Licorice Liquorice

Information about fruit/vegetable type washes.

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Nabatean
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Licorice Liquorice

Post by Nabatean »

Hi

I was eating some liquorice gummy mouse with a glass of wodka and the taste blended in harmoniously.

Does anybody know if taste can be transferred from the liquorice wood into alcohol ? Maceration ? Fermenting ?

Thanks for any tip
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by sweeps »

Licorice root infuses quite readily into vodka. Try a tablespoon of the chopped dried root added to a liter of vodka. Taste it every day or two until you are happy with the flavor. Don't infuse for too long, or it can get nasty tasting.
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rubelstrudel
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by rubelstrudel »

Or make a tincture and blend later. I've done that with good results a couple of times now. The roots I use grow in my garden and is called Polypodium Vulgare in latin. The next round I think I will try to use both the roots and some aniseed, they go well together.
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Nabatean »

Thank you guys.

Tincture sounds a good way to go.
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Irishgnome
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Irishgnome »

This is the best stuff that I’ve found. This stuff works instantly, toss two tablespoons into a Mason jar, shake and strain. Continue to do this until you reach what you want. If you want something really strong, let this sit for a day. I’ve noticed that after a day, it’s basically exhausted and a waste of time to keep it in the jar.
IMG_0894.jpg
Not a black or red licorice flavor, just a nice licorice sweetness. Add this to some fruit based or fruit macerated spirit and this will take your spirit to the next dimension.
I feel like this is best when added to grape brandy. :thumbup:

Cheers,
Irish
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Flatlands_Hillbilly
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Flatlands_Hillbilly »

Instead of infusing into a neutral, Infuse the following into either some home distilled scotch or your favorite brand of Scotch Whiskey. I like Dewars blended myself for this. It's the recipe for Drambuii.
750ml bottle of scotch
4oz of honey
1 tbls of fresh rosemary
1 tsp of fresh finely chopped or ground of one of the liquorice root, anise or fennel seed.

Combine the above recipes in a sealable container and shake several times of a 3 day period. Strain out the solids and bottle. Viola! Drambuie! Or a nearly identical version. I only call it nearly identical because I cannot verify it's the same. Now, there are a few recipes out there and no one knows the exact recipe as it is held quite tightly under lock and key by the MacKinnon Family of Edinburgh. It was said it was known and kept by 1 family female, Georgina MacKinnon. the recipe and brandname Drambuie were sold to William Grant and Sons in 2014 and is being produced by the Morrison Bowmore Distilleries in Glascow, Scotland. They are as tight lip as Mrs. MacKinnon was. Fennel seeds and anise have also been used. As the original recipe is secret, have fun with it and experiment with it until you get what you like. Then write it down and keep experimenting. lol Or just go buy a bottle of Drambuie, but apart from a reference point, where would the fun in that be? Enjoy!
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Flatlands_Hillbilly
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Flatlands_Hillbilly »

Writing this, I wonder if one added the ingredients to a scotch mash and fermented and distilled it all together from the get-go, what kind of product it'd produce? I think that'll be my next experiment.
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by just sayin »

Thanks Flatland, I started experimenting with a Drambuie clone 35 years ago. Scotch, honey and nutmeg where the main flavor notes I got. Several years ago saffron was mentioned, I believe it was By Z-Bob (. Zymurgy Bob). Someone referenced a Youtube by Drambuie that confirmed nutmeg and saffron. Saffron got the flavor profile much closer, but crazy expensive!
Rosemary and anise will be in the mix next time around, again, thank you! By the way, tincture and eye dropper and a shot glass will be the way I experiment, at first.
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Irishgnome
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Irishgnome »

Just Sayin, I'm not sure if you're in the States, but I found saffron at the local TJ Max when I was out with my wife. It's the last place that I would think to look for something like that, but it was half the price compared to my local grocery store.

Thanks for the recipe Flatlands!
I've got a jar in the basement ready for this, just need to pick up some fennel seed.

