Celeriac Palinka (and other root vegetables).

[tommysb]

Yesterday I had the pleasure of trying a Palinka made from Celeriac. I believe it was from these guys on the Hungarian border:
https://palinkapatika.com/

It was really interesting (actually, amazing). Initially i thought it had strong carrot flavour (it was a blind tasting at first), and then the flavour made sense when i found out what it was. It would be perfect in a bloody mary.

Anyway, the experience of course got me wondering about the process since I guess there isn't a lot of fermentables in Celeriac.

Googling nutritional information for celeriac shows about 10g of carbohydrates/100g (corn is about 20g/100g, for reference). I guess it could be boiled, the carbohydrates converted to sugars using enzymes, and then fermented. Maybe with addition of some sugar?

Anyway, it was a great drink, really. Not much other to say than that.

Has anyone done many experiments with 'lower carb' base fermentables and how did they come out?

[NZChris]

You don't have to ferment a desired botanical to extract the flavors from it. You can extract flavor by maceration in alcohol then distilling. Most of the flavors in liqueurs that you are familiar with will have been infused, not fermented.

[tommysb]

E.g. a Geist?