Infusions, Extractions & Tinctures at Home: The Topic (Part 1)

[Kent Wang]

Back in September I had a great cocktail at Death & Co. called the Grouse Rampant with apple-infused Famous Grouse. I just bought a bottle and some apples. Should I peel off the skin or leave it? Any other advice on how long to infuse, etc. would be helpful as well.

[thirtyoneknots]

Back in September I had a great cocktail at Death & Co. called the Grouse Rampant with apple-infused Famous Grouse. I just bought a bottle and some apples. Should I peel off the skin or leave it? Any other advice on how long to infuse, etc. would be helpful as well.

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Much of the flavor an apple will impart on an infusion is in the skin, so definitely leave that on. I've done apple infusions before, using 2-3 apples per 750ml, cored and sliced and I think put in for about 2 weeks. Apples will contribute some water to the spirit, so it may not fit into the same bottle again, I seem to recall running into that problem.

Be sure and let us know how it comes out.

[Reignking]

Some recent attempts:

Nutmeg: very quick. Only took 2 days. It's a bit strong.

Cranberry: beautiful color, but the flavor is -very- subtle. And I used a lot of cranberries, and I've had that going for months.

Cherry: much like the cranberry

Lemongrass and Kaffir lime leaf (leftover from making curry): Fantastic! Only needed a day or two, and you could really taste the flavors. I've mixed it with cachaca for a caiprihna, but I think infusing cachaca would be even better.

[Yajna Patni]

I have some kaffir lime and ginger sitting... it has bee a week. i think the ginger needs a little more. Not sure what i will put it in.

[KatieLoeb]

Some recent attempts:

Nutmeg: very quick.  Only took 2 days.  It's a bit strong.

Cranberry: beautiful color, but the flavor is -very- subtle.  And I used a lot of cranberries, and I've had that going for months.

Cherry: much like the cranberry

Lemongrass and Kaffir lime leaf (leftover from making curry): Fantastic!  Only needed a day or two, and you could really taste the flavors.  I've mixed it with cachaca for a caiprihna, but I think infusing cachaca would be even better.

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I've made "crancello" for Thanksgiving mimosas and it was pretty easy, but you need to cheat a little bit. I bruised up half a bag of cranberries with a rolling pin and let them sit in 100 proof vodka for a couple of weeks. Strained and squeezed them out and then added about 4 oz. of cranberry juice concentrate I purchased at the Whole Foods in the juice aisle. I diluted this mixture with a spiced simple syrup I'd made with cinnamon, star anise, cloves, cardamom, red pepper flakes and black peppercorns. Dilute further with a little regular 80 proof vodka if you wish to drink it straight. A little of this topped with Champagne made for very pretty and delicious pre-Thanksgiving cocktails.

[Kent Wang]

Back in September I had a great cocktail at Death & Co. called the Grouse Rampant with apple-infused Famous Grouse. I just bought a bottle and some apples. Should I peel off the skin or leave it? Any other advice on how long to infuse, etc. would be helpful as well.

←

Much of the flavor an apple will impart on an infusion is in the skin, so definitely leave that on. I've done apple infusions before, using 2-3 apples per 750ml, cored and sliced and I think put in for about 2 weeks. Apples will contribute some water to the spirit, so it may not fit into the same bottle again, I seem to recall running into that problem.

Be sure and let us know how it comes out.

←

Not so good. I used Pink Lady apples which are a red variety. Result was a little sweeter, more acidic, but just a tiny bit of apple flavor. Definitely can't stand up to mixing. But it did make the Famous Grouse very drinkable; I downed half the bottle straight.

Should I try a green apple? What if I only put the peels?

[thirtyoneknots]

Back in September I had a great cocktail at Death & Co. called the Grouse Rampant with apple-infused Famous Grouse. I just bought a bottle and some apples. Should I peel off the skin or leave it? Any other advice on how long to infuse, etc. would be helpful as well.