Cheers
Irish
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heynonny
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by heynonny »

Look into "Pastis"

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pastis&t=ffsb&ia=definition

Anise = liquorice (flavor
  
 
 
       Oh,look!! Its a hole in the space-time contuum!!
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Irishgnome »

Pastis has a great taste to it, I also enjoy a good Turkish style Raki and Mastika.
To me, Anise = Black Licorice flavor.
Licorice root, or the Ramzy that I use adds a sweet aftertaste that coats your mouth and throat.
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by just sayin »

Irish, I bought saffron at Costco. I will look for it at TJMax, thanks for the lead. I recently tried ouzo for the first time in forty five years and found I enjoyed it, so I bought an Ouzo 12, I also picked up a sambuca. I really like the ouzo but found sambuca way too sweet, licorice flavored syrup...does anyone know if pastis has less sugar?
I am going to have to find a space to plant some licorice, you have peaked my interest!
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kiwi Bruce
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by kiwi Bruce »

just sayin wrote:By the way, tincture and eye dropper and a shot glass will be the way I experiment, at first.
J.S. what formula do you use to "up-scale" your said "eye dropper and a shot glass" experiment... to say a fifth size bottle, when you've found something you like?...Kiwi
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by just sayin »

Kiwi, I am usually trying to figure out "what" works in the mix at the shot and eye dropper level. Scaling up would just be volume ratios. I actually start with my typical whisky pour, about 2 tablespoons in a Glencairn glass, a 750ml bottle holds 50 tablespoons. The bottle to shot ratio is 25 to 1. A 5ml pipette with a bulb is very handy for experimenting at that scale.
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Irishgnome »

JS, the only way I can drink sambuca is watered down and with espresso beans soaked in it.
Ouzo 12 is good too. The Pastis has some different notes to it, not sure I can identify everything. I got a bottle when I was in Europe because I liked it, reminded me of my grandmothers anise sugar cookies. I haven’t looked for it locally yet.
If you want to make a good Ouzo / Turkish style raki you can use neutrals or feints.
Soak 12 oz anise seed per gallon of proofed down spirits (80p 40%) for one week. Strain and and save the seeds. Place them in a stainless steel spider or copper mesh and suspend in the vapor path. Do a good fours cut with some of the heads. After that run down to 60p / 30% and mix the heads, hearts and tails together.
This is one of my favorite drinks. The majority of flavor is in the tails.
In Turkey they mix 50% raki to 50% water. The drink turns and opal white.
If you try it, I hopefully you’ll like it.

Cheers,
Irish.
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NZChris
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by NZChris »

Irishgnome wrote:If you want to make a good Ouzo / Turkish style raki you can use neutrals or feints.
Because a lot of the desirable ouzo flavor comes over late, using feints risks putting tails flavors into the Ouzo, something I would not recommend. My preference for a cheeky cheap base spirit is heart cut grape sugar wash made with the trub, pressings & backset from a brandy, double distilled with all of the brandy feints added back to the strips.

My Ouzo is clear at 45%, louches as soon as water or ice touches it, has a hint of the grape spirit, but no tails flavors.
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Irishgnome »

Thanks for your input NZ.
Come to think of it, I’ve only made this with faints from Brandy.
I had a great summer, full of free fruit from a buddy that works at a fruit stand.
To be honest, I figured that the aniseed is such a dominant flavor that it would wipe out anything else.

NZ, do you think if it was a mix of feints, say grain and brandy, or a mix of different grain feints that baking soda would take care of the off flavors? I know that some people suggest to add this in with feints to clear flavors out.

Thanks again!

