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PHASE #2
After sitting for 2 weeks, it was time to separate the bitters into 2 jars each. Here’s the process we used:

1) Strain all liquid through a cheese cloth lined funnel into a new jar. Cover and set aside. (we’ll call this the booze half)

2) Take all the solids you just strained out and put them into a saucepan. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Cover, and simmer for 10 minutes.

3) Allow to cool, then put everything from the pan back into the original jar. Cover and set aside. (this will be the solids half)

You’re going to let both of these jars sit for another week, shaking once a day.

NOTES: We added 2 tablespoons of blackstrap molasses to Jen’s solid half while bringing to a boil because she wanted to try to get some of that good molasses flavor into hers. I left mine as-is.

PHASE #3
After another week, it’s time to re-combine the two jars and let them settle before the last step. I was able to get some fine cheese cloth for this part (the loose-weave is all I had previously been able to find at the grocery store) and I think it made a big difference. Vanilla bean in particular is damn near impossible to strain out with a fine strainer or looser cheese cloth, but the fine weave caught them all.

1) Pour the solids half through the cheese cloth into a bowl. You’ll want to wrap up the whole thing to squeeze all the liquid out of the botanicals. Think of it like a hobo bindle: put everything in the center and take the 4 corners up, twisting them together to make a pear-shaped package. holding the top tightly, twist the bottom like you were wringing out a towel.

2) Once you’ve squeezed out as much liquid as you can, pass it through one more strainer back into the booze half bottle. Add 2 tbsp rich simple syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water), and shake well.

3) Set aside again, this time for about 4 days. We’ll be straining out any remaining solids once more before bottling.

NOTES: If you do get your hands on the fine cheese cloth, it helped me to run it under water first and ball it up before flattening it again and pouring the liquid through it. Without doing this, the liquid mostly just sat on top without going through.

Previous posts:
Phase #1a
Phase #1

So, the first stage of our bitters have been sitting for about 10 days now, shaken every day, and I have to say…they smell great. If I weren’t planning on actually using these, I might just take the tops off and use them like potpourri. Granted, I may like the smell of bourbon more than most, but damn, if it doesn’t smell delicious.

On Monday, we’ll be continuing on to Phase #2 and separating them out into two jars each (we’ll cover the whole process when we do it and make the post), but I wanted to post a shot of the filled jars to show the progress. I’m getting pretty excited about trying these when they’re done, and we’ve been discussing the possibility of doing some kind of giveaway once we’ve got them all bottled up.

For a list of what’s in the jars, check out the original post here. My jar is the one on the left, Jen’s is the right.

The closer we get to November, the more we hear about Brad Thomas Parson’s Bitters, and the more antsy we get to try making our own. We are a bit lacking in the exotic roots and barks that a lot of the classic recipes call for (we will be hunting some down soon for additional tests), but for now decided to follow the spirit of the law rather than the letter. Using only things we already had, we took a shot, and in about 3 weeks we’ll see how it worked.

We each tried our own fall-inspiried aromatic bitter, and here is what we ended up with:

Jon’s Batch
zest of 1/2 lemon
10 cloves
10 coriander seeds
3 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cardamom
1 vanilla pod, opened and scraped (with both parts in the jar)
Peel of one fiji apple
Peel of two granny smith apples

Since we didn’t have any allspice berries or whole cardamom, I emptied out some tea bags and put the powdered spice in them to try and let the taste steep in without having to deal with a lot of powder after the fact. Not sure if it will work, but I’m optimistic: I’ve done the same thing when making syrups before. I can say that once everything was in, the jar smelled amazing.

Once everything was in the jar, I added about 2 cups of overproof bourbon (I would have liked MORE overproof, but 90 proof Bulleit was the only thing in the house I was willing to use to experiment with half a bottle.) Shake well and sit aside, out of the sun, at room temperature. Shake it once a day, and in two weeks, I will take it on to step #2.

Jen’s Batch:
peel of 3 granny smith apples
zest of 1 whole orange
2 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla pod, opened and scraped
1 tsp garam masala (in tea bag, as above)
1 tsp nutmeg (in tea bag, as above)
2 cups Wray & Nephew overproof Rum

Prepare as above.