Mad Foodie Scientist: Infusions Galore including Peach Bourbon and Limoncello

Beer and Spirits
1

Boozehounds,

You may recall a thread from me a while back where I created my own Cherry Bourbon by infusing a blend of high quality 12 year old Bourbons with dried cherries. Well, the mad foodie scientist couldn’t let it go at that after seeing that some producers making high quality apricot and peach cognac liqueurs as well done in a similar style to Grand Marnier. So off to work I went.

I went to the Domino’s fine bulk foods store in the basement of the famous St. Lawrence Market and picked up some high quality dried peaches, apricots, pineapple and Peruvian cocoa nibs for macerating. Then I stopped by the grocery store and picked up 8 organic lemons. Finally, it was on to a Canadian Tire hardware store to pick up some 2 quart pickle jars. Then it was back home to do the infusions assembly.

SOFTWARE ASSEMBLY

Bourbon blend: 1 cup each Marker’s Mark 46, W.L. Weller 12 Year Old and Elijah Craig 12 year old for one standard bottle’s worth of Bourbon.

Cognac blend: 1 cup each ABK6 XO, Chateau de Beaulon 7 Ans Folle Blanche and Remy Martin Coeur du Cognac for one stadard bottle’s worth of Cognac. I made three bottles worth of this.

Distillate blend: This was the toughest choice for the limoncello as I personally can’t stand vodka and personally loathe it in all of its forms. However, it’s a pretty standard ingredient in homemade limoncello so what else could I use in its place? Cognac, brandy, armagnac, rum and whisky would all be too strong. Hmm…

Then I got hit by inspiration. Why not use fruit distillate instead? So I used a half-bottle each of Kirsch (cherry distillate) and plum eau-de-vie. Genius. All the alcohol power I need for infusion with the added bonus of subtle cherry and plum flavors to go along with the fresh lemon oil from the peels.

HARDWARE ASSEMBLY

Limoncello: I peeled all 8 organic lemons with a standard vegetable/fruit peeler and then meticulous and painstakingly pared as much white pith off of the slivers of fresh peel as I could. I threw these into the first cleaned jar.

Peach Bourbon and Cognac: I chopped 2 cups of the dried peaches and then put one cup each in two more jars.

Pineapple Cognac: The dried pineapple came pre-diced so that saved me a lot of effort. 1 cup into a clean jar.

Apricot Cognac: 1 cup of dried apricots into another jar.

Chocolate liqueur: 1 cup of cocoa nibs into the last jar.

THE INFUSIONS

So the infusions step was next and were done as follows:

  • The bourbon blend was poured into the first dried peaches jar.
  • The first bottle of cognac blend was poured into the second dried peaches jar.
  • The second bottle of cognac blend was poured into the dried pineapple jar.
  • The third bottle of cognac blend went into the dried apricot jar.
  • The kirsch/plum eau de vie distillate blend went into the fresh organic lemon peel jar.
  • 1 1/2 cups of Zacapa 23 YO Solera rum went into the cocoa nibs jar. You will note that this is the only 1:1 maceration ratio, as I really want the rum to pick up lots of chocolate flavor.

All of these babies are now infusing. The fruit infusions I expect to take 1-2 weeks worth of time, the same as the cherry bourbon did. The chocolate rum I expect to take months, in much the same way it took months for my vanilla beans to infuse a bottle of white rum to make my artisanal vanilla extract did.

I’ll let everyone know how everything turns out. Personally, I’m expecting good things here as the cherry bourbon came out fantastic and I expect nothing less here.

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I still think your notion of needing a ‘spirit blend’ of several brand name types of your base is fundamentally flawed. You’re macerating dried fruits, it’s way over the top. You can do fine with cheaper base liquors and use one type rather than a blend.

Also, the purpose of using a vodka or other neutral spirit for Limoncello is, well, to have the spirit taste like lemons. I guess you could use a more neutral fruit base like a white cognac or grappa, but doesn’t using cherry & plum eau de vie to make Limoncello sort of defeat the purpose of creating a lemon flavored spirit?

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Blend like wine (at least I think): something for the nose, something for the mid-palate and something for the finish. Mike

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While there is certainly the argument that the blends I used add different qualities to the finished product a la Bordeaux/Meritage style wine blending, the truth of the matter is simply that I am highly influenced by the magnificent Grand Marnier Cuveé de Centennaire I had earlier this year. This is the 100th anniversary edition of Grand Marnier that uses premium XO level cognac and the upsurge in quality from standard Grand Marnier is quite noticeable.

Sure I could use less expensive distillates as my bases but the end result’s quality would be cheap as well. While it’s not always true in life, I find it definitely applies to spirits – you get what you pay for.

All this said, there were some qualities in the trio of bourbons and cognacs I chose and why I left others on the shelf.

Bourbon Blend:

  • Elijah Craig 12 Year Old brings sweetness and smoothness
  • Maker’s Mark 46 brings spiciness
  • W.L. Weller 12 Year Old brings pungency and heat

Left out of the blend were my Eagle Rare 17, George T. Stagg, Forty Creek Barrel Reserve, Forty Creek Port Wood and Forty Creek Confederation Oak Reserve bourbons. (The latter 3 are technically Canadian whiskies but the reality is… they’re bourbons. That’s another thread and discussion, however.)

Cognac blend:

  • Chateau de Beaulon 7 Ans Folle Blanche brings floral aromatics
  • ABK6 XO brings spiciness and acidity
  • Remy Martin Coeur du Cognac brings sweetness and fruitness

Left out of the blend were the Hine Homage Grand Cru Fine Champagne, De Luze XO Fine Champagne, Otard XO Grande CHampagne and Croizet XO Grand Champagne cognacs.

