Make Your Own Bitters!

Want to make your own homemade bitters?

This is from Liquor.com, It is surprisingly simple to do.
http://liquor.com/articles/make-your-own-bitters/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Liquor%3A%20Total&utm_campaign=02.09.15%20-%20FA%20-%20DIY%20Bitters

THE SUPPLIES

Making bitters is no more difficult than many of the concoctions bartenders have been known to whip up from scratch, like marmalade, orgeat and tonic. Much of the process consists of waiting while the ingredients steep in high-proof liquor. To start the process, you’ll need:

Two 1-quart Jars
Cheesecloth
High-proof spirit (typically vodka or whiskey)
Roots, herbs, spices and other flavorings

When choosing the type of spirit as your bitters base, consider what the end flavor will be, as well as the types of cocktails the bitters will be used in. For light, fruity drinks, go with vodka. For Manhattans and other whiskey or rum-based drinks, choose a dark spirit. Then, all that’s left is to decide what to flavor the bitters with.

Brad Thomas Parsons’ Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All is a great place to start gleaning basic ideas and quantities, like in these Apple Bitters and Pear Bitters. A few combinations we’ve found to be successful are dried cherries and coffee beans, hops and grapefruit peel, and lemon peel and peppercorns.

Many recipes call for unusual bitter roots and barks, which can be hard to find outside of a city with a specialty market. These include: gentian, a super-bitter root that’s also found in Angostura and many other flavored and aromatic bitters; cinchona bark, which contains quinine and is also used in making tonic; and cassia chips, a bark that’s part of the cinnamon family. To find these ingredients online, try Kalustyan’s, Mountain Rose Herbs or Amazon.

Other more common kitchen spices that are used to flavor bitters include anything from star anise, cardamom and peppercorns to lemongrass and juniper berries.

THE PROCESS

Once all of the freaky roots, spices and other flavorings are gathered, it’s time to embark on the mostly hands-off process of making bitters. Though it varies somewhat from recipe to recipe, this is a generally fool-proof guide.
Step 1: Steeping

Combine all the spices, roots, barks and other flavorings to a jar and add in the high-proof spirit. This will sit for about two weeks and will need to be shaken daily to ensure the flavors infuse properly and evenly.
Step 2: Strain & Cook

Strain the spirit into a clean jar using cheesecloth, then seal. Heat solids on the stove with water and then put that entire mixture (water and vodka-soaked ingredients) into a separate jar. Let that sit for one week.
Step 3: Combine & Sweeten

Strain out the solids, discard and combine the infused vodka with the water. If the liquid is still murky, strain it again through cheesecloth. (It’s common to have a little sediment remain.) The last step is to add a bit of sweetener, if needed, to make the mixture more palatable, as it will be incredibly bitter. Depending on the flavor of the bitters, use a rich simple syrup (two parts turbinado sugar to one part water), honey, molasses or maple syrup. Once added, shake it until the sweetener is fully dissolved and let it sit for another three days. Finally, the bitters are ready to bottle.

THE BOTTLING

Now, after about a month of mostly passive preparation, all that’s left to do is bottle the bitters. One-, two- and four-ounce dropper bottles can also be easily found on Amazon or at medical supply stores. And, if you want to get really fancy, Cocktail Kingdom has various pro-style bottles that give the perfect dash of aroma to drinks.

As for labeling the bitters, some prefer the super-homemade approach, as you can see above. But for those who would rather have a more polished final product, Evermine and Vistaprint sell customizable labels in all colors and sizes.

Now it’s time to use the bitters in cocktails, on ice cream or in any variety of recipes. You could even try to cure a cold with them, though that effort would probably be in vain.

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2015-02-14 23:52 ]

Nice post ATP, thanks. As if we didn't already have enough experimenting to do in our labs, er, bars...!! I'm really gonna give this bitter-making some thought.

I have been wracking my brain for a good flavor combo to make
something a little different than the regular bitters out there
maybe a sour cherry bitter for an Old Fashioned?

