Episoide 12: Mulling Infusions

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Evan: 0:00

Welcome to episode 12 of She Brews, Hebrews at Jewish fermenting podcasts, where we hope to discuss all things home brewing fermenting today. We're mulling infusions. I'm your host, Evan Harris. And today with me is my toast. Allison Shay.

Alison: 0:13

hi, how you doing?

Evan: 0:15

I'm doing well yourself.

Alison: 0:16

I'm good. Almost not quite there, but as of the day that this episode comes out, I will be considered a fully boosted. from my, from my second COVID shot. oh, I got J and J the first time. So the second, so me getting a second shot is, is me getting a booster,

Evan: 0:37

to schedule my booster soon. I'm just going to be traveling for work.

Alison: 0:43

super easy. I just signed up on the CVS website and then I showed up and got my flu shot and my booster shot and it was nice and easy.

Evan: 0:51

Oh, fair. Nice. Yeah. I have my flu shot and I live in an area with a very high overall vaccination rate. So I've been not rushing to get a booster, which has both benefits and downsides, but I've definitely support getting one for people who should,

Alison: 1:06

Yes.

Evan: 1:07

which includes me now.

Alison: 1:09

Especially if like me not J and J, because they're now recommending that it be two shots instead of one, sit, get your booster if you're eligible, which I think pretty much. everybody is at this time at this point, but, set aside a day and, you know, Eat some ridiculous foods and mope around for a little while and then you'll feel good. And also you'll have had a bunch of nice junk food.

Evan: 1:37

Yeah. And if you're the parent of a child five to 11, you can now have them vaccinated, which in record numbers, people are of course record numbers, it's brand new. But, I believe it was Friday. So what we recorded on Monday. So Friday, the previous Friday was the first day for several months or more than a million doses of vaccine had been given in this country in a single day.

Alison: 2:00

And I am here for it.

Evan: 2:02

As am I

Alison: 2:03

to hear.

Evan: 2:04

as am I, if you haven't got done, if you've listened to the podcast by this point, because it seems the most people listen to all of the episodes, from what it looks like, it seems people will go and download. I can't see who's downloading, but there will be days where every episode gets downloaded once. So I'm presuming it's the same person at once. but if you haven't figured it out by now, we're very much a favor of modern science and the vaccine.

Alison: 2:29

Oh, absolutely.

Evan: 2:31

It means you can get back to, going to local places and having fermented beverages with your friends. Cheers.

Alison: 2:38

Speaking of which having fermented beverages with your friends. So what are you drinking today?

Evan: 2:45

So I am drinking, just a local beer I've had on here before the, Wasatch brewing company, nitro polygamy Porter. Which has a wonderful name and it's as good, a dark beer. But more interestingly, I'm tricking out of a pint glass. I actually won on a raffle from a different Jewish drinking podcast. This one is from drinking and drashing Torah with a twist. It's a wonderful pint glass with their logo on it. And, I'm talking with them to hopefully have them on for our cocktails episode.

Alison: 3:13

Yeah. Speaking of cocktails and leading into, today's topic. I am drinking a funky cocktail that, is pretty tasty. I'm not really sure what I did here, but it's pretty good. It is a combination of blue curse out, which gives it this lovely blue color. Then I'm showing Evan now. He can't see it that well because the lighting kind of sucks, but also in here. Like very slightly purple tint. because I made a hibiscus infused vodka, and added That in here. And there's also a little bit of, I think it's called the Santa Clara. It's a Mexican cream and egg, liquor and it's very tasty. And if you want to add like a really nice rich creaminess to a drink, strongly records. That's fair. It's a really nice custardy vanilla flavor.

Evan: 4:07

sounds really good. I don't know if I've had that one specifically, but as, as we're approaching proper winter, there are a lot of a, and, booze cocktails, edge acknowledges the most well-known. But you've got Samsung Clara. One of my favorites variations on it is one, called, um, of. From the, standard Navia and I will send you, I will send you the recipe and I'm sure we'll discuss it on our punches episodes. Just it's sort of a punch. It's a great wintery drink just on its own. And basically you've added it to a cocktail to make it more interesting.

