Infused Rum

I recently purchased a vodka infuser and have been using to infuse vodka with flavors like rasberry and pineapple. I was wondering if anyone has tried making their own infused rum? I would assume you could make a homemade coconut or pineapple using a light rum. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks-

Where does one buy a vodka infuser? Is there a website?

I got mine from http://www.infused-vodka.com because I was able to get a smaller one than what I could find in the store. The one I found at Pier One held almost 200 ounces and that would be painful on the ole wallet to try to fill.

Thanks!

This does not answer your question, but it is related...

Appleton Rum was selling their estate brand packaged with a logoed infusion bottle last december. I still see these packages on occasion at liquor stores.

Ahu

I made some cinnamon infused rum at the prompting of KuKuAhu per the recipe he suggested in this thread.

It came out quite good, dark red in color and the initial taste is very dry but with a smooth aftertaste. As it gets older the cinnamon taste seems to be more subdued but still very much present. When it runs out I will make more!

Glad to hear it Kono. I think that having some homemade items around in your bar makes for interesting drinks. You can put together something truly unique and delicious when you have tailor made liqueurs and syrups on hand.

Ahu

I'm resurrecting this topic because I think there should be a dedicated thread to our various infused rum efforts, sharing different recipes, what works, doesn't, etc. Searching through the archives, I found this passion fruit-infused rum thread, which I'm totally going to attempt once I grow enough passion fruit, and this more recent pineapple-infused rum thread, which was interesting, but limited in scope.

Myself, I'm making a jackfruit-infused rum. If you've ever had jackfruit--which simply looks intimidating--you know this is where they got the inspiration for Juicy Fruit gum from. Only jackfruit's flavor is more intensely tropical. The first time I ever tasted it, I knew I wanted to incorporate it into a cocktail somehow. But there are few recipes online for jackfruit cocktails, and one I found said to muddle it. Jackfruit arils are very firm and rubbery, not juicy at all. It don't muddle. So I decided to infuse.

This is where some of you rum aficionados might want to look away. Because I'm using Castillo. Look, it was my go-to silver Puerto Rican mixer before I discovered Cruzan at the same price point. I think it's better than parent Bacardi--at least it's not pretending to be vodka. I wanted a light rum where the jackfruit flavor would show through, yet also retain a sense of being rum. It is what it is. So sue me.

To free up more juice, I froze the jackfruit arils. This worked well. The cell membranes burst, releasing juice and sugar. The fruit didn't get mushy like a peach or strawberry, but was dramatically softer and less structured. I divided the fruit up into three batches of a little less than a pound, blending it to a rough consistency with a cup of rum.

That's almost three pounds of jackfruit infusing into 1.75L of silver rum. There's a significant amount of sugar going into the rum, which I hadn't considered when starting this. I use fruit often in my homebrew projects, but the sugar's always converted to alcohol by the yeast, leaving only the (dry) fruit flavor. No yeasts at work in a spirit. I started the infusion on Monday, and plan to filter and bottle it this weekend. It's in the refrigerator, where I agitate it daily to keep things stirred up. The aroma is fantastic, and the tastes I've taken have been quite encouraging. It's a flavor bomb. It's also noticeably sweeter than your average rum, so cocktail recipes will need to be adjusted accordingly.

In hindsight, three pounds of fruit is probably overkill. Half that amount likely would've been just fine. Regardless, I'm optimistic that this is going to be something worth repeating in the future.

Update: The infusion experiment is a success. A strong jackfruit aroma and flavor permeates the rum. It's very nice. I decided to take this infusion for a test drive by making a simple daiquiri. Wow. Definitely too sweet. I hadn't really grokked before how adding sugar to rum smooths away the rough edges, but now I do. Again, when I normally use fruit in home brewing, the yeast converts the fruit sugar to alcohol, and the resulting beer or mead is fruity but dry. That's not going on here, so the jackfruit sugars go strait into the rum and linger. Knowing this has allowed me to adjust the use of syrups in cocktails when using this rum and I'm very happy with it as a mixer. A modest addition of tart juices, like passion fruit or pineapple, enhance the flavor. It's obviously a tropical flavor in cocktails, but not entirely familiar. If I didn't already know what it was, I'd probably be puzzling over it.

