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Conversely, if you're interested in something that replicates something like Domaine du Canton, with that sweet-spicy ginger burn, crystallized is the way to go. If you can get dried and crystalized without the sugar crust all over it (like they sell in bags at Trader Joe's) that stuff creates an excellent infusion that can impart intense gingery flavor to pretty much any cocktail.
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Nov 14, 2013 06:50
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I just got a bunch of fresh rosemary and I'm doing a little infusion. I think it ended up being 23 grams of rosemary that I put in ~350 ml of vodka. I de-stemmed the rosemary and the vodka covers it by a little, maybe half an inch or so. Any guess on how long to let it infuse? I'm thinking a couple days? I was going to make some "gin" and tonics with it, since I think the rosemary has a nice piney scent.
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Nov 20, 2013 05:45
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Is there any way to tell for sure if an infusion has started growing bacteria? I'm doing an oatmeal cookie bourbon and the color and smell seem fine but there a layer of viscous sediment that settles on the oats after a shake. The bourbon is 80 proof so I figure it should be safe and it could just be the dust from the oats.
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Nov 28, 2013 14:52
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Is there any way to tell for sure if an infusion has started growing bacteria? I'm doing an oatmeal cookie bourbon and the color and smell seem fine but there a layer of viscous sediment that settles on the oats after a shake. The bourbon is 80 proof so I figure it should be safe and it could just be the dust from the oats. It's almost definitely oat dust, and if the color and smell seem fine, give it a taste--if the taste is off then you might have a problem, but I'm willing to bet that you don't.
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Nov 28, 2013 14:54
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Is there any way to tell for sure if an infusion has started growing bacteria? I'm doing an oatmeal cookie bourbon and the color and smell seem fine but there a layer of viscous sediment that settles on the oats after a shake. The bourbon is 80 proof so I figure it should be safe and it could just be the dust from the oats. If you didn't water it down any it's not bacteria
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Nov 28, 2013 19:56
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Thanks guys, looks like it was just dust. Two things to learn from this recipe, oat dust stains like a mother and I wasn't expecting to lose as much of the bourbon as I did. I'll be lucky to get 2/3 of abottle after straining and squeezing.
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Nov 30, 2013 14:38
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I just got back from a grocery trip to get some supplies. I found at the local hispanic market that they have real cinnamon (ceylon instead of cassia {Here is an explanation of the difference}). Not only do they have it, but it's 75c/oz instead of the absurdly expensive prices they charge at Penzey's, World Spice Market, or even in bulk on Amazon. I found a giant bottle of vodka and another of tequila. Neither I nor my husband like tequila, but it's apparently tasty infused with berries, so I'll give that a try and see how it goes. I have cranberries thawing to be mushed up right now for the vodka, as well as a freezer full of frozen other berries, some lemons, some limes, some ginger, and the afore-mentioned real cinnamon. Now to decide how to mix and match. Edit: Bottles in the cabinet. 1) Vodka with cranberries. 2) Vodka with zest of two lemons and one lime, two real cinnamon sticks, and however many apples as to fill the jar 3) Tequila with strawberries 4) Tequila with mixed berries I still have loads of both booze left, so I may get some more ingredients over the next week and try another batch. Right now I'm waiting for the condensation from the berries having been frozen to dry so I can write dates on the jars themselves. Valdara fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Dec 2, 2013 |
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Dec 2, 2013 01:21
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I'm infusing some brandy with an orange pomander for my wife's birthday. Any ideas for what I should do with the brandy-soaked orange once I've bottled the liquid? Can I use it in a dessert of some sort do you think?
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Dec 5, 2013 23:33
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The reason that the brandy will taste good is that the orange has transferred all its flavor to the booze. I always just toss out my spent fruit.
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Dec 6, 2013 20:58
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Okey doke.
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Dec 6, 2013 23:38
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Thinking about doing my first infusion as well, something nice and rum-based. Am I reading this correctly, 3 days with coffee and 7 days - to infinity with vanilla would be good with something like 500ml dark rum? Is there a big difference with the coffee (cold brewing, just tossing ground coffee into the rum, grind size)? Have you sweetened your versions? If I want to also do a rasberry vodka, does it have anything else but just (frozen in this case) rasberries steeping for a month, removal and sweetening?
