perfectly:

BBQ Ribs

For really funky ribs, you can coat the ribs with Thoring Tungtol during the grilling process. We recommend adding the sauce to the ribs 5-10 minutes before the end. This will caramelize the sauce a little more and make the whole thing even more delicious.

Mozarella Caprese

The Italian classic reimagined: This quick starter only takes 5 minutes and is really tasty. Serve a few tomato slices with mozzarella, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil and the Thorin Tungtol sauce. Then add salt and pepper and hey presto: done!

BBQ-Mayonnaise

Sauce meets sauce! We tried a lot of things when developing our sauce and had a lot of fun doing it - the BBQ beer sauce goes really well with mayonnaise and especially brings out the malt notes. The best way to do this is to make your own mayonnaise or buy a solid mayonnaise (from a jar, not a tube). Add a few drops of Thorin Tungtol and you're done.

The BBQ mayonnaise goes great with vegetable sticks, as a burger sauce on a bun or with French fries.

Simplicity and Taste

We have to say one thing: the Thorin Tungtol beer sauce is a real hit. Not only does it have a wonderful malty beer taste, but it is also really well rounded with a slight sweetness and spiciness. The sauce is super flexible and enhances any barbecue, as well as salads, sandwiches, aperitif snacks and much more.

Inspired? Write to us in the comments what else you would use the Thorin Tungtol for.