Cheers
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kiwi Bruce
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by kiwi Bruce »

just sayin wrote: The bottle to shot ratio is 25 to 1. A 5ml pipette with a bulb is very handy for experimenting at that scale.
This is one of the only times that the metric system makes absolute sense...
There are 20 drops in 1 cc
44.5 cc's in a shot (about)
15000 drops in 750 mls
the rest is just "do the math"
for doing taste tests and keeping really good notes and being able to accurately "up-size" from a shot to a fifth...PRICELESS!!!
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by kiwi Bruce »

Irishgnome wrote:To be honest, I figured that the aniseed is such a dominant flavor that it would wipe out anything else. Irish.
Have you ever tried making, or tasted "true" Absinthe. (True being defined as an HDer who goes back to the original recipes from the treatises of a hundred years ago...and to hell with the ban on thujone)
If you have you'll have seen that the aniseed, although a strong flavor component, far from dominates/wipes out, the taste of other ingredients. Abs has a strong contingent here on HD...in my opinion it's a truly wonderful drink. Kiwi
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Irishgnome
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Irishgnome »

Kiwi,
I’ve never tried absinthe, commercial or homemade.
I was going to buy a kit at one point, but I figured that I would probably get better results if I sourced everything.
I’m still fairly new to the game, compared to the majority of people on here.
I’ve been distilling for a little over a year now, but know that this craft has no known boundaries.
Once I have some more experience under my belt, I’ll give it a go.
If you have a recipe that you would recommend over others, post it or post a link.

Thanks for the input kiwi!

Cheers
Irish.
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kiwi Bruce
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by kiwi Bruce »

Start here...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=38593&hilit=absinthe
and
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=49540&hilit=Absint ... e+Absinthe
If you like licorice or aniseed you'll love abs.
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Irishgnome
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Irishgnome »

Thanks kiwi!

Funny, I hated anything that tasted remotely like black licorice as a kid. I’d always force myself to eat my grandmothers anise Christmas cookies because I did t want her to feel bad.

Now I’d love black licorice and would kill to have one of those cookies.

Funny how much your tastes can change over the years.

I’ll need to PM Jimbo when I’m ready for this.
As I mentioned before, I looked into getting a kit for this and stopped myself because the reviews were shit.
I think I was having a hard time sourcing wormswood at a reasonable price, maybe it was something else?

Anyway, I need to empty the fruit out of my freezer and get through some of the panela that I’ve been sitting on.

Thanks again!
Cheers
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NZChris
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by NZChris »

Irishgnome wrote:NZ, do you think if it was a mix of feints, say grain and brandy, or a mix of different grain feints that baking soda would take care of the off flavors? I know that some people suggest to add this in with feints to clear flavors out.
I wouldn't recommend putting baking soda in the pot with the botanicals if that's what you're suggesting.
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by rubelstrudel »

NZChris wrote:
Irishgnome wrote:NZ, do you think if it was a mix of feints, say grain and brandy, or a mix of different grain feints that baking soda would take care of the off flavors? I know that some people suggest to add this in with feints to clear flavors out.
I wouldn't recommend putting baking soda in the pot with the botanicals if that's what you're suggesting.
You put a strong base agent in your neutral low wines to hydrolyze your esters back to alcohols and salts. You'd need a strong base to accomplish this completely. Baking soda (NaHCO3) isn't really strong enough to do this in a meaningful way. Even CaOH is not really sufficient. What works like a charm is NaOH (caustic soda). When you add caustic soda to your neutral low wines it will almost immediately convert all your ethylacetate et al back inty ethanol and sodiumacetate salt. Excess NaOH and the salts stay in your boiler and you get nice clean ethanol without esters in your product. You even get a nice clean boiler with the NaOH dissolving fats and biologicals.