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Dec 9, 2013 07:18
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Bullasorsa posted:If I want to also do a rasberry vodka, does it have anything else but just (frozen in this case) rasberries steeping for a month, removal and sweetening? I recommend a dash of lemon juice. Dunno why, it just never tastes quite right without it.
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Dec 9, 2013 14:28
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Bullasorsa posted:Thinking about doing my first infusion as well, something nice and rum-based. Am I reading this correctly, 3 days with coffee and 7 days - to infinity with vanilla would be good with something like 500ml dark rum? Is there a big difference with the coffee (cold brewing, just tossing ground coffee into the rum, grind size)? Have you sweetened your versions? I crush the coffee beans coarsely with a mortar and pestle. After infusing, I dilute with a 1:1 syrup and a bit of water. I want it to be a liqueur, so it should have an aftertaste of both spirits, coffee and sugar. For the syrup I use light canesugar. For the raspberry infusion I just strained mine tonight after five months, adding crushed tonka beans for a week or more.
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Dec 9, 2013 23:21
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Bullasorsa posted:Thinking about doing my first infusion as well, something nice and rum-based. Am I reading this correctly, 3 days with coffee and 7 days - to infinity with vanilla would be good with something like 500ml dark rum? Is there a big difference with the coffee (cold brewing, just tossing ground coffee into the rum, grind size)? Have you sweetened your versions? Other way around. I found it best to do 3 days vanilla and 7+ coffee because the vanilla beans are capable of overpowering everything else (although I did it with vodka, so I don't know how it's going to go with rum). After the infusions, I let it mellow for a couple of weeks, then sweetened with the same amount of 1:1 sugar/water syrup.
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Dec 10, 2013 23:40
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I find infusing coffee beans more than a week increases the bitter aftertaste and makes it taste less fresh.
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Dec 11, 2013 12:17
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Booze friends, I'm in need of some help. A friend of mine randomly gifted me two bottles of cheapish but drinkable vodka that were leftover from a party, and I'd like to make something fun with them in time for Christmas day. I already have lemons — would a limoncello type thing be out of the question this close to the date? Kicking around my kitchen I have: -star anise -whole cloves -dried rose petals, hibiscus and lavender -fresh and dried rosemary -cinnamon sticks -whole nutmeg -apples and satsumas -bay leaves -fennel seeds -black pepper -garlic -dried cranberries -fresh lemongrass and ginger -fresh and dried coconut -red chilis -fresh kaffir lime leaves I'm a total sucker for anything flavored like flowers, and the idea of a rose infusion sounds pretty nice — has anyone tried it before? Or maybe a pepper/fennel/garlic type thing for Christmas morning Bloody Marys? Any thoughts are very welcome.
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Dec 15, 2013 16:42
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Hecuba posted:would a limoncello type thing be out of the question this close to the date? Yes, It takes about a month to get the best flavor. Hecuba posted:I'm a total sucker for anything flavored like flowers, and the idea of a rose infusion sounds pretty nice Rose petals, lemon rind, then sweeten with honey simple syrup to taste. Maybe a dash of vanilla too. Hecuba posted:-star anise Five spice infusion, - also would only take a few days to make
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Dec 15, 2013 22:17
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Apologies if I missed this earlier in the thread, but what brand of vodka do you all recommend as a base? Luksusowa is my go-to vodka because as near as I can tell, the quality-to-price ratio is the best on the planet.
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Dec 25, 2013 04:47
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Halloween Jack posted:Apologies if I missed this earlier in the thread, but what brand of vodka do you all recommend as a base? Luksusowa is my go-to vodka because as near as I can tell, the quality-to-price ratio is the best on the planet. I'm fine with Smirnoff red. It's triple destilled, wins blind tastings and leaves no taste.
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Dec 25, 2013 22:08
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I finally tried the coffee-vanilla Bacardi I started a couple months ago. It was a pleasant surprise at the family Christmas thing. Good mixed with brown sugar, coke and root beer.
