I’ve got a huge gallon-size bottle of Louisiana Hot Sauce which is the same sort of thin hot sauce as Tabasco, made with vinegar, anyone know if it should be refrigerated after opening? I didn’t, but seems ok so far. 
I don’t refrigerate Tabasco, but it’s in a tiny bottle and gets used up fast. Vinegar is a preservative, so no worry.
Not sure about a gallon-size bottle though. It’d take us years to use that much – not sure what would happen, long-term. It might lose some of its punch.
If you keep it sealed tight, in a cool, dark place it should last nearly forever.
A gallon, huh? That should get you through the weekend.
My guess is no. Hot sauce is way too acidic to support bacterial growth, to my knowledge. However, as to whether the taste will be affected is another matter. I doubt it, but maybe. The thing is, many things that we normally refrigerate don’t need refrigeration for safety reasons, but for taste reasons. Mayonaisse, for example, does not need refrigeration for safety reasons even after opening; rather, the taste can be slightly affected in time, which is why the jar says “refrigerate after opening.” Many people are aghast when I tell them this, insisting that I will die a horrible death…nope, still here. Jeez, you’d think I tore the labels off of my mattress or something…
From Wikipedia
I, too, am aghast at that bit of info!
I worked in a restaraunt. We kept big gallon sized jugs of the same stuff, just sitting on a shelf, not refrigerated. I’d say it’s pretty safe.
I’ve had a bottle for about 10 years. I like the label (guy screaming) so I keep it in a glassed cupboard. Everytime I use it I get “cleaned out” real good so I’m thinking there may be a little something growing in there.
That’s a KC company, and they rock.
We keep our Tabasco (the green kind) in the fridge because it thickens up a bit and has a better texture that way.
Does anyone know just how high the vinegar/salt content has to be for hot sauce not to require refrigeration? I hate a bottle of Sriracha that still tastes fine after a couple of years without refrigeration, but for some reason I keep my other kinds of chili sauce in the fridge (mostly Chinese chili/garlic paste and such).
If it has a pH of 4.6 or less, it is too acidic for botulinium to grow.
This only addresses the safety of sealed jars, however, and I do not know how relevant it is for opened bottles.
(Sez Pod,, who uses homemade tabasco sauce with unknown pH from a bottle kept in the cupboard and hasn’t dropped dead . . . yet.)
As long as you’re careful not to contaminate the jar, i.e. dipping in a spoon, scooping out a glob, splatting it on some tuna while unintentionally collecting some tuna flecks on the spoon, going back for another glob, accidentally transferring the tuna into the jar, letting its bacteria go nuts in an unrefrigerated mayonnaise growth medium, creating a new life-form, having to deal with its demands for free education and the vote…
If the jar is open presumably there is enough oxygen present to prevent botulism from growing (the bacteria apparently doesn’t grow if oxygen is present).
One of several cites: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/CONSUMER/CON00122.html
I meant to add that doesn’t mean other nasties couldn’t potentially grow there though.
(Laughing Lagomorph, who mostly wasn’t paying attention when he took Microbial Physiology all those years ago.)
Some things I do for peace of mind, even though there’s no practical benefit to it. Using toilet seat liners on public toilets is one. Refrigerating opened mayo is another. Call me set in my ways, but…