Flavors Other Than Oak Flashcards
Some spirits are flavored and matured with products other than oak, This deck covers the study of those techniques and ingredients.
What is the most common flavor added to spirits?
Oak-derived flavors.
What types of flavors can be used to flavor spirits?
Just about anything fit for human consumption.
What is the legal definition of botanicals?
There isn’t one but generally, it refers to any plant material used to flavor spirits.
Includes fruits, leaves, barks, seeds, and roots
What type of animal flavorings are used to flavor spirits?
Mainly just cream and eggs.
What would be considered other types of flavorings, besides botanicals and animal-based?
Prepared flavorings bought from a manufacturer or supplier.
What are the three main ways a specialty supplier might make a flavoring?
- Work with a flavoring directly to extract flavor through distillation in a vacuum still.
- Isolate a chemical or chemicals that contribute a specific flavor.
- Create the flavors completely in a lab, absent of natural sources.
What type of spirits is most often used for flavoring?
A neutral spirit
What key decision has to be made about a spirit prior to flavoring?
How much dilution the spirit will need.
Not all botanicals will dissolve at the same rate in ethanol and water, so careful testing needs to be done ahead of time.
If you are flavoring a characterful spirit, what consideration needs to be made before flavoring?
The flavor needs to be built around the underlying flavor of the spirit.
What flavoring technique is similar to making tea?
Maceration
What can be extracted during maceration?
Color, flavor, tastes (mostly bitterness), and texture (mostly astringency).
What two considerations are key when macerating a botanical?
The duration of the maceration and the temperature of the spirit.
How can one intensify the color, flavor, taste, and texture of a botanical macerated spirit?
By increasing the time of maceration and/or the temperature of the liquid.
What is percolation?
A variation of maceration where the spirit is dripped through the botanicals, sometimes under pressure, in order to extract color and flavor.
What are the only two ways to extract color and bitterness from botanicals?
Maceration and percolation.
Why is re-distillation not used for a characterful spirit when flavoring?
Because the distillation process will leave all of the hard-earned flavors behind in the still.
What kind of spirits are used for flavoring through re-distillation?
Diluted neutral spirits.
What is one-shot re-distillation?
A technique where all of the botanicals are re-distilled with the neutral spirit, which is then diluted and bottled.
What is multi-shot re-distillation?
- Often used by larger producers, this method re-distills the botanicals with a neutral spirit, but at a much higher flavor concentration than normal.
- It is then diluted with a neutral spirit, and again (diluted) to bottling strength.
What is a vapor infusion box used for?
For gin production - it is a sealed unit that sits in the lyne arm, in which botanicals are added, thus allowing the vapors to pass through during distillation.
What is vapor infusion?
A process where the botanicals are placed in the path of the vapors and are then infused as the vapor runs through them, rather than steeping them in the neutral spirit before re-distillation.
What happens to the distillate if the botanicals are placed in the spirit to infuse?
The distillate will be richer in style.
What is the gentler method of infusing botanical flavor into a spirit?
By not macerating the botanicals in the spirit, but rather infusing them via the vapors.
True / False:
A distiller might use a combination of vapor infusion and maceration to get the desired results from flavoring.
True
When using a pot still to produce a flavored spirit, where are the most volatile and ethanol soluble aromas going to be concentrated?
These are concentrated at the start of the batch run.
When flavoring, where are the least volatile and most water-soluble aromas going to be concentrated?
Toward the end of the batch run.
What can a distiller use to control the aromas in the final spirit?
Can use cuts to control.
What can be used to control the flow rate of distillate from the condenser?
Temperature management:
- Still height,
- Temperature of the boil
- Dephlegmators
What does a slow flow rate from the condenser allow the distiller to do?
To precisely separate out flavors.
Why is it very important to clean a still if you are making more than one type of product on the same still?
To remove any residue from the still so that it does not taint another product.
What happens to the boiling point when done under pressure?
The boiling point of a liquid decreases under pressure, thus can use lower temperatures to keep delicate flavors.
What happens to the boiling point when done in a vacuum?
The boiling point of a liquid decreases in a vacuum.
What are the advantages of re-distilling in a vacuum?
Some aroma and flavor compounds are quite delicate and can be harmed under heat.
What type of botanicals are particularly susceptible to heat?
Cucumbers and many flowers.
What is cold-compounding?
Simply using a measured amount of a purchased flavor to add to the spirit.
What is a critical decision to make when using the cold-compounding method for flavoring?
Knowing the quality of the flavoring being used.
What is the challenge when using cream to flavor a spirit?
Preventing the fats from forming into lumps.
What technique is used to keep the fat in cream from forming lumps in a spirit?
Through a process called homogenization, where the cream is put under pressure, emulsified, and forced through tiny holes in order to break up the fat. Then, an emulsifier is added to maintain the stability.
What is sodium caseinate?
An emulsifier added to homogenized cream to keep it from forming fat globules.
What is casein?
It is a protein that can hold fat globules apart.
What is done in order to stabilize egg yolks in a spirit?
Nothing other than to take care not to curdle or split the eggs when mixing.
What are the two general methods of distilling botanicals?
Either all together, as is often the case with gin, or individually and then blending.
A distiller may also use these techniques in combination to afford them the most options and attain the best product, effectively.