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Dec 27, 2013 18:27
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Dehydrated bananas soaked in vodka release a lovely browned, sugary-dried fruit scented syrup so long as you don't overpack them in the mason jar. Mix it with triple sec and bitters and it tastes like Orange Julius.
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Dec 28, 2013 17:02
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Have just gotten started on making some limoncello. Actually was referred to an interesting article on doing alcohol vapor extraction that didn't require any processing of the lemon rind (lost the link somewhere, dang!). Basically, you hang a bunch of lemons (10-12) in some cheesecloth above some Everclear (750 mL) so that they don't actually touch the fluid. Wait 2-3 mos, and boom, lemon drank. Dilute with simple syrup, chill, enjoy. Day 0 pic - will update when the magic has had some time to work.  Previously made a sidecar based on fig-infused Remy, but this was sabotaged by a roommate who forgot to check if a bag of unlabeled white granules was sugar or salt. Ended up tasting like a fig margarita, which may not be the worst idea in the world.
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Jan 3, 2014 00:41
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I had some ghastly Guatemalan neutral spirit I bought from a local shop for unknown reasons, and I really like grapefruit, so I decided to make pomelocello or whatever it's called. I got a ruby grapefruit and sliced the peels off, and pared them down to get the pith off them, and have them steeping now. I'd read that with grapefruit you really need to get the pith off it (and I'd found this the hard way when trying to pickle grapefruit peels such as works with lemons, it's just way too bitter with pith). When they say to remove the pith, how absolutely severe are we talking here? I shaved it down with a paring knife until no individual pore had any connecting white to any other pore, but am I still going to be bittered to death unless I shave the peel so thin that from the rear there is literally no white substance visible even in the pores? quote:Ended up tasting like a fig margarita, which may not be the worst idea in the world. That. Sounds. Awesome.
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Jan 8, 2014 03:30
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TBH, I don't know if an amount that small will cause significant bittering of the extraction. If it does, then next time you could try to zest instead of peeling and scraping. I know it can work for other citrus infusions.
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Jan 8, 2014 21:04
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Yeah, when you guys talk about pith making an infusion bitter, are you talking about the amount of pith you get when you throw in the entire peel, or the amount I get because I'm not good enough with a paring knife to get a perfectly pithless strip of orange peel? The latter hasn't ruined my Old Fashioned.
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Jan 8, 2014 21:09
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I mean the peel sits in the drink for a few minutes. Maybe a half hour if you are a slow-rear end cocktail drinker. When you're doing an infusion for days or weeks or months that bitterness is worth avoiding. edit: Also, TapTheForwardAssist you're probably fine with your level of pith extraction.
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Jan 9, 2014 09:24
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Update: after most of a month my grapefruit peels were awfully blanched, and the liquor colored and fragrant. I made up some simple syrup with turbinado, cooled it, and combined. I'll let that sit a week, remove the peels (and add them to my brine-jar to make them pickles), and let it sit a while in the freezer. It's fine right now, though in retrospect I'd use a bit higher ratio of peel to liquor since I could see it being stronger flavored without being overpowering. The other issue is I made the simple syrup with a 1:1 of sugar/water, and the resulting mix doesn't have the slightly syrupy texture I associate with limoncello. Next time should I just reduce the syrup further? I'd just been hesitant because the simple syrup recipes cautioned against letting it get too thick. For this current batch, should I just be content with the current texture, or try adding gomme syrup or something?
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Jan 26, 2014 21:38
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UPDATE: I clearly did lower the ABV more than I intended to when I added the simple syrup, since the bottle froze over in my freezer. Store-bought limoncello never did that at this temp. I think my lesson for the future is either to make thicker simple syrup to keep the water content low, and/or to steep the peels in harder alcohol like Everclear (which some recipes mention) so the ABV will still be high after adding sugar-water. Given that I'm going back on one of my straightedge-esque trends of eating vegan and not drinking for the sake of discipline and self-mortification, and since apparently 'cellos are best served relatively fresh, I'll probably portion out my current mix and gift it to friends. Fortunately I bought a bunch of test-tubes with tight screw-tops for cheap in bulk, so I've been able to use those whenever I want to hand out samples. EDIT: Hold up, if I let it only partially thaw and pour off the first parts to unfreeze, that'd lower the ABV as well, right? EDIT2: By that I mean keeping the first stuff to thaw as the beverage, and then discarding the remaining ice. I phrased it unclearly, but I do now that alcohol has a lower freezing point than water. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Feb 6, 2014 |
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Feb 6, 2014 03:47
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No, the unfrozen / first-to-thaw parts will be the parts with a higher ABV, not lower. The stuff that melts last will be largely water.