←

Much of the flavor an apple will impart on an infusion is in the skin, so definitely leave that on. I've done apple infusions before, using 2-3 apples per 750ml, cored and sliced and I think put in for about 2 weeks. Apples will contribute some water to the spirit, so it may not fit into the same bottle again, I seem to recall running into that problem.

Be sure and let us know how it comes out.

←

Not so good. I used Pink Lady apples which are a red variety. Result was a little sweeter, more acidic, but just a tiny bit of apple flavor. Definitely can't stand up to mixing. But it did make the Famous Grouse very drinkable; I downed half the bottle straight.

Should I try a green apple? What if I only put the peels?

←

I would expect a green or yellow apple (or combination) to impart more flavor. Most of the red apples available at the store seem to be relatively mild in flavor.

[Kent Wang]

Thanks, Andy. I'll give it a shot once I buy another bottle of Grouse.

Has anyone tried a beet infusion? Amateur Cocktail Guy did a vodka infused with golden beets.

[Tri2Cook]

Pulling this one to the top again. The answer is probably already in here somewhere but I don't have time this morning to read through 8 pages and I plan to start a couple of projects today. What I'm wondering is: is there any reason to use top shelf booze for infusing or will the things that make them top shelf be overshadowed by the infusion? Obviously if using less expensive bases gives good results that would be preferable, especially since some of what I'm doing is experimental and may not work out anyway, but I don't want the ones that do work to be undrinkable crap because of the base either.

[eje]

Pulling this one to the top again. The answer is probably already in here somewhere but I don't have time this morning to read through 8 pages and I plan to start a couple of projects today. What I'm wondering is: is there any reason to use top shelf booze for infusing or will the things that make them top shelf be overshadowed by the infusion?

[...]

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Short answer is, don't use booze you wouldn't drink anyway.

You don't need to use top shelf booze, but if the flavor of the spirit you are infusing in tastes awful to you, chances are your infusion will as well.

Comes down to personal taste.

A lot of people like to use everclear for infusions, tinctures, and liqueurs.

The smell of highly refined alcohol is a flaw to me and I feel like I can detect it in just about any infusion or liqueur.

[Tri2Cook]

I'm going to be working with vodka, rum and bourbon. Possibly a brandy as well, haven't decided for sure on the base for one idea at this point. I rarely drink cocktails, almost never drink anything straight, so I don't really know what I like when it comes to some of this stuff. I'm more of a beer and wine person and even those are infrequent these days. I used to drink Maker's Mark years ago, haven't drank vodka since the teen "drink whatever we could get our hands on" years and never really got around to a rum stage. I know this leads to the question "why am I even doing this then?" and the short answer is... because I want to. The longer answer is that I have friends that are very into cocktails and I want to spring some surprises on them.

[Chris Amirault]

I'd suggest taking a look at dedicated topics on the spirits you mention and specifically at the "Good Enough Spirits" topic for ideas on the sorts of things Society members value.

I agree with Erik -- good gives good and Everclear is to be avoided. Trick is that you should, indeed, taste some of the things you want to infuse. For example, I use a combination of the two base Flor de Cana rums, a bit of blackstrap rum, and some 151 proof demerara rum when I make my yearly supply of pineapple-infused rum. Using Brugal anejo and Bacardi would be a disaster, to my mind, though it'd cost about the same, and using rhum agricole would be a waste of the good stuff.

Just take bourbon as an example: line up Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey 101, Bulleit, Jack Daniels, and Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond and you'll see that there's a very wide range of approaches to this single spirit. Those differences will show up in your infusions and thus in your drinks, for better or worse.

[Tri2Cook]

Ok, back from running errands (completely forgot everything is closed today) and I'm beginning to get the point here... this isn't going to be easy. I'll put my projects on hold for a day or two and cruise that "good enough spirits" thread. I don't plan to dig so deep with this that I start blending spirits and buying multiples for taste comparison so I'll read the thread and go with a "majority rules" thing based on what I read and the flavors I want to work with. Thanks for the help.

[Chris Amirault]

Why not just take a few jars, toss a bit of something into three or four samples, and then taste in a couple of days?