But adding NaOH to your fruit or grain based low wines could make weird things happen. It would probably do strange things to all the organic compounds that make up the flavour of brandy, whisky etc. A bit of baking soda (NaHCO3) to lower the acidity might do some good, but I'd guess that keeping the sodium out of it and adding a slightly more carefully measured amount of CaOH (slaked lime) would make for a cleaner result if you have to lower the acidity.
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by kiwi Bruce »

Irishgnome wrote:NZ, do you think if it was a mix of feints, say grain and brandy, or a mix of different grain feints that baking soda would take care of the off flavors? I know that some people suggest to add this in with feints to clear flavors out. Irish.
"mix of feints, say grain and brandy" what "off flavors" would you expect from your feints? Save your grain feints for the next grain run and your brandy feints for your next brandy run. I go so far as to not mix the feints from two different single malt runs if one is an attempt at a Highland and the other a Speyside.
Don't mistakenly think that the feints are an undesirable part of your cuts. They are in fact a major flavor contributor to the next batch you run. These with the addition of a little backset to the next mash gives our spirits the extreme depth of flavor we're all looking for...now vodka or the neutrals for a good gin...use A.C. to clean-up any flavors you don't like.
F#@K the whales, save your feints!
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Irishgnome
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Irishgnome »

Kiwi,
I save my honey bear faints and backset for future runs. It seems like this process is mostly talked about when referring to all grain runs and rum runs.
Then again, maybe I just need to read up more on brandy.

I’ll be honest, I just didn’t think that saving backset and feints for my fruit runs would help.
I save backset for my all fruit Brandy’s and will mix in for the spirit run, but I toss my feints from the spirit runs into a group collection jar and toss out whatever backset is left in my still at that point.

I’ve tossed a number of feints into a collection jar over time to run in the future.

I still have a lot to learn, try and think about when it comes to distillation.

Thanks for your input kiwi!
I’ll make sure to store feints and backset in separate containers and save for future runs.

Cheers
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kiwi Bruce
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by kiwi Bruce »

Here is a PDQ experiment you can do...after your spirit run let the still cool to the point where you can open it, but it's still hot. Take an approximate ABV% of all your cuts and the total volume of the spirit run. Now take a high test neutral and dilute it with the backset/dunder from the beer run, to match the alcohol content and volume of the spirits you just took. Add this back to the still and run it again. You'll see how close the two spirits are. Now this works best with a high flavor spirit like Rum or Whiskey...but the results are very good, even with low flavor spirits. My conclusion is that there is still a lot of flavor left in the pot so by extension the feints and backset.
Just my 2C's...Kiwi
(P.S. I don't admit to doing this with my single malts...my neutrals are made from a white sugar wash so technically there not whisky... but technically isn't drinking it... I am)
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by Nabatean »

Hi

Anise or pimpinella anisum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anise" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow) is totally different in taste from the liquorice or Glycyrrhiza glabra. Different plants and taste.

Around the Mediterranean most nations produce a anise alcohol. Raki, Pastis, Ouzo, Anisette etc etc. You find it in Turkey, Greece, Lebannon, France, Spain, Italy etc They all collect the seed of the plant, macerate or distill, ripen and its pretty much the same ground note all over.
Lebannon has IMO the best one. Its ripened in clay amphora and has a great taste. Better than the harsh arak, deeper than the ouzo and more subtle than the french pernod ricard etc.

Although very similar in taste to the Star Anise (a bit more sweet and less bitter than Anise)

Liquorice however is collected not from the seed but from the root. Widely used in sweets but not much in alcohol. Some gin use it.

So : 3 plants, 3 different taste.
Which might be a good idea to mix in one drink ?

Cheers

PS La fee verte or absinthe is altogether a complete different story. Had the honour to be the only alcohol ever forbidden in France.
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by rubelstrudel »

Don't forget the root of Polypodium Vulgare, that's the licorice of the North. Different than the others and it also contains a sweetening compound that can really make something nice with less sugar.


The plant is a common fern that grows wild north of the alps.
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Re: Licorice Liquorice

Post by kiwi Bruce »

rubelstrudel wrote:Don't forget the root of Polypodium Vulgare,
How there's a herb I've not heard of before...I wonder how that would work in an Absinthe? I'm always looking for new and unusual herbs for my botanicals... Gins and Absinthes :clap:
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