Ever curious what the story is behind our funky labels?  Check out the tales associated with our hot sauces….

As the story is told, many moons ago, Lukas Mackesson set out to make the perfect hot sauce to compliment his Bloody Mary cocktail. He tried many different sauces that used the Tabasco style pepper, trying to mix them together to come up with that special kind of spiced up flavor that would add the perfect amount of heat without being overbearing.

He even sought advice from his younger brother Daniel, who was working on ingenious ways to spice up his Tailgate Chili and had been diagnosed with HOH (Hooked on Habaneros). The end result of Daniel’s experiments was a “taste it if you dare” chili that he began serving at his then-humble tailgate party in the Shea Stadium parking lot B in 1975.

“A sign of strength” was how Daniel Mackesson described it…

…which he told the foolish, hungry takers who were getting ready for the New York Jets game that would commence in a couple of hours. Well, a decade had passed and a change of scenery was necessary as the Jets moved out of Queens, jumped over the river, and landed in “THE SWAMP” (an accurate way to describe the New Jersey Meadowlands Complex). It was then that Daniel’s tailgate party settled into parking lot 18B and became known as the 18B Tailgate.

However, after all this time, Lukas still didn’t have that perfect taste that he was looking for in his Bloody Mary mix. Frustrated, he began to consume large amounts of alcoholic beverages while endlessly searching for that perfect taste. It was one big vicious, viscous cycle: Drink, adjust; drink, adjust … week after week!

Daniel, on the other hand, was actually cleaning up his Chili act

(although many to this day still disagree).

And through better sources for Habanero peppers, he began creating an almost edible chili

(although he could drink it like mother’s milk).

He still had opposition from his buddies who thought that the “FIRE IN THE HOLE CHILI” would be better suited as an auto compound.

Decades rolled on…

…and Luke kept on breaking outdoor drinking records, but sadly the only result was a hangover that required more “BLUKES” (Luke’s Bloody Marys) to remedy.

One stormy winter day at his house in the woods, Lukas was still trying to perfect his Hot Sauce for Bloody Marys when Daniel dropped by to lend a decisive hand. Lukas had been using Tabasco peppers he purchased from a specialty shop, and Daniel never left home without a Habanero pepper in his pocket. Well – low and behold – when they put their peppers together, the final blend emerged consisting of approximately 70% Tabasco pepper and 30% Habanero pepper.

Luke’s 18B Tailgate Hot Sauce is Born

Finally, after decades of hard work, we can now bring you the perfect Tabasco/Habanero style hot sauce for Bloody Marys … or in anything where you need to kick an extra point to cover the spread. In case you were wondering, the answer is no: It didn’t cut down Lukas’s drinking, for he was firmly in the midst of a lifelong pattern.

On October 12th, 1948 on a cold and blusterous day in Frankfurt, Germany, Nils and Margaret Pearson gave birth to a baby girl and named her Christina. Well, it did not take long to know that this was an exceptionally irritable, ornery child, often spitting out her pacifier as she did. As a young child in Germany, Christina loved playing games such as “Kick the Can”, Knuckles, Figure 4 Leg-lock and Coco Butt.

Journeying to the USA to seek a better life, the family’s passage through Ellis Island resulted in “Christina” became a “Christine”. The happy family with their cantankerous child migrated to New Haven, Connecticut where the father Nils began what was to be a long career working on the railroad (all the live long day).

Growing up on the other side of the tracks in New Haven further toughened the already surly Christine. Seeking an appropriate education for “tough around the edges” Christine, Nils and Margaret were ecstatic to learn, after numerous applications and subsequent interviews on the Yale side of the tracks, that Christine became the first women ever awarded a full scholarship to Charm School . This record still stand as of today!

Living in New Haven became known as “Fluffy” to her girlfriends as she strove to practice the lessons of Charm School by baking cupcakes, cookies, and brownies for children. Meanwhile, she still referred to all men as “Dumb Bast’ids”! Fluffy also was known to have beaten up a few mothers at the local bus stop screaming “Nose Breakn’ Time”!

Today, this German born, New Haven raised charmer, lives in Florida and now goes by the name “Fluffy Sarsaparilla”. For those not in the know, Sarsaparilla is a beverage consisting of various forms of a bitter, strong soft drink found in scattered pockets of the western world. Also used as a slang word to describe a strong alcoholic beverage. She is in a class all by herself.

God knows there are a lot of women out there who are a little rough around the edges. But Fluffy Sarsaparilla takes everything to a whole other level! That level should be called “Fluffy Sarsaparilla”. Surely, many men are married to women close to this personality. The question is “ARE YOU MARRIED TO A FLUFFY SARSAPARILLA?”

