Results from DIY Spirit Aroma Kit

It worked!

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Some time ago I looked at using an aroma kit to help improve my ability to pick out and identify aromas in the spirits that I drink. You can buy an aroma kit but those tend to start around $150 and go up to $450, which is a bit steep for me. And, given the fact that some of the customer reviews are less than stellar, I decided to try and make my own kit. I ended up making 13 bottles with common gin botanicals all for less than $30!

After letting the botanicals to macerate for a month of so, the aromas were still clear but I did notice one issue. While I only filled the bottles 2/3 with botanicals, some of the more fibrous botanical like cardamon, anise seeds, and licorice root absorbed a lot of the vodka and swelled to completely fill the bottle where as more woody botanicals like cinnamon and star anise stayed the same size. So if you make your own aroma kit, make note of which botanicals might be more absorbent than others.

Besides this absorbency issue, the aroma samples worked well. From time to time I would sit down with the bottles, unscrew the lid, and smell the aroma moving the opening back and forth between each nostril.

Being able to pick out and describe aromas in spirits has a lot to do with memory. Our eyes or ears take in information from specific wave lengths of light or sound and those are interpreted by our brains as colors and pitch. But with smell, little particles of the things we eat, drink, or inhale, touch receptors that extend from the olfactory bulb in our brain and we interpret that information based on our memory. It is believed that this link between smell and memory helps humans to avoid eating spoiled food or drinking contaminated water. And, this smell memory may have helped our hunter-gatherer ancestors to remember high calorie foods like fruits that are higher in natural sugar and vitamins.

In my experience, interpreting aromas exists on three levels.

1. Is the aroma good or bad?

2. Is the aroma familiar or unfamiliar?

3. Can I describe or name the aroma with a word or words?

I believe using my kit did help me move some of the aromas from the second level of, is it familiar to the third level of, it is familiar and I my brain remembers the name of that smell. If you are interested in improving your smell memory, making and occasionally using a spirits aroma kit will help.

How to Make Kummel at Home

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Kummel, also spelled Kümmel, is a botanical liqueur flavored primarily by distilling caraway and then sweetened. But, as it turns out, you do not need a still to make a fairly simple and delicious version of kummel at home.

Back in March when states began issuing stay at home orders I decided it was time to start making some liqueurs. I started simple with limoncello and pompelmocello (grapefruit), but I decided I wanted to try something a little more of a challenging. That’s when kummel came to mind.

Since I don’t have a still, I started looking for kummel recipes online that use maceration (soaking botanicals in alcohol) instead. While Google came trough and gave me some results, none of the online recipes were exactly what I was looking for. However, I came across a note about an old French distillers recipe book that included kummel. There was no mention of a title or author so it took awhile to locate but eventually I found the source: Culture de la Vigne: Traitement Pratique des Vins: Vinification - Distillation by Raimond Boireau (1876). The book includes five recipes for kummel (pp 451-453): One with just caraway, one with caraway essence, and three that use caraway with a small amount of other spices. Based on these recipes I decided to make one bottle (750ml) of about 40% ABV kummel that was 30 parts caraway, 2 parts coriander and 1 part fennel.

Recipe for EZ Homemade Kummel

Ingredients

• 310 ml liters of 190 Proof Everclear (95% ABV) = 252.96 g

• 25 g caraway

• 1.69 g coriander

• 0.85 g fennel

• 500 ml water

• 500 ml sugar

If you live in an area where 190 Everclear is not available you can also use 400 ml of 151 Everclear (75.5% ABV), or 600 ml of 100 proof vodka (50% ABV) with the same amount of spices. The maceration won’t be as intense and you will not need as much simple syrup to bring it down to proof.

Directions

• Place a small glass container (a pint size mason jar will work) on your kitchen scale and weight out 252.96 grams of Everclear and put aside.

• Place a small bowl on your kitchen scale and weigh out 25 grams of caraway. Dump the caraway into the alcohol and repeat with the coriander and fennel.

• Once the spices and alcohol are in the same container, seal it up, give it a shake and let sit for 3 days out of direct sunlight. The alcohol will extract flavors and some color out of the spices, and if you want to give it a shake once a day, go for it.