Alison: 4:45

That sounds very tasty. One thing to warn about, when mixing things with, or mixing other alcoholic beverages or other additions to a cocktail with a cream or egg based, liquor, or it liqour. Would it be a little core? I don't know. It would be a liquor. Yeah. So when adding anything or adding this into another beverage, Depending on what other things you're adding, especially, I think it's especially if you have a lot of acid in there or that's been my experience chemically, that that would be what makes sense. It can

Evan: 5:21

cheese.

Alison: 5:23

it can split and it can look a little bit curdled. It doesn't really change the taste. But you may not notice that it's it's separated or gotten a little clumpy. So it is something to keep an eye out when you are mixing, I'm mixing things with it. This is, I mean, I don't think it's super it's blue carousel, like it's orange flavored, but I don't know. What's really in there. So.

Evan: 5:51

Depends on which Tura cell you've got. Depends on what combination of citrus though. It does tend to be proper citrus added to neutral grain alcohol part. Cause that's honestly the cheapest way to do it

Alison: 6:02

Yeah, but it doesn't seem

Evan: 6:04

and food coloring.

Alison: 6:05

this.

Evan: 6:06

Yeah. because your parties you're distilling it out. You're getting a alcohol pH as opposed to a citrus pH because you're not using the citrus juice in the, LaCour.

Alison: 6:17

Yeah. I thought about adding some actual orange in here and then

Evan: 6:20

so I it'd be very tasty I'm sure.

Alison: 6:23

Yeah, but it would probably also split it. So, it's just something to keep an eye on. It's not anything to worry about it. Hasn't gone bad.

Evan: 6:30

yeah. So you've recently made an infusion, then we can talk about, I've been a while since I've made.

Alison: 6:36

Yes. So, I discovered that one of my mother's favorite spice brands I guess, has a store right near me. and so I stopped by to pick up a little jar of her favorite gumbo filet blend. Yeah, picked it up for her. And I said, hello, I'm a home brewer. I think it would be cool to do an infusion with some interesting or observed spices, or something that would be good to add into a brew. What would you recommend? and. If you go to a really knowledgeable store, I think that's one of the things that's, that's so great about going to specialty shops like this one, or, I mean, I wouldn't home brewing store, whatever it is. When you go to a specialty shop, you really benefit from the knowledge that the employees have. So even if it's, if it's a fairly small chain like this one where a mom and pop shop or whatever it is, if it's a really. A smaller place where the employees really get to have great knowledge about their products. you can get a lot of really great information from them. They're often really helpful and, The employees there helped me pick out a couple of things. So I have some dried hibiscus that is probably going into a Mead shortly. and I also have a whole bunch of rose pedals and I will probably be back for some lavender and grains of paradise. That sounded really interesting. And also they had, this like chocolate, salt. That I haven't dust. I'm thinking about it. I don't know what I can do with it yet. but it's on my mind. But when you go to a store like that, the options you have available and the knowledge you have access to is really phenomenal. So would strongly recommend, again, check out your local home brew store,

Evan: 8:38

local Homebrew store. If you have a small spice shop or, you know, there's tea, places are always wonderful as well because they frequently have spices as well. Not as much as a spice shop, but some.

Alison: 8:52

Yeah, I mean, if you can find, if you can find some old lady who likes to forage in the woods, I think that would be

Evan: 9:04

that would be best. But.

Alison: 9:05

would be ideal, but in lieu of that, see what your, what your neighborhood has to offer, see what's available. and don't be afraid to. Ask questions or, pose an interesting question because there were like three employees there chatting with me about, oh, what about this? And, oh, I've tried that before. And, and it was, just a really lovely and interesting conversation with people who were genuinely interested because they were posed an interesting question. And something really in their field of expertise, so really lovely conversation, but that was a bit of a sidetrack from I made hibiscus vodka, which is a very simple process. Took a cup of vodka and I put it in a jar with some high viscous leaves. And then I ended up with that high viscous infused vodka. It was a very complicated time consuming process in which I spent approximately 30 seconds setting it up. And then 24 hours waiting for it.

Evan: 10:11

Yeah, infusions or not,

Alison: 10:13

guys. I don't

Evan: 10:14

sense are not that

Alison: 10:15

I can handle it.

Evan: 10:17

Um, it does sound tasty a lot better than the first infusion I ever.

