Adventures in Bitters

Sep 26

It’s been on our minds for a long time now to try making our own bitters. So in honor of September being Bourbon Heritage Month, we finally got started. And in keeping with our commitment to all things local, we tried to use as many locally grown or foraged ingredients as possible.

We gathered marigold, bay, anise hyssop, and cardoon from our Holly Hill Inn gardens. Staff farmer David Wagoner supplied spicebush berry; we filched a few just-ripened juniper berries from an Eastern red cedar at Happy Jacks; and the sumac was plucked from a neighborhood tree by a co-worker’s five-year-old daughter.

Since fall is here and cooler days are coming, we focused on darker, deeper, warmer flavors and chose our bittering agents and aromatics accordingly. When making bitters – like many things in life – it helps to start with the end in mind. You might want a bitters that emphasizes chocolate, or coffee, or fall spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and clove.

We were after woody, herbal tones and wanted to make use of the prickly cardoon plants in the garden at the edge of our parking lot, and flex our newfound foraging skills.

Bitters starts with making individual tinctures of your chosen components. Place each ingredient in a 4 oz. mason jar and top it with a 100 proof spirit like vodka or grain alcohol. A good liquid to solids ratio is 2:1 if using fresh herbs, 4:1 for dried herbs and other whole spices or nuts. They don’t have to be ground but it’s good to give them a few whacks to crack them up a bit.

For the citrus peels, we used a couple large pieces about 1x2”; the walnut pieces were lightly toasted. And because bitters are supposed to be, well, bitter, it’s good to source your bittering agents first. Here’s a list of what we gathered.

Bittering agents:
- Dried cardoons, broken into small pieces
- Dried dandelion root

Aromatic botanicals and spices:
- Bay leaf
- Spicebush berry, lightly crushed
- Juniper berry, lightly crushed
- Walnut pieces
- Lemon peel
- Orange peel
- Marigold
-Anise hyssop

See bottom of the recipe for other suggestions.

Bitters basics:

Use 100 proof alcohol for extraction: either a clear grain spirit or vodka unless you intend to make a spirits-based bitters with bourbon, rum, etc. The important thing is that it’s at least 100 proof.

Bitters can be lightly sweetened with sorghum, honey, maple syrup etc.; it’s optional depending on the final flavor you’re after.

All bitters should be diluted with purified water to achieve an ABV between 37% and 45%. If you’ve added a liquid sweetener, reduce the amount of water accordingly.

Getting started:

Assemble your assorted components and place them in 4 oz. Mason jars. Fill each jar with 100 proof vodka or grain alcohol. Cover jars and store in a cool, dark spot for at least one week. After one week, taste a sample of each to see if the flavor has permeated the alcohol. When you’re satisfied that it has, strain the tinctures into clean jars, and date and label the contents.

Blending (the fun part!):

This is easiest using an eye dropper or pipette. Have ready a small bowl of warm water for rinsing, a small bowl of whatever type of spirit you extracted with, an empty 4 oz. jar or small measuring cup, small bottles for the finished product, and a sampling glass. You’ll also need purified water for dilution.

As you get started, taste each extract on its own or in a splash of water and imagine how you’d like the final product to taste.

Ready to get down to business?

You’ll want the proportions to be something like this:

25-50% bitter notes
25% bright notes
25% medium notes

Adjust as you go along; you may have to add an extra drop or two of a particular component to balance things out.

To blend:

Rinse out your pipette or eye dropper by filling with warm water and emptying it a couple of times.

Then sterilize it by filling with your chosen spirit and emptying.

Finally, start building your bitters one extracted ingredient at a time, following the suggested proportions above.

Be sure to repeat the rinsing and sterilizing steps each time you move to a new ingredient.

When you’re satisfied with the flavor (remembering that it’s going to be slightly diluted), transfer the mixture to a clean measuring cup, and for every 4 oz. of base, add 1 oz. purified water to achieve an approximate ABV of 40%. If you’re adding a liquid sweetener, count that as part of the proportion of water.

Now that your bitters meet with your approval, cap the bottles tightly and give them a few days to settle in and get comfortable before you start creating new cocktails with them. Cheers!

Other suggestions for bitter and aromatic components:

Bitter:
Sumac, mugwort, conifer resin or needles, horehound, sassafras, chicory root, gentian root

Aromatic:
Black walnut leaf, fennel, ginger, goldenrod, coffee beans, cacao beans, chamomile, cinnamon, cardamom, yarrow, vanilla, hops, wild bergamot (bee balm) and other fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary, lavender, sage, spearmint, lovage,etc.

Check back in a few weeks and we’ll update everyone on how our bitters are going!