Italian Bitter Aperitif and distillates

New to distillation, or simply new to the HD forums.
** Your first post MUST go here. Introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your interest in distilling. Any posts asking distilling questions will be deleted. **

Moderator: Site Moderator

Post Reply
Maksy
Novice
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2021 5:55 am

Italian Bitter Aperitif and distillates

Post by Maksy »

Hi Everyone,
I'm an Italian mixologist/botanist living in China. I've been working making my own Aperol style aperitif, Campari, Vermouth and other creations.
I want to learn new techniques and the art of distillation.
I'm intrigued by this trend of Non-alcoholic spirits and I'm really keen to understand how to make things like NA gins or products like Seedlip (starting from a hydro-alcoholic herbal tincture).
Really happy and excited to meet new like minded people!

Cheers,
Maksy
Eric
Novice
Posts: 75
Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2021 9:03 pm

Re: Italian Bitter Aperitif and distillates

Post by Eric »

Glad your here I hope to read some topics you will bring to the table. Google search will help you find what your looking for. Start with recommended reading cheers
JezmondB
Novice
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jul 04, 2020 8:51 am
Location: Up North, but south

Re: Italian Bitter Aperitif and distillates

Post by JezmondB »

I see this post is about a year old, so not a lot of hope but if you would share any of your recipes for those aperitivos and vermouth, it would be appreciated! I grow wormwood for absinthe but get way too much and want to try out some vermouths.
User avatar
contrahead
Trainee
Posts: 903
Joined: Mon Dec 30, 2013 3:43 pm
Location: Southwest

Re: Italian Bitter Aperitif and distillates

Post by contrahead »

JezmondB wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 7:32 am I see this post is about a year old, so not a lot of hope but if you would share any of your recipes for those aperitivos and vermouth, it would be appreciated! I grow wormwood for absinthe but get way too much and want to try out some vermouths.
You probably already know that “vermouth” is a French pronunciation of the German word “wermut”, which originally meant wormwood (Artemisia absinthium, Artemisia annua or Artemisia vulgaris). For a thousand years people surrounding the Alps have been adding wormwood to wine. And not to just any wine either, but to spice up their low quality wines.

Having pressed their grapes to ferment into their annual wine harvest, some might have then turned to the left over pomace, to ferment that also. This second, thinner wine is what they would probably have experimented and tinkered with. Many spices, herbs and weeds (besides wormwood) were added; sometimes potentially dangerous plants. Occasionally nightshades like mandrake and henbane and who knows what else that was mildly toxic, might have been added to a batch. Some wermuts / vermouths were considered medicinal; beyond the usual interpretations of aperitif and digestif.
vermut_faz3.jpg
This year I was fortunate enough to find a small quanity of quality dark red wine grapes to pick. Probably Merlot grapes. I've made 3 separate and distinct products from those grapes. I have a carboy (24-25 bottles) of pure wine, 3 bottles of quality brandy and 3 gallons of vermouth.

After dealing with the wine, I had more than 3 gallons of damp sterilized pomace left over. Some of this (about 2L / 2 quarts volume) I dehydrated in an oven. The rest I fermented into a surprisingly virile second wine after adding 2 gallons of apple juice and a small bushel of bananas.

The flavored brandy or schnapps that I made is not a typical pomace brandy like Grappa. Mine was simply an infusion of the dehydrated pomace and added whisky that was about 1 year old. This experiment turned out very well; 2 bottles to give as Christmas presents and one to keep.

My vermouth is still maturing in 3 x (1gal) jugs, on the counter-top. Waiting until the last second before it is bottled and handed away as Christmas presents. I've used wormwood, sarsaparilla, coriander, a few hops flowers and a generous amount of week old neutral spirit – to spruce up this vermouth. It will be filtered though a coffee filter as it is bottled.

(* When taste testing these spices in hot water (like a tea) I found just a little wormwood to be overpowering to the tongue. Not so after it sits in a wine for a while though. Similarly, the sarsaparilla acted differently, between the two liquids. This “go-around”, after 2 months of testing I settled upon a noticeable taste, that employed equal amounts of wormwood and sarsaparilla, but less coriander and hops).
Omnia mea mecum porto
Post Reply