Alison: 10:22

Ooh. What was the first infusion you ever

Evan: 10:24

So the backstory is that this was in undergrad When there was a world cup one summer, I was actually studying abroad in Japan. A friend of mine was doing research and studying abroad in Germany. And we were just talking after we got back, he said, oh, during one of the world cup games is the world cup Germany. One is. LA his entire research lab, went out to a bar to watch the game and he doesn't drink much piece of, for every gold they'd store. You can buy me a drink. Sure. This stored eight goals.

Alison: 10:54

Wow.

Evan: 10:55

And at one of the shots was garlic schnapps. And he said, it tasted absolutely horrible, but he really wanted spaghetti afterwards. So his 21st birthday was coming up that year. and so I made girlish snaps because I, why not. And we did it. We said we wanted it to be really powerful. So we left the door looking for like three times what the, everything online said.

Alison: 11:17

And then you really wanted pasta afterwards.

Evan: 11:21

No, no, it was just darling. Joe's more like it was closer to a Mesa spring flavor.

Alison: 11:27

Oh, yikes.

Evan: 11:29

was overpowering.

Alison: 11:31

Well, if you had.

Evan: 11:32

You open the bottle and the entire apartment smelled of garlic. We drank about two shots of a total

Alison: 11:37

Oh, my God. that seems like if you did a mild version of it, you could make a really interesting vodka sauce, but also you can make all of your neighbors get annoyed at you.

Evan: 11:49

What, what actually I think you could do is don't use vodka base on something herbal. So if you did a mild garlic infusion into like a, chartreuse could be really interesting

Alison: 12:05

Yeah.

Evan: 12:05

or, or with a bunch of other herbs. So here's this a lot better.

Alison: 12:11

yeah, but my biggest complaint about, about making this particular infusion is that. I mean, I think he was a great vodka, but regardless vodka is vodka and it is, well it smells like FID gum and it feels like by going, you drink it, but which, I mean, Either it doesn't have much of a taste or, the taste is alcohol taste.

Evan: 12:36

Ah,

Alison: 12:37

so part of the reason why I made this cocktail is because I really wanted to get, some other things in there to kind of. Ease the vodka Yunus event, and taste it a little bit more, with something mellower in there. I think the cream will core is, is really good for, mellowing out the harsher flavors like that. But that high viscous, it's kind of floral, it's kind of fruity, yeah. it's got kind of a dark fruit vibe to it while also being fruity. I thought it was very pleasant and also reminds me a little bit of a tea that I really like. so I feel like herbal tea. It kind of feels like it, it belongs in with,

Evan: 13:19

You should

Alison: 13:20

like a fruity tea.

Evan: 13:21

maybe try it with like a, an un-aged rum instead of vodka.

Alison: 13:25

Yeah. So I'm actually, I'm actually going out to pick up some room, on Wednesday, casually helping the board to go to a cheaper liquor store. remember, liquor laws vary from state to state. So, If you live near a border, you might be able to find more interesting things. And another state, for me, just because all of a, I live in North Carolina, all of the liquor stores are state-owned here. and it means the selection in a lot of ways is going to be a lot more limited.

Evan: 13:57

Yeah, as they are.

Alison: 13:59

Yeah, So hopping over to South Carolina to, to get that. Interesting things. and also because it's my roommate's birthday and we're doing cocktails for her birthday.

Evan: 14:10

that'll be fun.

Alison: 14:11

Yeah, I'm very excited, but I'm going to make another infusion with rum this time. And also, I'm going to, make him am planning to make a Mead with the hibiscus, because I think honey would be a lot more suited to those kinds of flavors than, how aggressive. Vodka sometimes.

Evan: 14:34

I I've seen, I've seen hibiscus and floral team needs. I don't think they're as popular as they once were, but at least on the Mead subreddit, they were very popular at one point.

Alison: 14:45

Yeah. And I mean things, If you're in any homebrewing,

Evan: 14:50

If you're in

Alison: 14:51

Facebook groups or any

Evan: 14:52

any hobby

Alison: 14:53

Yeah. Things go in on a fashion right now in a meat and wine brewing group that Evan and I are in, everybody keeps talking about what's called Viking's blood.

