Homemade Bitters

In April, my wife and I (and our pets) moved from Schenectady to Brooklyn so I could take a new job with Google. Unfortunately, my beer brewing equipment could not accompany us on this journey.

To put this into perspective, I've been brewing beer since late 2008. We moved in early 2013. That's about four and a half years. It was my main hobby, at least through the warmer months.

Luckily, my awesome wife noticed that I'd lost my main hobby, and came up with a replacement. For Christmas she gave me a binder with about twenty recipes for homemade bitters, along with some dropper bottles and Gentian root (more on this later).

Recently, I've been getting more into trying bitters. There is a kitchen store not far from our apartment that has a large selection. Of course they have the standards (Angostura and Peychaud's), but they also have a large number of less well-known items. At least, they are to those of us new to the bittering world. I've purchased a few bottles from them, but each is around $20, which is a little beyond my impulse purchase price. Especially for a bottle smaller than my hand.

So, coming back around, my wife decided that homemade bitters might be a good substitute for beer brewing while we are living in an apartment. Her recipe book, assembled from Google searches, came with a few easy recipes and a few complex ones. I, of course, chose not to follow any of them (yet). To me, recipes are for inspiration.

But before I describe my current concoctions, I will cover the bittering base ingredients, as I've discovered from various search queries. I do not yet know much about these herbs and spices, beyond what the packages say and how they smell:

• Angelica root: Smells sweet, like a picturesque morning on the shore of a mountain lake, condensed into something that looks like sawdust.
• Cinchona bark: A very mild smell, like peppery wood. This is the main flavoring in Tonic water (quinine).
• Gentian root: Seems to be the most common modern bittering agent (similar to how hops replaced virtually everything else used for bittering beer). Smells like peppery wood, but much stronger than Cinchona bark.
• Quassia chips: Smells very clean, mixed with something like a Tibetan store that burns incense, but very weak.
• Wormwood: Smells like chamomile tea.

And, of course, there needs to be some kind of liquid. I am using Spirytus grain alcohol (96% ABV) because I could not find overproof vodka at the local liquor store. But they had this, and I think I can mix it with vodka if I want something in between. The higher the alcohol content, the more efficient (fast) the flavor extraction from the flavoring ingredients.

My first batch is just Gentian root and Spirytus. A bunch of the recipes call for drops of Gentian extract, so I am making my own. I went with 200ml Spirytus with 15g Gentian root, ground up in my spice grinder. I expect it will need to sit for ~1 week, with daily agitation.

Because I could not wait, though, I am also making something I will call Essence of Gin, if it comes out well. I am reluctant to post the recipe because I have no idea how it will turn out, but hopefully anybody that finds it will read this paragraph first.
Ingredients:

• 50ml Grain Alcohol
• 1/2 tbsp (about 30) Dried Juniper Berries
• Pinch of Angelica Root Powder
• Pinch of Cinchona Bark Powder
• Pinch of Celery Seed
• 2 Fennel Seeds
• 1in² Fresh Orange Peel, with the pith scraped off

I plan to agitate this daily, and I expect it will be ready in ~2 weeks. But I honestly have no feel for making bitters yet, so please don't try this recipe unless you know what you're doing and it actually looks good to you. And if you do know what you're doing, please leave suggestions in the comments.

Oh, and something I have yet to see on bitter recipes: The reasons I chose the ingredients:

• Juniper berries: Because this is the main flavoring of Gin, and I want a bitter that I can add to vodka to make it taste reminiscent of gin, or add to gin to make it even more gin-ey.
• Angelica root: Because the package of Juniper berries said that they were a substitute for Angelica, and because the Angelica package said it adds some sweetness, and because it smelled good. I used very little because I am pretty sure it is also quite bitter.
• Cinchona bark: Because gin-and-tonic tastes good, and this might add a little bit of tonic flavor.
• Celery seed: Because I like them, and think it might add a clean flavor.
• Fennel seeds: I looked at a gin recipe, and it used licorice root to cover up any bitterness. I don't have licorice root, but fennel has an anise flavor. Hopefully this won't do much but add a hint in the background (I don't really like anise).
• Orange peel: The gin recipe also used orange peel, and I thought it sounded like a good idea. Hopefully a weak citrusey background flavor.