Flavors Other Than Oak

Question 1

What is the most common flavor added to spirits?

Answer 1

Oak-derived flavors.

Question 2

What types of flavors can be used to flavor spirits?

Answer 2

Just about anything fit for human consumption.

Question 3

What is the legal definition of botanicals?

Answer 3

There isn’t one but generally, it refers to any plant material used to flavor spirits.

Includes fruits, leaves, barks, seeds, and roots

Question 4

What type of animal flavorings are used to flavor spirits?

Answer 4

Mainly just cream and eggs.

Question 5

What would be considered other types of flavorings, besides botanicals and animal-based?

Answer 5

Prepared flavorings bought from a manufacturer or supplier.

Question 6

What are the three main ways a specialty supplier might make a flavoring?

Answer 6

1. Work with a flavoring directly to extract flavor through distillation in a vacuum still.
2. Isolate a chemical or chemicals that contribute a specific flavor.
3. Create the flavors completely in a lab, absent of natural sources.

Question 7

What type of spirits is most often used for flavoring?

Answer 7

A neutral spirit

Question 8

What key decision has to be made about a spirit prior to flavoring?

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

If you are flavoring a characterful spirit, what consideration needs to be made before flavoring?

Answer 9

The flavor needs to be built around the underlying flavor of the spirit.

Question 10

What flavoring technique is similar to making tea?

Answer 10

Maceration

Question 11

What can be extracted during maceration?

Answer 11

Color, flavor, tastes (mostly bitterness), and texture (mostly astringency).

Question 12

What two considerations are key when macerating a botanical?

Answer 12

The duration of the maceration and the temperature of the spirit.

Question 13

How can one intensify the color, flavor, taste, and texture of a botanical macerated spirit?

Answer 13

By increasing the time of maceration and/or the temperature of the liquid.

Question 14

What is percolation?

Answer 14

A variation of maceration where the spirit is dripped through the botanicals, sometimes under pressure, in order to extract color and flavor.

Question 15

What are the only two ways to extract color and bitterness from botanicals?

Answer 15

Maceration and percolation.

Question 16

Why is re-distillation not used for a characterful spirit when flavoring?

Answer 16

Because the distillation process will leave all of the hard-earned flavors behind in the still.

Question 17

What kind of spirits are used for flavoring through re-distillation?

Answer 17

Diluted neutral spirits.

Question 18

What is one-shot re-distillation?

Answer 18

A technique where all of the botanicals are re-distilled with the neutral spirit, which is then diluted and bottled.

Question 19

What is multi-shot re-distillation?

Answer 19

• 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.

Question 20

What is a vapor infusion box used for?

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

What is vapor infusion?

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

What happens to the distillate if the botanicals are placed in the spirit to infuse?

Answer 22

The distillate will be richer in style.

Question 23

What is the gentler method of infusing botanical flavor into a spirit?

Answer 23

By not macerating the botanicals in the spirit, but rather infusing them via the vapors.

Question 24

True / False:

A distiller might use a combination of vapor infusion and maceration to get the desired results from flavoring.

Answer 24

True

Question 25

When using a pot still to produce a flavored spirit, where are the most volatile and ethanol soluble aromas going to be concentrated?

Answer 25

These are concentrated at the start of the batch run.

Question 26

When flavoring, where are the least volatile and most water-soluble aromas going to be concentrated?

Answer 26

Toward the end of the batch run.

Question 27

What can a distiller use to control the aromas in the final spirit?

Answer 27

Can use cuts to control.

Question 28

What can be used to control the flow rate of distillate from the condenser?

Answer 28

Temperature management:

• Still height,
• Temperature of the boil
• Dephlegmators

Question 29

What does a slow flow rate from the condenser allow the distiller to do?

Answer 29

To precisely separate out flavors.

Question 30

Why is it very important to clean a still if you are making more than one type of product on the same still?

Answer 30

To remove any residue from the still so that it does not taint another product.

Question 31

What happens to the boiling point when done under pressure?

Answer 31

The boiling point of a liquid decreases under pressure, thus can use lower temperatures to keep delicate flavors.

Question 32

What happens to the boiling point when done in a vacuum?

Answer 32

The boiling point of a liquid decreases in a vacuum.

Question 33

What are the advantages of re-distilling in a vacuum?

Answer 33

Some aroma and flavor compounds are quite delicate and can be harmed under heat.

Question 34

What type of botanicals are particularly susceptible to heat?

Answer 34

Cucumbers and many flowers.

Question 35

What is cold-compounding?

Answer 35

Simply using a measured amount of a purchased flavor to add to the spirit.

Question 36

What is a critical decision to make when using the cold-compounding method for flavoring?

Answer 36

Knowing the quality of the flavoring being used.

Question 37

What is the challenge when using cream to flavor a spirit?

Answer 37

Preventing the fats from forming into lumps.

Question 38

What technique is used to keep the fat in cream from forming lumps in a spirit?

Answer 38

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.

Question 39

What is sodium caseinate?

Answer 39

An emulsifier added to homogenized cream to keep it from forming fat globules.

Question 40

What is casein?

Answer 40

It is a protein that can hold fat globules apart.

Question 41

What is done in order to stabilize egg yolks in a spirit?

Answer 41

Nothing other than to take care not to curdle or split the eggs when mixing.

Question 42

What are the two general methods of distilling botanicals?

Answer 42

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.