My exclusions were based on the fact that I felt they were too fine to throw into the mix and should be savored on their own and when taken into account as part of an infusion, the superior qualities they would’ve added might actually have become lost or overwhelmed in the final infusions.

In regards to the limoncello, however, my sole purpose was simply to avoid the use of vodka. I can only wait and see how it turns out in 1-2 weeks and see if my inspired choices were a success or a disaster. Worse comes to worse, I can always use the end result as a cooking ingredient or in iced tea.

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This said, you also now have a boozed fruit product you can use on the side. In my last example, I infused 4 1/2 cups of blended bourbon with 1 1/2 cups of dried cherries. My end result was 3 cups of cherry bourbon and 2 cups of bourbon cherries which went into a pair of apple bourbon cherry crisps. So how are the end results?

  • Peach cognac: Strong peach flavor with a fair amount of acidity. Goes very well with the cognac, but a tad unbalanced due to surprising lack of sweetness. I’ll probably add some simple syrup and turn it into a Marnier-like liqueur.

  • Apricot cognac: Way better than the peach cognac with loads more fruit flavor, but also high in acid. Also needs some simple syrup.

  • Pineapple cognac: Even better than the peach cognac, with loads of tropical flavor now permeating the cognac. Also sweeter so very well balanced.

  • Peach bourbon: The biggest surprise of them all. The peach flavor is AMAZEBALLS when combined with the caramel sweetness of the blended bourbon. Absolutely fantastic combination. I’m really thinking of doing apricot and blueberry bourbon now.

  • Limoncello: Already a golden translucent yellow in color, it’s quite interesting contrasting real lemon yellow color with fake artificial lemon yellow color which is what most limoncellos have. Lemon flavor is strong but could be a lot stronger. This will also need quite a bit of simple syrup. Interestingly, the plum flavors from the distillate I used have intensified in the finish but the cherry flavors from the Kirsch I used are non-existent now.

  • Chocolate Rum: Totally not ready yet. This will require the most steeping, probably along the lines of weeks and possibly even months and very much reminds me of making my artisan vanilla extract when I dropped 40 vanilla beans into a 3 liter bottle of vodka. I cannot tell you whether it will need simple syrup added to it for the final prooduct as I find rum to be a rather sweet spirit as is but we’ll see.

I have to say, the peach bourbon turned out so well that the end result along with the previously made cherry bourbon has made me seriously consider infusing more bourbon over cognac in the future. The cognac really magnifies the flavor of the fruit to be sure. The bourbon, however, turns them into a rather complex drink whose whole is greater than the sum of the final liqueur’s components.

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Peaches and Bourbon sounds like a Southern Summer!

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Great job tran! The peach sounds great. I have done infusions with apricots, apricot brandy, and simple sugar. Your experiments have me wanting to try a few new concoctions.

BTW: I have found that grinding the dried fruit intensifies the flavor

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@Timmy: Thanks. I did think about grinding momentarily but decided against it as I want to use the macerated fruit – which are now stored in Mason jars in my fridge, perfectly self-preserving due to their cell structure now totally infused with 40% alcohol – in apple crumble pies so decided that chopping the peaches up was best and the apricots were small enough that they didn’t need to be.

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Did peaches in Bourbon a couple of years ago. Kept fine. Used it the following summer in Mint Juleps.

Here’s one I do in the summer for use in Manhattans in the fall:

Cherry infused Rye
2 cups wild cherries (Prunus pensylvanica?) one bottle Rye - used Bulleit this year.
Let sit until Thanksgiving

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Tran,

I am a huge fan of the higher end GM. I love the 100 and the 150.

I cant say I see as much difference in the 100 and 15 as i do in the normal gm and the 100 but wow what wonderful stuff.

I am surprised at all your bourbon selections. they all are in the the sweet category to me. When I was into bourbon I would only drink bookers and knob creek, the basil haydens, blantons, makers etc were too sweet for me.

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Does the fact that its infused change the shelf life of the bourbon? Also can you use fresh?

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The best (only) thing you can do with bourbon is empty the cask, fill it with new-make Scotch malt whisky, age it for 10-20+ years in Kildalton, Islay and add nothing to it. Bottle at cask strength, without filtration or caramel spirit/coloring. Shortcuts don’t work (neither does cask ‘finishing’).

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@Mark: I have a sweet tooth so I lean heavily towards sweeter bourbons but I do have enough of a palate to prefer some complexity and aging in bourbon which is why I stay away from Maker’s Mark original. The other sweeter and bolder types are all up for grabs and thus far Elijah Craig 12 YO is my fave bourbon to date.

@ Charlie: I honestly have no idea of the shelf life changes but I can tell you for a fact that I keep all of mine in the fridge as a precaution after infusion. Though truthfully, they will not last more than a year so no real way of testing. :slight_smile:

Also, you absolutely can use fresh. I have just finished testing fresh cherries and peaches. Just be aware that the fruit flavor will be a lot lighter and you are looking at a much longer infusion time of 3 weeks or more. Also be aware that fresh fruit transfers water via osmosis as well which lightens the infusion overall. That’s why I chose dried fruit for all of my infusions – the water is already gone from the dried fruit.

@ Mark again – Funny you should mention bourbon being only good for casking Scotch whisky, because in my post where I blended spirits to see how well they would mesh together, bourbon and Scotch was the biggest surprise to me due to how compatible they were with the bourbon really giving a lift to the Scotch. Of course, this makes perfect sense given that bourbon barrels are used to age Scotch as you say above.

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Had some fun making homemade limoncello after finishing off a bottle I brought home from Procida last year. Thought about one of Trans posts on his infusion experiments, so thought I’d post here. Peels sat in Everclear for 25 days, bottled up today. Peels looked like potato chips!

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