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ArjinFerman  Tinfoil Gigachad  4d ago (text post)   553 thread views

Tinker Tuesday for November 19, 2024

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Yes, although these days I am mostly infusing. I tried my hand at brewing with the beer kits and while the beer was decent, the process of doing it wasn't for me. Too much chemistry and precision. I tend to cook (and craft) like an engineer, so I want things that I can tweak on the fly with ratios I can eyeball.

When it comes to infusing though, I have quite a few recipes I've been perfecting. I used to do Umeshu, but my supplier stopped selling ume and I can't find any others for a reasonable price that will ship to the midwest. Here is what I've infused in order from best to worst:
Umeshu
Roasted pineapple-cinamon tequila
Cranberry vodka
Blueberry vodka
Brown sugar oatmeal vodka
Maple bacon bourbon
Limoncello
Rhubarb vodka
Pompelmocello (limoncello but grapefruit)
Roasted walnut/roasted pecan vodka/bourbon
Jalapeno tequila: homegrown jalapenos were too spicy
Peach vodka
Pineapple vodka (if you know how much I dislike peaches, these being ranked lower says a lot)
Granny smith vodka
Roasted/unroasted murasaki imo (purple sweet potato) vodka/bourbon: absolutely vile, despite trying some different ratios

Got started late on the cranberry this year, so I'm currently waiting on a batch to see if 2 weeks is enough instead of my usual 4.

Edited to fix the formatting.

Thanks, pretty cool. How did you pull these off?

  • Brown sugar oatmeal vodka
  • Maple bacon bourbon

Also, I reformatted your list for easier reading:

Umeshu
Roasted pineapple-cinamon tequila
Cranberry vodka
Blueberry vodka
Brown sugar oatmeal vodka
Maple bacon bourbon
Limoncello
Rhubarb vodka
Pompelmocello (limoncello but grapefruit)
Roasted walnut/roasted pecan vodka/bourbon Jalapeno tequila: homegrown jalapenos were too spicy
Peach vodka
Pineapple vodka (if you know how much I dislike peaches, these being ranked lower says a lot)
Granny smith vodka
Roasted/unroasted murasaki imo (purple sweet potato) vodka/bourbon: absolutely vile, despite trying some different ratios

Thanks for the formatting fix! The nice thing about infusing is that once you've got some larger jars and good strainers, you can infuse just about anything.

Brown Sugar Oatmeal Vodka
In a 1 Gallon glass jar, add:
6c dry oats (rolled/steel cut doesn't matter), 2c brown sugar, 11c vodka(I use Costco. Any flavorless vodka will do), 2 tps cinnamon.
Let it infuse for a 7-10 days. Invert and shake every day or so to mix it.
Filter. I start with a colander to remove the oats, and pour it into a tall bottle to rest.
After a day or so, the sediment falls to the bottom.
Then carefully pour it through ultra-fine nylon mesh strainers and a funnel into bottles. Go too fast or shake the bottle and the sediment will wake up and clog your mesh. You can push your luck by pouring the dregs through the strainer, but that will net you maybe an extra shot of cloudy liqueur.
You can repeat the process for a clearer liqueur, but I typically do only one or two passes because I like a bit of cloudiness.
Enjoy it straight or over ice.

Maple Bacon Bourbon
In a 1 Gallon glass jar, add:
1 handle of your preferred bourbon
Make 1lb of bacon. Enjoy the bacon. Retain the grease. (We bake it in the oven on foil lined sheets at 400F, but I think pan fried could work too. Maybe 1/2C of grease?)
Add the slightly cooled but still liquid grease to the bourbon. Don't put the bacon in, it is a mess and the grease does a better job imparting flavor.
Add 1/4C of maple syrup to taste.
Stir.
Let it sit for a couple days, mixing occasionally. Then put it in the freezer overnight.
Once frozen, the grease should form a sheet at the top that you remove and throw away.
Filter the liquid through ultra-fine mesh strainers and funnel into bottles. This catches any remaining bacon bits or frozen fat shards.
Enjoy it straight, over ice, or as part of your preferred bourbon delivery method.

I will note that straining can take a bit of time, so I often have two sets of strainers and funnels filtering into two bottles so I can keep topping them off as they drain. If they slow down too much, dump it back into the infusing jar, rinse off the strainer, and keep going. This is especially true of sediment heavy infusions like the oatmeal.

Thanks for the details! I'll try these out.

ultra-fine nylon mesh strainers

Great tip, this is what I was missing. Internet recipes always instruct you to "strain through a cheesecloth" which is horribly tedious and messy.

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