• Combine the sugar and water into a small pot and stir on medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved into the water. Let cool, pour the syrup into an empty wine/liquor bottle and place it in the refrigerator until needed. This will make more than you need for the kummel but you can save the leftover simple syrup for making cocktails.

• After 3 day filter the spices from the alcohol and pour the infused spirit into a clean 750 ml bottle that has a cap or closure. You can filter the spices with a simple mesh strainer or a coffee filter. Since I have a V60 for making coffee at home I use that. If you use a paper or cloth filter, remember to wet it before hand, or the filter will soak up you alcohol.

• Fill the bottle of infused spirit with about 440 ml of your premade simple syrup, close the bottle and let rest for 1 day in your refrigerator.

Results

Initially the kummel has lots of flavor from the spices, it is very sweet and has some sharpness from the alcohol. However, the longer the kummel sits the more that alcohol smooths out. If you have a sweet tooth, you will like the recipe as is but for me the next time I make it, I will only use 3/4 or half as much sugar.

As for its taste it has a great caraway flavor that reminds me of eating rye bread with a nice lemon zest from the coriander, and a slight fennel kick. Serve it neat direct from the freezer, use it in cocktails like the Old Fashioned (with bourbon or rye), the Silver Bullet or my favorite, a simple Kummel & Soda in a tall glass full of ice.

Asparagus Gin: Some Vintage Spirits Should Probably Remain Forgotten

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Not long ago David T. Smith of Summer Fruit Cup wrote a book entitled Forgotten Spirits & Long Lost Liqueurs that in part was a continuation of the work Ted Haigh put together in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. In Forgotten Spirits David describes a number of flavored gins that were popular in the early twentieth century such as apple gin, mint gin and even maple gin. However, asparagus gin caught my eye.

For two short years in San Francisco, CA the Folsom Asparagus Gin Company produced an asparagus compound gin from 1916-1918. The idea of this gin intrigued me and I figured since I live in San Francisco and I have access to fresh asparagus in season I decided to try my hand at replicating it.

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I purchased one bunch of organic asparagus grown in California's Central Valley and 750ml bottle of Taaka Extra Dry Distilled London Dry Gin produced by Sazerac Co. in Frankfort, KY. On its own, Taaka was a surprisingly good classic gin for $9! I washed and cut the asparagus and put the fresh pieces in a 1.75L glass bottle and poured the gin on top. I let the maceration sit a room temperature for 24 hours in my liquor cabinet. After the 24 hours I strained the asparagus gin with a coffee filter to catch any particles and decanted the gin back into the Taaka bottle. 

In my mind the idea of asparagus gin seemed like it could work. I imagined the vegetal notes layering on top of the traditional gin botanicals and perhaps taking on a light green color. In reality it came out a bit different.

Tasting Notes

Color: In the bottle the color is a dark yellow but in the glass it lightens some and the color looks more like is a golden yellow somewhere between straw and honey.

Nose: The nose has a very strong aroma of fresh asparagus and a green note like chlorophyll.  There is also a pungent quality to it like wet grass that has been cut and left to decay in the hot sun. All of your typical gin aromas have disappeared. 

Palate: On the palate as you first take a sip there is the first hint of gin with a slightly warm and piney character. However, that is quickly swallowed up by a very strong vegetal flavor like the water after making steamed asparagus.

Finish: The finish is hauntingly long of over cooked asparagus and the faintest hints of juniper. 

Conclusion: On its own and in this concentration DIY asparagus gin was way too strong and not pleasant.

Experiments

I now know that one bunch of asparagus was way too much for one 750ml bottle of gin. So I decided to try cutting the concentration and see what happened. Since all of the gin notes disappeared, I decided to cut it with another gin rather than vodka.

Experiment #1: 1 part asparagus gin to 7 parts classic gin. The funky asparagus gin totally disappears on the nose and on the palate. However, the overcook asparagus note came through on the finish which kind of ruined the base gin.

Experiment #2: 1 part asparagus gin to 7 parts contemporary citrus forward gin. Once again the asparagus funk disappeared on the nose but it gave the gin a slightly more earthy body which wasn't bad. The finish also had a bit of the asparagus character and it didn't completely ruin the base gin. Neat the finish would probably be a bit off putting for most people. That being said, I could see this compound gin of asparagus and citrus forward gin working well in a dry martini with an olive or even a Red Snapper. 

