Using everclear to extract hop and other flavors

[Owly055]

Today I began a flavor infusion using Juniper berries, coriander, star anise, sweet orange peel, and a bit of stick cinnamon, and a few pepper corns. To flavor 2 gallons, took a LOT of ingredients, as the gin recipes I have are for 750 ML ( one 5th of a gallon ) I placed everything in a quart jar and filled it with Everclear. I didn't add my hops yet, as I'm concerned about the nearly 200 proof alcohol extracting too much in the way of alpha acids. Hops will be Mosaic, and I want the fruity essence without much bitterness at all. I'm debating simply dropping some pellet hops in the keg.

Does anybody here have any experience using high proof alcohol to extract hop flavors? I'm afraid I'll end up with bittering and not much in the way of hop flavor and aroma. I want the IBUs to be very very low.

I have mentioned my gin beer project before, and at 2 days shy of a month in fermentation, I'm only to about 12%, moving onward toward 18%. Fermentation is in a glass fermenter, and steady streams of bubbles are streaming up quite visibly. I expect to hit the 18% mark by the end of September at this rate, assuming it will slow down toward the end........ but who knows? There are no hops at all in this brew at this point, as I felt it would be pointless to add hops and have all the flavor and aroma scrubbed out in a long high gravity fermentation. I'm a bit disappointed that the fermentation is taking this long.

The initial fermentation of the grains 2 parts wheat and one part rye to an OG of 1.043 was done using US-05, fermented down to 1.010, after which some invert syrup was added, and EC1118 champagne yeast pitched. This is a two gallon brew, but I began with one gallon of wort, and a gallon of home made invert sugar syrup made by using cream of tartar for the acid to convert. I used about 2 cups of water to 5 pounds of sugar, and cooked it down until my candy thermometer read 130F, after which I added it to boiling water to thin it down and end up with a full gallon. The result is one gallon of very pour able invert sugar syrup, thin enough to combine with the wort quickly. The yeast seems to love it! I'm keeping the gravity between about 1.030 and 1.018. I also included yeast energizer in the syrup. I'm reducing my additions now, with the idea of keeping the gravity down to 1.025, and later keep it under 1.020. I'm hoping for a very dry finish at about 1.005, and to that end, I've added some STC 1000 fungal amylase.
The botanicals will live in the everclear for about a week, followed by filtration. They will then be added to the finished beer by taste. Adding the botanicals with the everclear, almost a quart of pure grain alcohol will needless to say bump the ABV up into the 20's. My very primitive math tells me it will be about 27% ABV. Definitely not something to drink by the pint. A fortified high ABV brew that only qualifies as "beer" by virtue of having some malt and hops. I'm not sure weather it should be carbonated or not, if so, probably very lightly.

H.W.

 

[November]

I did it when I made cascade hop ice cream. Its been many years but I don't remember the extract adding bitterness, just hop flavor. I used everclear.

 

[imasickboy]

I took cheap gin, and added whole hops and cucumbers. It sat for around a month. No bitterness that I can recall, just entirely too hoppy.

 

[ong]

I use everclear very frequently to extract flavors from all kind of herbs and aromatics. It's extremely efficient. One thing I frequently do is just finely grate, mince, or grind the aromatic I'm hoping to extract from, put it in a mason jar and add everclear to cover, them just agitate or even stick blend for several minutes. Depending on what I'm working with I'll either strain immediately or let it sit just overnight. I haven't found that super lengthy steeping periods work better, and I often get a fresher, brighter flavor from just five minutes of vigorous shaking than from letting it sit for three weeks.

One interesting thing is that 80 proof vodka or cognac does not work the same way at all, and takes much longer to extract flavors. The very high concentration of ethanol really works beautifully.

If you don't actually want your beer to be 27% ABV, you could allow most of the ethanol to volatilize off (let sit in a wide bowl at room temp until the volume is significantly reduced).

 

[Owly055]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply..... I've already begun my steeping, so the "brighter fresher flavor" is pretty much out. I did add 10 grams of Mosaic hops today, and in a few days I'll begin the filtering process. My process is to use a quart small mouth mason jar with a coffee filter attached with a rubber band, set inverted into a wide mouth mason jar. I'll chill the liquid over night, then set it in a warm place and use ambient temp to create pressure to move the liquid slowly through the filter. This usually takes days, but does a good job I'll change the filter every evening. I may do a second pass. It's a slow gentle way to filter that I've used for many years when making jelly out of goosberries, of which I seldom have many. This year my yield was 3 1/2 half pints. The temp increase through the day results in a bit of pressure, but not excessive.
The high ABV is OK with me as I'm making a "gin beer". I want some "whoop ass" to it. People won't be drinking it by the pint. I expect fermentation to drag out until about the end of Sept...... or beyond. I'm in no hurry. Then I'll hold a "tasting party", during which we will add the everclear with the botanicals, and decide just how much works. I sampled it today, and it's VERY intense, but it's also very concentrated. I also ran some of the botanicals through a mortar and pestle, which I should have done at the outset. The star anise is very distinct........ I may have added more than I should have, but again it will be diluted, and one has to start somewhere.


H.W.

I use everclear very frequently to extract flavors from all kind of herbs and aromatics. It's extremely efficient. One thing I frequently do is just finely grate, mince, or grind the aromatic I'm hoping to extract from, put it in a mason jar and add everclear to cover, them just agitate or even stick blend for several minutes. Depending on what I'm working with I'll either strain immediately or let it sit just overnight. I haven't found that super lengthy steeping periods work better, and I often get a fresher, brighter flavor from just five minutes of vigorous shaking than from letting it sit for three weeks.

One interesting thing is that 80 proof vodka or cognac does not work the same way at all, and takes much longer to extract flavors. The very high concentration of ethanol really works beautifully.

If you don't actually want your beer to be 27% ABV, you could allow most of the ethanol to volatilize off (let sit in a wide bowl at room temp until the volume is significantly reduced).