Cucumber flavouring- Needing help

[RiseNShine]

I have searched the forums for tips and have come up short. I am wanting to make a cucumber codka that stays 'fresh' longer than 2 weeks. has any one had any luck? I have tried infusion and it goes stale fairly quickly and maceration the flavour is very faint. If you have any tips or suggestions, I am all ears.
Thanks in advance.

[moosemilk]

Think i'll follow this with interest. Sounds like something that would make a fantastic mixer, especially with a caesar!

What did you macerate in? Neutral? What proof? I'd imagine cucumber would be a harder one to hold, seems like it would be very subtle. Summer is coming, and this sounds very refreshing!

[sweeps]

How about doing it as a geist? Macerate the cucumbers in some neutral then redistill. Maybe add a small amount of angelica or orris root as a fixative.

I don't know what quantities you'd need, but there are a few threads on geist making that might be helpful.

[der wo]

How about doing it as a geist? Macerate the cucumbers in some neutral then redistill.

Never did this. But I am sure you need muuuch cucumber or you will taste nothing of it. If I would want to try, I would mix 1l 95% with 4kg of cucumber puree and distill it. I have no idea, if I would distill a vodka or something with more taste from it.

Edit: No, I would peel 4kg cucumbers, puree them with 1l 95% and place the peels in the vapor.

[thecroweater]

This household loves cucumber and citrus lemonade, would be great to hear of a vodka flavoured like this, No idea of the best way to go about it though

[Bushman]

We have a distillery in Washington that I am not sure makes their own alcohol but are unbelievable in flavoring alcohol. They make a pretty good Cucumber Vodka. You might ask how they flavor their alcohol. The distillery is named Blue Spirits.
http://www.bluespiritsdistilling.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Bushman]

This got me thinking, I have a book of liqueur recipes that I have used and find all of the ones I have tried so far to be very good. I haven't tried the cucumber recipe but here is one for a cucumber gin:

Cucumber Gin
2 medium cucumbers coursely shredded
1/2 tsp. Coarse sea salt
1 fifth gin (here you can add your neutral)
1/4 cup dry vermouth

Procedure:
1. Mix the cucumber and salt in a small bowl and squeeze with your hands for a few minutes. Once the cucumber has released a good amount of liquid, combine the mixture with the gin/vodka and vermouth in a half gallon jar.

2. Seal the jar and shake briefly. Put in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of cucumber, 2-3 days.

3. Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer lined with several layers of dampened cheesecloth into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.

4. Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.

[jedneck]

I did a cabinet clean up run a year ago. If I'm remember right I charged the boiler with
2 gallons rum wash
1 1/2 gallon of fruit wines
3/4 gallon of cucumber wine
Ran it through the pot still and put it on oak for a year+. Still has good cucumber flavour.

I believe that I would make up your ferment and add cucumbers to it. If I remember rite my old man used 1quart of crushed fruit/veggy to a gallon of water. If you have a thumper you could do a strip and spirit making good head cut and then rerun the hearts and tails with the thumper charged with cucumbers.

[Coyote]

We discovered Effen Vodka from Holland last spring. At nearly $30 bucks a fifth.
Wifey loved it but wondered if we could make our own.

Wheated vodka
1 med cuke (large ones are too bitter)
skinned and shaved( I used spud peeler )

We learned the hard way don't shave too deep. No seeds, just the shaved meat, for lack of better word.

Abut two inches in a 1/2 gallon jar soaked for 2 months drained, filtered, let it set for 4 months in the dark

WIfey declared - It pretty darn good !!!

Coyote

[moosemilk]

I did a cabinet clean up run a year ago. If I'm remember right I charged the boiler with
2 gallons rum wash
1 1/2 gallon of fruit wines
3/4 gallon of cucumber wine
Ran it through the pot still and put it on oak for a year+. Still has good cucumber flavour.

I believe that I would make up your ferment and add cucumbers to it. If I remember rite my old man used 1quart of crushed fruit/veggy to a gallon of water. If you have a thumper you could do a strip and spirit making good head cut and then rerun the hearts and tails with the thumper charged with cucumbers.

Hey jedneck, I do the occasional wine. Mostly simple stuff. Wife likes it (so far mint and dandelion are her favorite). How do you do a cucumber wine? How is it? Sounds like something she may enjoy on a hot summer day, maybe even as a spritzer.

[jedneck]

I did a cabinet clean up run a year ago. If I'm remember right I charged the boiler with
2 gallons rum wash
1 1/2 gallon of fruit wines
3/4 gallon of cucumber wine
Ran it through the pot still and put it on oak for a year+. Still has good cucumber flavour.

I believe that I would make up your ferment and add cucumbers to it. If I remember rite my old man used 1quart of crushed fruit/veggy to a gallon of water. If you have a thumper you could do a strip and spirit making good head cut and then rerun the hearts and tails with the thumper charged with cucumbers.

Hey jedneck, I do the occasional wine. Mostly simple stuff. Wife likes it (so far mint and dandelion are her favorite). How do you do a cucumber wine? How is it? Sounds like something she may enjoy on a hot summer day, maybe even as a spritzer.

My old man was the winemaker. I believe his recipe per total gallon was
1-2 quarts fruit/veg
1.5-2# sugar
Water to a gallon
I will try and find out for sure though. I do know that his cucumber was great on a hot summer evening. Tasted just like a watermelon lemonade.

[RiseNShine]

Thanks for the response.
what i had tried was just the 'meat' of the cucumber (no seeds, no peel) and got great flavour when infused with vodka, but the shelf life was about two weeks (refridgerated) before it tasted stale.
tried a half assed run of 40% stripped spirit with some 'meat' of the cucumber macerated for two days before a fairly quick spirits run. I had no real intention of keeping the product as it was just going to be added to a future neutral run.. I just wanted to see if i could get that flavour over...and it was barely noticeable..if at all.

Bushman - I will try that method, one year is more than enough for shelf life. thanks for the recipe. I will post with an update (might be a couple months, i have some other runs planned) Ill also shoot blue spirits a message and ask for any tips or tricks

Jedneck- love the cucumber wine idea, thinking about pushing that up a bit and doing a cucumber ginger wine..if that would work(?) when i get around to it I will post results

Coyote- if you ever see square one cucumber vodka on the shelf pick that up.

I will continue to post in this thread as I experiment with cucumber flavouring. it might be a few months but the thread is here!
thanks for the input
shine on.
RiseNShine

[freaky_cutout]

Maybe read up on what people have done with watermelon, I suspect it would be similar.