Evan: 15:03

Oh, that, that has maintained a pretty big, popular, pretty decent level, but that's popped up again recently. I've had the original cause it's, it's replicating your commercial product.

Alison: 15:13

Oh, well, not one that I've heard of before.

Evan: 15:16

it's, all Vikings blued. Well, with like Ooma laps over the house, or maybe one of the hoses slash through it's a clay bottle.

Alison: 15:25

uh, clay bottle. huh? Just for funsies. Does that have any effect on anything or it's really just their gimmick. Fair enough.

Evan: 15:35

Um, but it's a.

Alison: 15:37

If Cholula can do it. Why? Can't

Evan: 15:39

Yeah, it's a, uh, it's a Mela Mel, so it's fruited. And if I recall it has hops or they sell a version, that's also hopped. It's very melomels or pop or variations on melomels are popular. but I want something that's darker than Viking's blood. I want blood wine.

Alison: 15:57

huh? What would a blood one?

Evan: 15:59

I don't know. Ask.

Alison: 16:02

Oh, a klingon blood wine. Oh Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, I would like to ask Bellona Torres, talk, uh, Yeah, we got to eventually figure out how to make some a Romulan ale.

Evan: 16:26

Yeah. The issue with that is that would probably be distilled based on every description of it. Despite the fact that his name is ale.

Alison: 16:32

Yeah, well, I think it would have to be like my, my slip of its ideas, which. We'll not be distilled, so it'll just be brewed and I'll see how high of an alcohol content I can get it. But speaking of plum alcohols and speaking of infusions, I went to dinner tonight, with somebody who just moved to the area. We tried out a restaurant that I've never been to a Japanese restaurant. Yeah, figured we'd check it out, and got there and was told that they had a special on wine tonight. So I went, yeah, I'm going to have a glass of wine, which is always something that makes me feel so adult it's, like, I know I'm 27 for context, but are still like, There's some sort of mystique to it or, or something. I don't know what it is that even six years after being able to legally buy alcohol here a bit like getting a drink in a restaurant is just so exciting to me. But anyways, I digress. I got, they had on, on the wine list, Japanese plum one.

Evan: 17:47

Yeah.

Alison: 17:48

restaurant and I, what?Umeshu I guess, Yeah. but it was, it was just white wine infused with plum flavor. which was nice. It was very sweet, but overall pretty enjoyable. And that kind of solidified my, yes. I'm going to make some plum with.

Evan: 18:10

Oh, it's been, I can't.

Alison: 18:11

plum wine, I, guess it would technically be.

Evan: 18:13

yeah, I haven't had that in a long time. It's really good.

Alison: 18:17

Yeah, it was lovely. It was, almost on the candy side flavor-wise, which was very interesting. And I don't really know how to describe it. Like it was actual plot. My, I mean, I checked, I was like, this is, this is very sweet and it's just got like a very, a flavor that reminds me of. Eating like candied fruit or something like that. If

Evan: 18:42

In Japan, a lot of families will make it just in their fridge.

Alison: 18:46

Yeah, it was lovely. So would recommend, interesting infusion. Presumably they just add plums now.

Evan: 18:57

pretty much. They add traditionally, just underwrite, plums, sugar, and a distilled saute or wine.

Alison: 19:05

Hm.

Evan: 19:07

I can put a link on how to make it in the show.

Alison: 19:09

Awesome. Actually, that brings me to another question that maybe belongs in another episode. but I've been reading a lot about, Peach wines and peach means recently. another thing that seems to have risen in popularity recently in the homebrewing community, I don't, again, I don't know if that's new or not

Evan: 19:30

I've not seen much on that. So I would say.

Alison: 19:32

I've seen a bunch of posts recently about it. A lot of people talking about it. And one piece, one thing that, I've seen repeatedly commented on is people saying that underwrite peaches work better than. You're totally right. Peaches.

Evan: 19:49

I think it's because they hold up better. So that's probably true for a lot of fruits that people would like to infuse is that if they're slightly under ripe, they are both more sour. So you're going to, so you add your sugar a separate way. So that's part of it. The other part I think is that they may be because they are firmer, they are less likely to fall apart, but that is just my hypothesis.

