July 26, 2011

Dazed & Infused


If there’s anything I’ve learned in my time of being a homebrewer, it’s that our DIY interests rarely end at beer. Many folks also make wine, mead, cider and more culinary or health-based fermentables like kombucha or kimchi. I like to make infused liquors. Obviously, I don’t MAKE the liquor - I buy it at the liquor store (makes sense, right?). But I like to have fun affecting and infusing those liquors with different things.


Recently, I made a habanero-infused vodka. This isn’t an infusion for the weak of heart. It’s as hot and intense as it sounds. I don’t drink it straight up, on the rocks, or in shot form. Though I’m sure it would make one heck of an addition to a spicy Bloody Mary, I have only used it for cooking. A half-shot or so in the pan as I’m sauteing onions, making chili, or food processing a batch of hummus.


The process is simple enough: steep the spice, fruit, etc. in the liquor. The time you leave it steeping depends on what the ingredient is. Soft and mild flavors, say like those of bananas or peaches, may need to sit in the liquor for days, even weeks. But for a habanero, with its intense oils and heat, I only do it for a few days. Again, since my main goal is using this for cooking, I’m not concerned about “too hot.” Though if you were going to actually use this for drink-mixing or shots (Holy crap!), you’d want to watch the time and number of peppers.





I went a little crazy with the recent batch - three peppers to about 1.5 cups of vodka. I cut the stemmed tops off the peppers, leaving the seeds and ribs intact. Then, I sliced the peppers one time down the center just to increase the surface area and flow of liquor through the pepper. Tossed all three peppers in, put the lid on and shook it up. That’s it. Every day for three days, I gave it a good shake. After three days, the bright orange color had faded slightly from two of the peppers and the vodka took on the lightest tinge of orange. I strained the concoction one time to get the seeds out and transferred it back into the jar. I just barely touched my tongue to the liquid and set my mouth on fire! It’s ready. Stir fry, here we come.



Another infusion I’ve made was a lavender vodka. For that I used about two tablespoons of dried lavender petals in the small jar of vodka. Again, it soaked up that strong floral, perfumey aroma and the vodka turned violet. Very pretty. Very nice with a splash of Sprite and some ice.

I should say that usually infusion involve larger quantities of the base alcohol. I was just doing small batches for the heck of it.

Got a favorite spice? Got a favorite liquor? Let them hang out for a few days and see what happens! I think the next one on my list is a vanilla bean-infused rum. Mmmmmmm.

Update - I did end up doing a very small shot of the habanero tincture and it was a stupid decision. Immediate burn from tongue to toes. Near-life-threatening hiccups. And a seared throat. Stick to cooking or mixing drinks with this bad boy.

PS - I did something sorta/kinda/not really related to this for a homebrew in a past episode of Brewing TV. In it, I made a "tea" steeped with clementines to add to primary fermentation of a Cali Common. It turned out absolutely amazing! Going to try one this summer with mandarin oranges... and then the good ol' Clemifornia Commontine again this winter when they are in season - check out that episode here.

18 comments:

  1. This sounds awesome! What are some other flavors have you done? I am very interested in using these for cooking as well.

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  2. I've done ginger and juneberries, both were very nice. Someday I'll post my recipe for homemade Kahlua. It is so easy, so cheap, and so much better than the stuff you can buy in the store, that you'll never purchase it again.

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  3. Try habanero mezcal. That's on a whole different level!

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  4. Sounds pretty sweet to a pepper freak like me! I grew habaneros in my dorm room one year - they were so stinkin' hot! This is another cool way to use them - previously I have only made hot sauce with them and dried them up and crushed them to use as seasoning in cooking because they are so hot. +1 Chip!

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  5. I have two vanilla beans soaking in two oz of rum to add to my "vanilla cream ale" at the end of fermentation. Smells strong now but I think it will add a nice vanilla flavor to the finished product.

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  6. What brand of vodka do you prefer to use?

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  7. What brand of vodka do you prefer?

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  8. @ jcleary75 - I went with the cheapest brand. I think if I were doing a more subtle flavor (vanilla, basil, etc.) I would probably shop a little higher-tier, but in this case I figured the peppers were going to destroy everything in their way regardless, so I went cheap-o. Sort of like with homebrew - some folks say if you are using vodka solely for the purpose of extraction to go cheap b/c it's all about the infused flavor not so much the base liquor. BUT having said that... if your goal is to infused a liquor into another media like oak chips or spirals, you'll want to use your favorite brand of rum, whisky, bourbon, etc.

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  9. BTW - Don't end up like this dude:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tRq8ExAHzk

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  10. Try soaking some citrus zest (Buhdda's Hands work great) in vodka for a few weeks then mixing with a 40% ratio of simple syrup for a great xxxxcello. I made one with Valencia Orange and Buhdda's Hand and called it ValenciaBudhhaCello. Great in Margaritas or chilled in the freezer

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  11. @ Paul Gagnon - where's the "like" button on this thing? I HAVE TO TRY THAT!

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  12. I use lightly cracked pepper corns in my Vadka for Bloody Mary's. I always have a bottle that has pepper corns in it so I am always ready. I run the Vodka through a cheese cloth before putting in to the finished pepper vodka bottle.

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  13. has anyone tried this for adding flavors to homebrew? like making orange flavored vodka to add to beer instead of brewing with a spice or extract. i am curious what affect the vodka has on the beer and when to add it? just before bottling?

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  14. @ Everyone - I did something sorta/kinda/not really related to this for a homebrew in a past episode of Brewing TV. In it, I made a "tea" steeped with clementines to add to primary fermentation of a Cali Common. It turned out absolutely amazing! Going to try one this summer with mandarin oranges... and then the good ol' Clemifornia Commontine again this winter when they are in season - check out that episode here:
    http://www.brewingtv.com/episodes/2011/1/19/brewing-tv-episode-29-clemifornia-dreaming.html

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  15. I did some rum a few years ago with whole cloves, cinnamon sticks and chunks of whole nutmeg. I left it in for too long, but the flavor was still better than Captain Morgans!

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  16. 500ml Vodka
    1/4oz "C" Hop Pellets
    1Tbsp Sugar

    stir, strain after 15 minutes
    then rewet with 350ml water, 15 minutes

    makes almost 750ml

    great Summer cooler with 50/50 7-Up and Tonic
    Tastes like a hopped-up Fresca

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  17. Funny you mentioned it Chip, I have a Clem Common I just bottled. Froze the Clemontines at the peak of freshness. The taste I had at bottling was amazing. Keep up the good work.

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  18. Yeah, vodka extractions in beer brewing work very, very well. It is easy to control the intensity of the flavor, as you can add to taste at bottling instead of guessing at the amount to use in the boil or in secondary. Alcohol is an amazing solvent, I've made some tea infusions in vodka with fine teas, and the range of flavors it extracts is pretty incredible.

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