Vermouth

Question for all you Martini drinkers out there: Do you have to refrigerate Vermouth after you open it? And if not, how long does it stay good?

Yes, you have to keep it cold. You have about two months, but you will notice a change in taste within a week or two. Try to buy the small bottles.

On 2010-08-29 19:59, telescopes wrote:
Yes, you have to keep it cold. You have about two months, but you will notice a change in taste within a week or two. Try to buy the small bottles.

I'll second that. Whilst it doesn't exactly go off as such, it's amazing how much intensity of flavour it loses in a short time. The smallest bottles I can buy here are 1litre so most of it ends up being thrown out. Fortunately it's not that expensive.

Oh sweet sonofabitch.
Throwing my month+ bottles in the fridge now.
Well, that readily explains why the bottles of French & Italian vermouth my parents gave me some years back tasted quite awful: the bottles had been sitting in their liquor cabinet since the early 1960's! Awg. Kept the vintage bottles anyway.

I kind of had the same experience...I bought the Vermouth last year, tried to make a martini....and it tasted horrible! My first thought was that it went bad.....(I did have it refridgerated the whole time, of course!) Still tasted really off!

Refrigeration is a must. Also get an inexpensive vacuum pump that extracts the air out of the bottle and you can extend the life of your vermouth quite a long time, e.g. several months.

GatorRob, great idea on the vacuum pump.

This might be a stupid question but what exactly is vermouth used for other than mixing sparingly in some cocktails?

Noilly Prat white vermouth is my go-to solvent for martinis and cooking. I keep it near the olive oil, and have never put it in the fridge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noilly_Prat

We have a bottle of Carpano, fancy red vermouth, and don't keep it in the fridge either...only once had to toss it due to critters in it. Seems to taste just fine. Next bottle will go in the fridge, though. Sounds like it will taste even better!

On 2010-09-03 09:47, amybean wrote:
Noilly Prat white vermouth is my go-to solvent for martinis and cooking. I keep it near the olive oil, and have never put it in the fridge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noilly_Prat

We have a bottle of Carpano, fancy red vermouth, and don't keep it in the fridge either...only once had to toss it due to critters in it. Seems to taste just fine. Next bottle will go in the fridge, though. Sounds like it will taste even better!

Good Girl, finding a good vermouth is half the battle. most people think they want a "dry" martini, when really they just bought crappy vermouth. a 1:1 or 2:1 martini with a good dry gin, and a great dry vermouth is enough to bring tears to a mans eyes, lovingly stirred, handled with the care usually reserved for ones children, and strained slowly into a cocktail glass over an olive (Martini) or cocktail onion (gibson).... Dammit.. why do I have to drive later... now I want one...

It's a little early for a martini, but now I want one, too!

We did a taste comparison once with the garnishes, and found that olives pair well with salty nut snacks and cheeses, lemon twist goes well with a crudite, and the cocktail onion especially fine with fishy snacks.

Note: Noilly Prat is surprisingly inexpensive.

On 2010-09-04 11:45, amybean wrote:
It's a little early for a martini, but now I want one, too!

We did a taste comparison once with the garnishes, and found that olives pair well with salty nut snacks and cheeses, lemon twist goes well with a crudite, and the cocktail onion especially fine with fishy snacks.

Note: Noilly Prat is surprisingly inexpensive.

They've actually gone back to their original recipe, they changed it during the vermouthaphobe period in martini history, after cheap rotgut vermouth had become the bar-room standby and people learned to fear its vinegar charms.

What's everyone's ratio? I like 1:1. I also put a LOT of ice in the shaker, so the drink is diluted a bit...

http://www.myspace.com/lucasvigor

"yer jus not tuned into the series of tubes yet, let it soak in".

[ Edited by: lucas vigor 2010-09-05 19:51 ]

3 to 1 or 5 to 1 depending on the occasion/

Since this is a decidedly RUM board, does anyone make El Presidentes (rum, vermouth, & Curaçao)

On 2010-09-05 23:08, MadDogMike wrote:
Since this is a decidedly RUM board, does anyone make El Presidentes (rum, vermouth, & Curaçao)

Yes. And yum. :wink: Add a dash of good grenadine and an orange twist too.

I made something with 2oz gin, 1oz Nolly Prat, 1oz of sailor Jerry rum, and 1oz of absinthe... dunno what you'd call it, I called it good.