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Feb 6, 2014 05:56
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The pomelocello overall came out well and got good feedback from friends. Last year I bought a bulk box of test-tubes with tight screw-on caps, and those have been great for bringing friends samples of my home brewing, infusing, fermenting, etc experiments. They're durable and reusable, seal well, but they're cheap enough I don't need to ask for them back. Today I picked up a few blood oranges, and a larger bag of tangelos, so tonight or so I'm going to get started on a small batch of arancello and a larger one of tangelocello. This time to avoid the issue of lowering the ABV too much, I'm using Everclear. That should put me on the high side of good even after adding the simple syrup, so I can just dilute down from there as needed. Brief googling seems to indicate that limoncellos range from 25-40%, so given that I started with 80 proof cane liquor, I would've had to use really dense simple syrup to not drop into the low 20s or lower. TapTheForwardAssist fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Feb 15, 2014 |
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Feb 9, 2014 20:05
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I'm trying out the apples and cinnamon + brandy right now. I'm pleased with the cinnamon flavour after having steeped it for a couple weeks, but the apples have been steeping for about a month now and I'm just not getting enough apple flavour. Ought I to take the apple solids out and replace them before steeping another month? How much alcohol am I losing by doing it?
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Feb 25, 2014 03:49
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If you're looking for a sweeter taste, I've had great luck with apple juice and bourbon.
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Feb 25, 2014 15:57
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I was thinking I might finish the steeping process by topping it up with some apple cider before the straining process; does that sound crazy? With stuff like this, I'm always tempted to mess with it.
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Feb 25, 2014 16:36
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Apples take a long time--like two months--to impart any flavor, and I fill the jar almost to the top with cubed apple and then pour the liquor over it to infuse. It typically ends up being 3 huge apples or 5 small ones to infuse a 750 mL bottle with sufficient apple flavor. So you could add more apple, but I wouldn't take out the existing apple. You also probably want to take out your cinnamon so it doesn't overwhelm the apple flavor. You can add apple cider if you want to drink it sooner rather than later, but I would recommend keeping the mix in the fridge at that point, because (depending on the amount of cider you add) it could lower the alcohol content enough that bacteria and mold could grow.
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Feb 25, 2014 16:43
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I've already removed the cinnamon, since I was getting good flavour on that front after a couple weeks. I think that I will just add more apple and let it steep another month or two. I've been keeping it refrigerated throughout the process.
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Feb 25, 2014 16:46
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If it's just 80-proof booze + fruit, you don't have to keep it in the fridge! And I might be talking out my rear end on this, but I wonder if the lower temp might be hindering the fruit infusing?
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Feb 25, 2014 16:52
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The liqueur turned out quite well. Now, what can I do with these diced up, booze-soaked apples?
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Mar 18, 2014 01:26
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Halloween Jack posted:The liqueur turned out quite well. Now, what can I do with these diced up, booze-soaked apples? Eat them as-is, put them on a salad or put them in a dessert.
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Mar 18, 2014 01:58
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Halloween Jack posted:The liqueur turned out quite well. Now, what can I do with these diced up, booze-soaked apples? What a silly question
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Mar 18, 2014 02:41
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Halloween Jack posted:The liqueur turned out quite well. Now, what can I do with these diced up, booze-soaked apples? You could pickle them, make an achar or chutney. I save all the lemon or lime peels that have soaked in Batavia arrack when I make puch, and I chuck them in my brine jar. Even months later I can distinctly recognize which peels have soaked in arrack. Not the licorice-y stuff, the similarly-named stuff that's like sulphurous rhum.
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Mar 18, 2014 02:49
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