Alison: 20:18

Yeah. Another thing people were saying is that they were getting better flavor, out of underwrite peaches. I don't know.

Evan: 20:26

I've not tried it, but it seems, I guess, Two is at least enough to make a trend, not necessarily enough to make any scientific hypothesis.

Alison: 20:37

Yeah. Well, it'd be more interesting because it comes to mind because you said. People usually use underwrite plums, and they're not, I don't know if they're in the same family or that closely related or anything, but they are both stone fruits. so it's something that makes me curious. if there's anybody listening to this, who's tried working with pumps or peaches before. feel free to give us a shout. It's just kind of in general curiosity right now and something that we'll have to try right now. Step one is still, getting my accidental cardamom bitters out of the car. Boy, did I mention that on the

Evan: 21:19

Do you, you mentioned that, it was very Cardone and very, bitter and not necessarily the greatest you may actually want to, you may want to add to just boost the alcohol with some vodka to bring the percentage up into the forties and use it like traditional bitters.

Alison: 21:34

So that's pretty much what I've been thinking about and doing, because I brought some over to a friend's, she's a very creative cook and, works with some really interesting flavors. and I. brought some over to her and we mixed up some cocktails just to see what we could do with it. ended up adding, oh, some kind of weird realm. I don't remember what it was off hand. it was some kind of like sweet rum, and Walnut bitters. and apple cider vinegar. And the F and the cardamom, maple binner bitters, and a dash of maple, maple syrup and all together, it made a really nice cocktail

Evan: 22:18

That does sound really tasty now Walnut bitters are pretty popular. I also really liked Cardman before.

Alison: 22:26

you ha have you had cardamom, bitters? Is that like a thing people sell.

Evan: 22:31

yeah. Fee brothers. So I'll start them on bitters. Also Walnut brothers feed brothers is a very good company. Tippett is from.

Alison: 22:37

huh? I don't maybe it's because I grew up in a family of mostly wine drinkers. The cocktails we made were usually limited to a chocolate martinis and which are delicious by the way.

Evan: 22:53

Yes. Aren't you that

Alison: 22:56

Yeah. the day my dad gave me his secret recipe to make a chocolate martini. That was a very exciting day indeed. And in my household. so some of the things that I'm hopping across the border to pick up or ingredients for that. but I guess, because we mostly just grew up drinking wine and going wine tasting and, and I have. I would say a very solid wine pallet at this point in my life. I guess I didn't, there are so many beverages that I just haven't tried. not even just beverages, but like additives or, things that have never been on my mind to try. And now I'm slowly trying to expand my palette more and more. Tried vermouth for the first time last night.

Evan: 23:45

really?

Alison: 23:46

Okay. I don't think it was my first time just having for Muth. I mean, I've had Todd kills before. I've learned that I don't like gin martinis before.

Evan: 23:59

Well, you, you don't really like gin if I recall, is that

Alison: 24:01

No, I don't like gin. but. I'd never just like actually taken a taste of vermouth before I had a model of it, but

Evan: 24:12

That's fine. but what I, I would say my, like my family is somewhat similar, more. My parents were definitely more into wine, but, so my wine taste in college was a lot more than mine, my alcohol budget,

Alison: 24:25

oh yeah.

Evan: 24:25

and I didn't want to buy a bottle of wine and have one glass and then let it, and then have it sit in the fridge. So I started doing more well, both beer, which is there were like five breweries within walking distance. And most of them were pretty good. but also in home brewing, but also cocktails because I, it was a more reasonable way to split the budget, and get a wide variety for both me And anyone I was hosting. Cause I love having game nights and such. I haven't had one in years, but you get the idea. Go to vaccinate. so that's where I started getting into. And there were definitely a bunch of books I used, for getting into cocktails and some having access to some really great liquor stores in undergrad and grad school is where I got into things like really interesting bitters.

Alison: 25:15

Huh, that's pretty cool. And I mean, now I guess you get to make whatever you want

Evan: 25:21

Yeah, exactly.

Alison: 25:22

try whatever you want. There's a lot of excitement. to the.

Evan: 25:25

There's a lot of excitement. I'm sure when we do cocktails, whether we get to talk with drinking and driving, or we just do it ourselves, we'll talk to some of the many cartel books that I've read.