It’s been said that Bennie Booker, A New York Fireman in the early to mid 1900’s, had a heart of gold. Everybody walked by the Firehouse and conversed with Bennie as though he might have been a public official. He seemed to me to be a very popular man. With all that time he spared the people one would think he had something to sell. Well it turns out that it wasn’t Bennie’s heart that was gold, it was his wallet! Running the daily numbers racquet in a time when there was no State owned gambling, he became an important cornerstone of the neighborhood. Just as the milk man delivered the milk, Bennie delivered the number (I don’t believe that Bennie ever drank milk, if you catch my drift).

But Bennie was a family man also with a wife Maria and a son Phillip. Well Maria and Phillip just couldn’t take the New York smog, so Bennie with that big heart of his moved them off to the warmer, dryer atmosphere of Phoenix, Arizona. He would visit often, suffering through the cuisine which seemed to be divided into four basic food groups: Mexican, Mexican, Mexican, and oh yeah, did I say Mexican? Well Bennie struggled somewhat with this, but on the other hand Maria and Phil loved every spicy meal they could get, both having American Indian blood in them.

As time went on Bennie did developed a taste for the Arizona local fare, with a special interest in the salsas containing the Caribbean Habanero pepper and would go from bar to bar(bar hopping, so to speak) having chips, salsa made with that Habanero pepper, beers and of course Tequila. He was almost inclined to start talking up the numbers business there, but the thought that they still had lynch mobs made him think again. But he did love the Habanero pepper, so much so that would bring peppers back with him to the Firehouse. The guys there loved mixing up concoctions with this pepper learning quickly that a little Habanero pepper went a long way.

Maria and Phillip on the other hand had a taste for the plentiful varieties of peppers that Arizona had to offer. Phillip enjoyed it so much that his mother started calling him San Filippo and the name stuck right away. Well we’re sorry to say that our Uncle Bennie passed away in the late 1950’s. Finally, yea finally we thought it was only fitting to bring his favorite sauce to market. Enjoy!

As the 60’s arrived and Benny had been passed away a few years, it was now Maria’s health that was failing her as well. Soon after, she too passed away. San Filippo finally realized it might be high time he give up his salooning and womanizing ways and get himself an honest woman.

Lo and behold in the dusty town of Tucson, Arizona, she was there. Now this was gonna take a woman of extreme patience as San Filippo, you might say, met with the Devil on a regular basis! A couple of years went by and she stayed with him; pulling him out of watering hole after watering hole, settling his gambling debts, and healing his wounds. Well, on a sunny breezy (117 degrees) summer afternoon in July, 1965, San Filippo and Constantina Maria Diego Margarita became Mr. and Mrs. S.F.Booker.

As time went on San Filippo started “feeling his oats” from all the decades of spicy, salty cholesterol-filled foods the southwest had to offer and oh yeah the drinkn’, ah yes the drinkn’! After seeking advice from numerous men of medicine, it was a Witch Doctor down the road that diagnosed San Filippo with Bad Gut Syndrome as well as Heart Disease. Yeah the ticker wasn’t as good as it once was and changes were going to have to be made.

The biggest sacrifice was drinkn’ shots of Tequila without salt!! Gluten free products were hard to come by, but what difference did it make because San Filippo put hot sauce on EVERYTHING! Constantina immediately went into action and with the help of the Witch Doctor made a low sodium, gluten free, all-natural hot sauce.

Ah SAN FILIPPO HOT SAUCE was born!

Constantina Maria Diego Margarita Booker, better known as Mrs. S.F. Booker, had decided that she needed to take her drunk’n husband, San Filippo, to cooler climates in the summer. Exiting the oppressive Arizona heat, they hopped in their pickup and headed south to what would be an annual pilgrimage to Baja California and the beaches of Rosarito and Ensenada, Mexico. San Filippo was persuaded to go on the premise of milder temps and a Cantina on every corner.

Well, “CM” had lots of free time while San Filippo caroused Blvd. Benito Juarez, bouncing from Tequila watering hole to Tequila watering hole. She actually became enamored with the local cuisine, coupled with their frequent use of Chipotle (a smoked/dried Jalapeno) Pepper. Putting all that free time to good use, she started experimenting with a hot sauce made of this popular pepper. Splitting her time between cooking the onions, garlic, peppers and seasonings, and blending Margaritas, things were starting to come together.

Late one afternoon, with the hot sauce concoction cooling on the kitchen counter, San Filippo staggered through the front door and immediately proceeded to the liquor cabinet. He poured himself a snifter of Mezcal, as if he’d just come home from a hard day of work. Sprinkling a hefty amount of sea salt on his forearm, he performed the age old Mexican tradition. But this time he got a little sloppy, spilling part of the salt and spraying some of the lime into the culinary “experiment.”

Well…in an instant CM back-hand bitch-slapped San Filippo to the ground and rushed to the pot of hot sauce, to taste it and see if the extra additions had tampered with it in any way. A smile arose on her face as the missing ingredients were a perfect compliment and the recipe was deemed as ready for consumption. And that’s how Constantina Maria Chipotle Hot Sauce was created!