Going forward, I'd say one pound of jackfruit per 750ml of rum is a good ratio (even if I'm mixing metric and English measurements), and I need to improve my filtration if I'm doing this again (which I will). I've got some feijoa bushes in the back yard, and this spring I'm inclined to try some rum infusions using both the flowers and the fruit. :drink:

Good report, Prikli Pear, thank you. I have been making infusions and tinctures, and a few bitters, from scratch over the past few years. Practice helps a lot, but rarely does anything come out "bad" to where it needs to be thrown out. I've been encouraging others to do the same. More books on making tinctures and infusions and bitters are coming out now, so I think this interest will continue to grow. Nerdy? Hell yeah! Fun? Absolutely!

The bar counter does lead to the kitchen counter for some of us. It's great fun. Cheers, and keep sharing your results!

Very cool Prickli Pear! When you make your infusion this Spring be sure you use the feijoa (pineapple guava) and not feijoada (Brazilian beans and rice) :lol:

Saw a recipe posted for a Thai Spiced Rum. A bit ambitious but I want to try it soon.

2 bottles (750ml each) El Dorado 5 or similar rum
6x2 inch piece of grapefruit peel
5x1.5 inch piece of orange peel
Peel from 1/2 medium lemon
Peel from 1/2 medium lime
4 pairs of Keffir lime leaves, torn
5/8 oz galangal, unpeeled
Center stalk of lemongrass, cut and beaten plus one leaf
10 mixed peppercorns (4 green, 3 black, 3 red), crushed
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
6 allspice berries, crushed
2 med cinnamon sticks
1 star anise pod
Pinch saffron
4 coriander seeds, crushed
Sprig of mint, expressed
2 T Myers rum
1/4 t crushed red pepper
1/4 t orange blossom water
6 whole cloves, crushed
1/2 oz ginger, unpeeled

Let sit for 1-2 weeks in a cool, dark place. Shake regularly and taste occasionally. When flavor has reached desired intensity, strain.

Hmmmm... infusing your own rum sounds interesting! And it reminded me of something I just ran across that I had never heard of (as a newbie). Has anyone tried smoking their rum? I recently discovered that they make "smoking guns" for adding smoke flavor to food and drinks and it said that certain recipes call for smoked Bourbon, as an example. Would something like this produce some unique (and possibly beneficial) flavors to rum?

On 2018-02-05 13:40, tikitube wrote:
Hmmmm... infusing your own rum sounds interesting! And it reminded me of something I just ran across that I had never heard of (as a newbie). Has anyone tried smoking their rum? I recently discovered that they make "smoking guns" for adding smoke flavor to food and drinks and it said that certain recipes call for smoked Bourbon, as an example. Would something like this produce some unique (and possibly beneficial) flavors to rum?

Oops... Cardinal sin...I forgot to search first, but found this:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=52293&forum=10&hilite=Smoked%20rum

It mentions smoked rum that tasted like cigarettes, but not smoking your own.

Nice to see the discussion picking up. Infusion is super-easy, but personally, my interest lies in more exotic flavors not easily incorporated into cocktails otherwise. Hence, jackfruit was a natural choice. It'd be easy to do peach or pear or blackberries, but those are already common. In a few years I'll have persimmon and (hopefully) improved paw paw trees producing fruit. These might be better suited to muddling or syrups than infusions, but you can bet I'll be experimenting. I'm also hoping to get some dwarf papaya and mango trees for the patio. No telling where this will lead me.

And now that I've successfully infused a cheap rum with impressive results, I'm inclined to try a Cruzan or Don Q so I can have a side-by-side comparison. I suspect the jackfruit will overwhelm most of the nuance that differentiates these light rums, but I could be wrong. We shall see.