Alison: 25:34

Yeah.

Evan: 25:35

I've read a lot of them.

Alison: 25:37

also one thing that, I mean, I guess it's a, well, this will get brought up in the cocktail episode, but most of what I know about cocktails comes from either Evan or. There's a lovely episode and I'm sure I feel like we've probably referenced this before, but I'm a big fan of Alton. Brown's good eats TV show. And he has a great episode about cocktails, where he talks about the different glasses and, and, two note or three note cocktails and, how to mix things and make sassy comments about James Bond. So.

Evan: 26:16

Oh, and he's done. He's done a. cause he started, they started making good eats again. one of the, they did effectively two series simultaneously, one of which were new, completely new episodes. The other of which were revamps like redos of the old episodes. One of them was the Scottsdale.

Alison: 26:31

oh, I didn't know. I had not been watching the new

Evan: 26:34

Speaking of Alton brown for anybody who goes into our show knows there's several links to him because we both love him. and I learned a little bit about making cocktails from I've mostly learned how to cook in all honesty, by watching his videos, because I did not care to learn how to cook until I was an undergrad and wanted to eat better than the dorms.

Alison: 26:50

Yeah. Oh man. I do Not miss storm food one bit.

Evan: 26:59

Not one bit at all. but so Alton brown has several good infusions because that's at least what we, we got, we got distracted on a relevant tangent. That'll stay in. but he's

Alison: 27:10

also like a wonderfully chaotic, uh, entity on TV

Evan: 27:15

He's also, yeah, he and his wife are frequently do live streams as well of living what, cooking dinner with a not insignificant number of drinks. And they're also wonderful. But so, uh, one of them is, and this speaking of cocktails, I, one of the cartels I recommended when you were texting me about them last night was a cartel whose name I can't pronounce, but you probably can cause you didn't spell it.

Alison: 27:42

Right. Rich

Evan: 27:43

The, the one, the state bird or the state fish of Hawaii.

Alison: 27:46

Oh,

Evan: 27:48

Yes. That's the way that. So I learned about this cocktail from a Tiki book. That is very good. They will talk about another time. And I think we've probably mentioned before called Smuggler's Cove,

Alison: 28:00

Yes.

Evan: 28:01

name. but so one of not that drink, but a lot of the other drinks in that book use all spice DRAM, which they recommend going out and buying a very nice bottle of in the book. Alton Brown is a much better way to do it. Using a homemade infusion is though takes 10 days. If you do it properly, if you do it the slow. Which is based. It's just all spice, Navy strength, rum, and sugar.

Alison: 28:25

I mean, that's what it sound like. Something I want to drink, but it does sound like something to add to a good cocktail.

Evan: 28:30

Oh, it is something you make as a TA, as an addition, you add a quarter of announced to a cocktail. It's amazing.

Alison: 28:36

Yeah. Don't drink it straight up folks.

Evan: 28:39

No,

Alison: 28:39

what would Navy strength be? I'm just thinking of like, basically upper clear.

Evan: 28:46

No, no it's not ever clear. Navy straight from is specifically 57.5% alcohol.

Alison: 28:51

Evan: 28:52

And it is normally also an aged rum traditionally because their Navy strength is any rum that is 57.5% alcohol, because that is the percentage of alcohol, which is required for self ignition or if not, not directly self ignition, but if you wet.

Alison: 29:12

Oh, I was thinking about like lighting yourself on fire. So my brain went in a very different direction

Evan: 29:19

so, I mean, if you soak yourself in it. Yes. but so if you'd like done, if you soak gunpowder and is less than, and what you're soaking in in is less than 57.5% alcohol, the gunpowder will not burn or will not burn cleanly. but if it is that or above it is clean and thanks to the. Quartermaster of the ship before dueling out the daily tot of rum, which happened every day in the British Navy from the mid 16 hundreds till 1971, the rum ration, literally the daily tots as, as it was called every day, that lawn

Alison: 29:54

that's wild.

Evan: 29:54

every day, the quarter man, or every new barrel, the quartermaster would have to prove on the deck that this barrel was not watered. And that is where we get the term proof of alcohol. So it's double percentage in America. The math is slightly different in Britain. so, that is where we get the term for proof as opposed and not using just percentage.