As always, Midgets Fishing Brewery is oh so proud to bring this hot sauce to your table. Enjoy!

As the story goes, t’was a couple from the backwoods of Canada who packed up and moved south; really south; to the south; in search of a better life and all the rewards that come with it. St. Charles “Hot Stuff” Slewinsky and his beautiful, yet promiscuous wife Juliette had a destination of Louisiana, where they had always heard about its Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauces and all the different foods that it complimented. Well their travels sort of overshot the runway when they made a left turn in East Cup Cake Mississippi and eventually landed in the quiet, yet quaint Hamlet of Burnabutt, Alabama!

With a population of 69 (if you count the youngin’s) Burnabutt was about to go thru a transformation. Without a hot sauce bottle nor a gin mill in sight, The Slewinskys went to work immediately. St. Charles opened his Gin Mill and Juliette ran unopposed for Mayor and they both were successful. Juliette’s first executive order from her miniscule rectangular office was to make Main St a two-way street. This caused massive disruption from the multitudes as the once one-way thoroughfare became extremely narrow! None the less she was determined to make Burnabutt a metropolis. And the opening of the St. Charles Saloon, with the Burnabutt flag hanging over the ceiling was the center for gathering, gallivanting, and gossip. so much so, that the regulars believe it should only take ten years or so for EVERYONE to be related; one way or another.

Now about the hot sauce. Juliette’s favorite spice was garlic and the only peppers within 100 miles were Cayenne. Well this would work just fine and it certainly did!

Midgets Fishing Brewery is proud to bring St. Charles Louisabama Hot Sauce to your table. Mmmmm…Anyone taste the garlic?

Gertrude Wong Sriracha Hot Sauce Tale

Continuing in our custom of dedicating a story to each of our hot sauce brands, here’s how Gertrude Wong’s Sriracha Hot Sauce came to be…

After the events of December 7, 1941, it was the norm for young men to enlist in the armed forces, as WWII had broken out. LB Mackesson (Luke’s father) chose the Navy, as did his brother Bruce, while his other brother Jim went with the Army.

LB worked his way through the ranks and eventually made Chief Petty Officer. His first deployment: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was there he met his first island woman – and was infatuated to say the least. Oh, her long black hair decorated with flowers and her body blessed by the sun … what was not to like?

Yes, love was in the air for LB Mackesson, but his time spent with Gertrude was limited, as his ship responsibilities were huge. There was a time during the war where his brothers Bruce and Jim crossed paths with LB in Hawaii, since this seemed like the perfect place to spend some R and R. They were introduced to Gertrude, and it was then they realized why LB seemed so excited in the letters he wrote to them.

Well, years passed by, and next came LB’s next deployment to Manila in the Philippines. That lasted another two years and then – thank goodness – the war was finally over. Everyone returned home, life got back to normal, and all that was left was memories of Gertrude Wong.

But the funny thing was, all three brothers had the same memories in Hawaii. Apparently, Bruce and Jim had also partaken of Gertrude’s passion, and it wasn’t the fruit!

It was at this point that the memory of “Dirty Gert” had been properly named.

As Midgets Fishing Brewery gets ready to launch our recipe for Sriracha Hot Sauce, we thought of no one more appropriate to name it after than Gertrude Wong … or you can simple call it “Dirty Gert.”

Enjoy!

You want a GHOST story?

Bennie and Connie went exploring to find some really hot peppers in New Mexico.  NW of Roswell they stumbled across a friendly, funny-lookin’  fellow that had an especially hot offering.

A pepper so hot it remained on your tongue for a long time, and then continued to build and build.

They thanked the stranger, offering a friendship medallion and left with the peppers.

Check out this very hot offering from Midgets Fishing.

And check out Bennie Booker’s Bar Hoppin’ Habanero and Constantina Maria’s Chipotle sauce as well!

A couple of years have passed by since Mayor Juliette has taken over the metropolis of Burn-A-Butt. Population has grown by leaps and bounds (to 86 folks). But she didn’t seem happy with this expansion for most of the growth has been as a result of illicit behavior. Just the other day, St. Charles, trying to cheer Juliette up said to her “I just saw a couple having to look both ways when crossing Main St.” (The Mayor had changed the street from one way to two ways as her first executive order). Not taking too well to compliments, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Messing with the special recipe for St. Charles Louisabama Hot Sauce she realized that removing her beloved garlic and replacing the cayenne with a pepper way more diabolical aged habanero pepper would actually “kick-your-ass mo”(make it hotter) than ever before. She declared “if folks aren’t gonna flock to Burn-A-Butt, then I’ll just bring Burn-A-Butt to the folks!” “That’ll bring ‘em to our city!” And Mayor Julette’s Burnabutt Hot Sauce was conceived.

Midgets Fishing Brewery is proud to bring Burn-A-Butt Hot Sauce to your table. Ouch!!