I have been using an alternative to buying smoked spirits, mostly to avoid buying low-use bottles which take up space in my bar.

1. I use a cast iron mini one egg skillet griddle (5"-6" across, bought on eBay, see pic below) loaded up with a small pile of apple wood chips from the BBQ section of Walmart.
2. I light the apple wood chips on fire with a small butane torch and get a nice 1"-2" flame and let it burn for 30 sec or so.
3. I put my glass over the fire to snuff it out and I leave it there.
4. Only then do I make the drink - I wait for the smoke to settle on the walls of the glass.
5. I lift the glass, fill it with the cocktail, and voila, smoky nose and mild smoky flavor in the drink.

This is superb - it works very well. I'll set this up and take pictures and post over on the other "smoked rum" thread over the next few days. It really is time for me to re-visit that drink, as it really is tasty.

Nifty trick, Ace! I've got one of those mini-skillets myself. Never thought of doing a smoke rinse of the glass to get that infused effect. Thanks for sharing!

We had amazing success with Infused Rums during my time at the bar mentioned in my name. The one recipe I can share is a simple one for our most popular infusion: Pineapple-Vanilla Infused rum.
We took Four 750ml bottles of light rum and cut up 5 pineapples into a big jar with the rum. We then took four whole vanilla beans and put a slice lengthwise down each just enough to open them up. Put them in the jar and gently stirred. Covered with plastic wrap. Let sit for two days, stirring once a day. In the morning on day three we’d taste it and typically remove the vanilla beans. Stir and let sit for 2-4 more days, tasting and stirring each day. Depending on how sweet the pineapple was varied how long we let it sit. Once ready, we strained it through a fine mesh strainer with coffee filters back into the bottles!
Enjoy!

Thanks, Dixon; this pineapple-vanilla infusion sounds interesting. Was it used for house recipes, substituted in classic recipes, or ever served neat?

Quick question:

On 2018-02-06 18:17, DixonAlibi wrote:

We took Four 750ml bottles of light rum and cut up 5 pineapples into a big jar with the rum.

Did that include the outer skin / rind as well?

Smoked glasses? Cool! I'm not sure what sort of "Tiki" drink that would go with but it would make a great Bloody Mary

Here's my "Thai Spiced Infused Rum" in progress. Looks like crap but smells wonderful

On 2018-02-06 23:53, Hamo wrote:
Thanks, Dixon; this pineapple-vanilla infusion sounds interesting. Was it used for house recipes, substituted in classic recipes, or ever served neat?

We had one House Recipe we used it in that we called 'Off The Jetway'. It could be served neat, and actually turned even the cheapest light rum into something nicely palatable.

Off The Jetway

• Muddle 5-6 Lime wedges in a pint glass(we had bigger ice chips, so we'd actually put some ice in as well to break it up)
• Add Ice to top of glass
• 1 1/2 oz of the Pineapple-Vanilla Infused Rum
• Fill with equal parts soda water and Guava-Orange Juice
• Pour all into fresh pint glass.

Thanks for the recipe, Dixon! We visited the Alibi last summer on vacation. It truly was like stepping into a time machine back to 1947... except for the Tin Lizzy and Foghat blaring from the speakers. But I guess that's the Alibi, huh?

That Thai infusion looks fantastic, Mike! What's your recipe, if you don't mind sharing?

On 2018-02-07 09:09, HopeChest wrote:
Quick question:

On 2018-02-06 18:17, DixonAlibi wrote:

We took Four 750ml bottles of light rum and cut up 5 pineapples into a big jar with the rum.

Did that include the outer skin / rind as well?

We did not, we cut off the outer rind and skin, and cut out the core as well. We would cut the remaining pieces into about 1.5x1.5x0.5in pieces. As we strained, we'd press the pieces a little to get some of the juice/rum absorbed mix out. Didn't want to press too hard for risk of getting something bitter from it.