[slkinsey]

A lot of people like to use everclear for infusions, tinctures, and liqueurs.

The smell of highly refined alcohol is a flaw to me and I feel like I can detect it in just about any infusion or liqueur.

I think the problem with something like Everclear (and other high proof grain alcohol brands) is not so much that they are high proof but that they are high proof but not highly refined/purified/rectified/whatever you want to call it. As a result, there is a fair amount of other stuff in there besides just ethyl alcohol. I know people who have had good luck "home refining" high proof grain alcohol by filtering it through activated charcoal. This seems to do quite a bit to strip out the objectionable impurities.

I'm curious: Do you get this same flawed smell in, for example, gin? Because just about every gin starts off with 96% alcohol, and even the final distillation is likely to go up to around 85% alcohol.

Edited July 1, 2009 by slkinsey (log)

[eje]

[...]

I'm curious:  Do you get this same flawed smell in, for example, gin?  Because just about every gin starts off with 96% alcohol, and even the final distillation is likely to go up to around 85% alcohol.

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Some yes, some no.

I think, like you point out, much of it isn't the alcohol itself, so much as the other substances.

[slkinsey]

Well, either way, I agree that a "solvent-like" smell is a flaw.

[Tri2Cook]

Why not just take a few jars, toss a bit of something into three or four samples, and then taste in a couple of days?

←

That would be the best plan but basically I'm going to go buy booze to work with and I'd really prefer to buy one of each rather than several of each. I just wanted to make sure I won't be doing an injustice to the experiments by using good booze instead of "the best" booze. I think you guys have steered me in the right direction. Thanks!

[Chris Amirault]

Just put up some pineapple-infused rum and wanted to document the combination here, given recent discussions. To one roughly chopped, ripe pineapple I added 150 ml Wray & Nephew Overproof rum, 75 ml Flor de Cana Extra Dry, 250 ml FdC Gold, 250 Myers's. More in a bit.

[Wild Bill Turkey]

Yes, please, post updates. I'm fixing to try my first infusion, and I wanted to do pineapple rum. I see this time you've switched out the overproof demerara for the W&N, and the blackstrap for Myer's. I would be very interested to find out if you found this year's recipe to be an improvement.

[Chris Amirault]

It's only been away from the pineapple for a day, but I am happier with this version. It brings out more fruit and less competition from the now-departed demerara and blackstrap, enabling me to use it in more applications. The previous version was hard to mix with anything but a light-bodied white rum.; this version I can imagine using with some more pronounced rums like the Inner Circle green, a rhum agricole, and, hell, a demerara for that matter.

[Chris Amirault]

And, so, along those lines, I've been tinkering with this:

1 1/2 oz pineapple rum

1 1/2 Brugal anejo

1/2 oz demerara

3/4 oz lime

dash pimento dram

dash Angostura

dash Herbsaint

Makes me want to get a bottle of the Brugal Extra Viejo....

[vice]

How long did you let it hang out with the pineapple, Chris?

[Chris Amirault]

Three days, iirc. Didn't squeeze at all when straining. It definitely is a step in the right direction for the reasons mentioned above, but I think I'm going to let the pineapple get a bit overripe next time.

[cupcake]

I was looking for some ideas for my tarragon infusion that I just set up and came across this.

http://www.subrosaspirits.com/recipes.html

It's getting cold here in Chicago, and my tarragon this year (I am an avid balcony herb gardener, despite my challenging north light and shade from the balcony above) was lush and gorgeous. I have (had! it's all sitting on my counter in vodka) tons left and if we go below freezing, it's all over, so tarragon infusion it is! Mint has not survived the cold to date-- I see that the company in the link above uses tarragon with a touch of mint (infused separately) and fennel fronds that steep for only 4 hours. Maybe next year....

For anyone with herb infusions, how long do you let it age after you stain it? The Schnapps site says a few months. I guess I will just have to force myself to sample it as it goes along. Have not found that other ingredients take that long, but for whatever reason, this is my first foray into herbs.

Cynthia