Or a sour cherry & melon? or cherry & apple?

Good thoughts. But here is my dilemma when I read this article -- I understand that it's written "down" for less-experienced alkies than us, so they suggest a whiskey or a vodka as a base spirit. Then my sober brain jumps in and says things to me like, "Hey, let's take this into the lab! What if I use a neutral spirit (Everclear, for example) or an overproof white rum like Wray & Nephew? Wouldn't I get a more crisp/clean and more pure end result?"

Sometimes I like my non-sober brain better cuz it doesn't make me stay up WAY too late trying all different crazy things. I gotta stop listening to my sober brain...

This may pale in comparison to the guy who killed a night desperately trying to come up with a peanut-butter based cocktail last year and came up with - nothing.

"My brain hurts!"

On 2015-02-13 06:15, AceExplorer wrote:
This may pale in comparison to the guy who killed a night desperately trying to come up with a peanut-butter based cocktail last year and came up with - nothing.

I once came up with a cocktail that tasted just like Reese's Pieces. I know it had El Dorado 12 (or maybe the final version had Zacapa 23), Castries Peanut Liqueur, and chocolate bitters, but I can't recall if it was Bitterman's Xocolatl Mole, The Bitter Truth Spiced Chocolate, or Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate bitters. My memory of that evening is clearly a bit foggy.

Also ATP, why would you MAKE your own bitters when you can BUY them at the store! And are those really bitters if you don't use any bitter ingredients?!? :wink:

On 2015-02-13 08:31, JenTiki wrote:

On 2015-02-13 06:15, AceExplorer wrote:
This may pale in comparison to the guy who killed a night desperately trying to come up with a peanut-butter based cocktail last year and came up with - nothing.

I once came up with a cocktail that tasted just like Reese's Pieces. I know it had El Dorado 12 (or maybe the final version had Zacapa 23), Castries Peanut Liqueur, and chocolate bitters, but I can't recall if it was Bitterman's Xocolatl Mole, The Bitter Truth Spiced Chocolate, or Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate bitters. My memory of that evening is clearly a bit foggy.

I made impromptu apricot cocktails at a party once for my wife's friends using peach bitters, Marie Brizzard's apricot brandy, and...? i was never able to recall the rest. they were tasty though, if a tad sweet.

On 2015-02-13 08:31, JenTiki wrote:
My memory of that evening is clearly a bit foggy.

You used "clearly" and "foggy" in a sentence with only two words separating them. THAT is a cause for some sort of celebration!

Ace, I was thinking about using a high proof white rum also
Jen, don't get me started :D & a :drink:

On 2015-02-13 10:29, AceExplorer wrote:

On 2015-02-13 08:31, JenTiki wrote:
My memory of that evening is clearly a bit foggy.

You used "clearly" and "foggy" in a sentence with only two words separating them. THAT is a cause for some sort of celebration!

Yeah, I noticed that when I wrote it and wondered if anyone else would notice, or care. I'm consistently contradictory. :wink:

On 2015-02-13 10:29, AceExplorer wrote:

On 2015-02-13 08:31, JenTiki wrote:
My memory of that evening is clearly a bit foggy.

You used "clearly" and "foggy" in a sentence with only two words separating them. THAT is a cause for some sort of celebration!

Yeah, I noticed that when I wrote it and wondered if anyone else would notice, or care. I'm consistently contradictory. :wink:

Since you only use a drop or two of bitters per drink, the base liquor doesn't really matter that much. The other flavors are going to stomp all over it anyway.

Good point, I was thinking from the standpoint of purity of flavor, I think you are correct. But if making a bitter at home, I would definitely still begin with a neutral spirit if I had a neutral spirit available.

Don't forget you are going for octane too, so everclear is usually the best option.

Yes, in a bitter, I need the "octane" (alcohol) acting as both a solvent and as a carrier of the flavors and oils. But not for adding to the alcohol "kick" of the final cocktail since bitters are used in relatively small amounts.