Concluding Conclusion: In the end, asparagus in small quantities could be an interesting botanical to add into a larger gin recipe, however asparagus gin the way I made it and probably the way the Folsom Asparagus Gin Company made theirs is best to be forgotten.

DIY Spirit Aroma Kit: The First Batch

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Supplies for the aroma kit.​

A little while ago I went to Rainbow Grocery which is a local CoOp to pick up some herbs and spices for my Spirit Aroma Kit. I took the 2oz amber glass bottles and filled each one about two-thirds full. I have been editing a book about gin so some of the herbs I picked were inspired by common gin botanicals. I bought Angelica Root, Anise Seed, Ceylon Cinnamon, Cilantro, Green Cardamom, Juniper Berry, Lavender Flower, Lemon Grass, Licorice Root, Orris Root, Star Anise, Vietnamese Cinnamon, and Whole Black Peppercorns. The total cost for the thirteen herbs and spices was less than $10 which is a positive sign that my kit will be significantly less than the commercial kit.

Next I got my herbs together, pulled out my bottle of vodka, a small funnel and some small white labels. For each bottle I measured out 2oz of vodka and using the funnel, poured it into the bottles up to the neck. On the label I wrote the name of the herb or spice, the date, weight of the contents and volume of vodka. After I applied each label I gave the bottles a shake to make sure the vodka saturated all of the contents. Once each bottle was labeled and shaken I placed them in one of my kitchen cabinets to steep.

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First batch of aroma bottles

Based on what I've read about tinctures this steeping process can take up to six to eight weeks to reach its full potency. In the mean time I am going to get more herbs as well as some grains from the my local homebrew store, San Francisco Brew Craft and fill some more bottles.

DIY Spirit Aroma Kit

Last year the Commonwealth Club of California hosted a panel discussions entitled “Distilled in the Bay Area: How to Drink Like a Locavore.” During the Q&A, one question that seemed to be on the minds of many in the audience was, how to improve one's ability to detect and describe the aromas present in spirits? The panel of distillers offered a few suggestions. Their primary suggestion, which I've heard before, was to hold a tasting with some friends. At the tasting you pick a couple spirits of the same type (i.e. gin, bourbon, scotch, rum) and as you smell and drink them you talk with your friends about the aromas and flavors you are noticing. It is helpful to do this in a group because not only will different people notice different things but they may also use different words to describe whats in the glass. I can say from my own experience these types of events are very helpful. Numerous times I have had an experience where I have been stuck trying to describe an aroma and a friend offers their suggestion which perfectly describes the sensation.

The second suggestion the panel offered to improve one's ability to recognize aromas was to practice with an aroma kit. An aroma kit is a collection of small vials that contain aromatics that match the name on the label. For instance vials labeled oak, green apple, black cherry, clove, smell like their name. The purpose of these are to practice associating the smell of an aroma with its name so that when you come across a similar aromas in spirits you can identify them. However, the only commercially available aroma kits I was able to find were geared towards red wine drinkers and very expensive. I was primarily interested in aromas found in spirits and I not that keen to spend hundreds of dollars on a kit that some reviewers complained came with vials that didn't smell at all.

I was almost ready to give up on the idea when my brain connected a conversation I had with a friend about herbal tinctures with my homemade vanilla extract. A number of years ago some friends gave me a vanilla extract kit for Christmas. The kit consisted of a 4oz bottle three whole vanilla beans and a bottle of vodka. To make the vanilla extract I slit the beans, placed them in the bottle, filled it with vodka and let it sit in the cupboard. Since alcohol is a solvent the vodka dissolves a little of the vanilla bean infusing it with its flavor and aroma. Tinctures are similar in that they use alcohol to extract healthful properties from various herbs. I put these together and I thought maybe I could make my own spirits aroma kit.

To do this I bought some 2oz amber glass bottles with the plan to fill them with various herbs, spices, other aromatics common to spirits and 40% vodka and see what happens. Future posts in this series will show my process, the results and hopefully prove to be a low-cost alternative to buying a commercial aroma kit.

Update: Read about making my first batch of spirit aromas.