On the sauce
Miller & Son BBQ Brewing Company. If you didn’t know, now you know the name of the best BBQ sauce to ever cross your palate. The distinct taste, aroma, and look are spot on. And this sauce has the manliest labels I’ve ever seen. This sauce and label is a strong candidate for anyone’s BBQ collection. From chicken to beef or even soy or quinoa, give your choice a good lather of Miller & Son and experience true bliss.
Co-owner Steve Miller sat down with me to chat about his sauce last monght and told me what Miller & Son’s BBQ Brewing Co. is all about.
Steve is 24, from Tehachapi, California. Steve said his passion for BBQ sauce all started one day when he was smoking up some ribs. The ribs where about finished, but, he realized, they didn’t have any sauce. So he whipped up a batch of his dad’s recipe. As soon as the sauce hit his lips, he knew this was going to be the rest of his life.
Steve’s dad has always made this sauce, tweaking it over the years to make it what it is today. His dad’s passion for BBQ influenced Steve’s drive in the culinary field.
His original investment was 100 dollars. He bottled some sauce and gave it to his friends and family for a taste test. 100 percent positive feed back moved him forward to establishing Miller & Son BBQ Brewing Co. in 2013. Another hobby-turned-business.
Advertising is all social media, Steve said. He added that he’s making plans to move forward with other marketing options. He explained to me that most people judge the sauce by the label; the label is a huge part of any BBQ sauce, and is what sets you apart from the others.
The BBQ sauce is sold at Black Velvet Coffee and Bleu Handcrafted Foods in Mammoth, Manor Market in Bishop, The Butcher Shop in Tehachapi, Sea Side Market in Cardiff By the Sea, and at Pie in the Sky at Rock Creek Resort.
Steve said his sauce is the best. You may ask why. It’s hand made, brewed with some of the best ingredients that you can buy, along with being made at 9,700 feet, and being all small batch brewed.
The future goal for Miller & Son BBQ Brewing Co. is to have a sauce brewery that mimics a micro brewery with a tasting room. Steve would like to serve samples of his different sauces and would like to get a custom smoker so he can smoke more meats for his tasting room.
Steve and Matt Hammer from Black Velvet Coffee (BVC) collaborated on his second sauce, Miller & Son Velvet Recipe. They experimented with different coffees to get the right flavor profile for Miller’s Velvet Recipe. Steve said it took a few weeks of failed attempts to make this sauce what it is today.
He ended up using the Velvet Blend, which inspired the name. The Velvet Blend is a mix of Guatemalan, Costa Rican, and Brazilian beans that Matt Hammer roasted himself. Miller and Hammer have also come up with a dry rub infused with BVC coffee, which will be coming out soon.
If you would like to try the rub, BVC has a “Smokey Pig Pork Waffle” along with the Velvet BBQ sauce on its menu.
The original sauce won in the Burger Battle held once a year at the Mammoth Lakes Foundation Food and Wine Experience. Steve took second place. This year, Steve will be in the VillageFest Rib & Chili Cookoff, June Lake Autumn Beer Festival, and the Burger Battle.
Steve thanked thank Jim and Sue King for supporting his endeavors, and for letting him use Rock Creek Lodge Pie In The Sky as his personal sauce lab.
Go see Steve at Rock Creek Resort for some of the best sauce in the world. Rock Creek Resort is open from Memorial Weekend to the second weekend in October, 7 a.m. -7 p.m., serving food from 7 a.m. – 3 p.m., Monday through Sunday.
The Restaurant will be serving a couple items, such as the BBQ bacon burger and pulled pork sandwich, with your choice of sauce. Call 760.935.4311 for more info.