Alison: 30:15

if I recall correctly, this is one instance where the math is nicer for America.

Evan: 30:22

It is the instance where the math is nicer for Americans. I do not really know of another, in anything. Well, the thing is the infusions are relatively simple topic. another good infusion I've made is from Alton brown though.

Alison: 30:37

Oh,

Evan: 30:37

this is one that, I'm also including in the show notes, partially not just because of what it is, which is tasty. And I made a variant. That was it. But what it lets you do, if you have a sous which I do is it lets you speed up, you know, that all spice dream. That's a 10 days

Alison: 30:53

Yeah.

Evan: 30:54

I made in an hour.

Alison: 30:56

Whoa.

Evan: 30:58

Which is the, the sous vide lets you bring it up to a, you're not distilling obviously, but brings it up a little. So you infuse everything much faster. So it's the immersion circulator, fennel cordial. So it's vodka, fennel, frond, sugar, fennel, seed cardamom, cardamom, pod and star anise.

Alison: 31:17

Which sounds good. I mean, if you're an anesthesia finance sounds fantastic.

Evan: 31:21

I mean, if you're not in.

Alison: 31:22

fan, it sounds repulsive, but If you're an Amazon fan.

Evan: 31:25

If you're not an Anna's fan, admit the analysts.

Alison: 31:29

Yeah,

Evan: 31:30

Um, but it was very tasting, very herbal, not quite a short truce, which I mean, chartreuse is like 55 herbs in it,

Alison: 31:38

yeah.

Evan: 31:39

but it was very tasty. I recommend it. Is there a third?

Alison: 31:42

It's also a beautiful color, kind of a bigger color, but pretty color. Yeah.

Evan: 31:48

Well, the teller comes from the teller is named after the, color of the liquore.

Alison: 31:53

Yeah. I mean, the two things are not mutually exclusive.

Evan: 31:57

That

Alison: 31:57

It can also be bugger colored.

Evan: 32:00

That is true. so there is actually one more,

Alison: 32:03

great.

Evan: 32:04

one more, Alton brown recipe I have linked, which I believe is included in that original cocktails.

Alison: 32:11

Well, I just found a separately after you say this, I just was Googling multiline recipes and I just found one. That sounds delicious.

Evan: 32:21

sorry. This is not in his cocktail recipe. One, this isn't from the episode of major pepper. That's not the Sergeant, but

Alison: 32:30

yes, I think I've seen that one. Is that the one where he talks about peppercorns?

Evan: 32:34

yeah.

Alison: 32:35

Yes. Oh my God. One of the best

Evan: 32:37

Sergeant was promoted.

Alison: 32:39

Yes. He deserves his promotion. One of the best cocktails I've ever had side note was pink peppercorn. And, in grapefruit, I had. The night I turned 21. I went to a speakeasy with my parents in Manhattan, called please. Don't tell, you go into a hotdog stand, you go into a telephone booth, like an old school, one inside the hotdog stand he'd dial a number, and the backslides out and they ask you for your ID anyways, would recommend excellent cocktails, even if they're super expensive.

Evan: 33:12

Well, if they're still around, I need to visit my sister in New York. So if they're still around, I will have to go.

Alison: 33:17

You do. I got to bring you some of my weird bruise. You're getting my weirdest stuff when I see you

Evan: 33:24

I don't care. It's fun.

Alison: 33:25

Yeah.

Evan: 33:26

but so, uh, Alton brown also is a peppered vodka, which has a huge history actually, uh, dating back to like, uh, Peter, the great of Russia. It was his favorite drink and he drank and Peter the great of Russia for anyone who does not know Russian Imperial history was absurdly addressing.

Alison: 33:44

He's the one who banned beards for awhile, right? Yeah. I'm on the list of things that you don't want to ban in Russia. It's literally anything that will help keep you warm.

Evan: 33:56

Well, do you also know about the hairy bald rule in Russia?

Alison: 33:59

Hairy ball.

Evan: 34:00

starting with Nicholas the first in 1825. Every ruler has alternated, whether they're have hair or bold.

Alison: 34:07

Really

Evan: 34:08

boris Yeltsin had hair. Vladimir Putin is bald. I think if they knew about that long it, yes, no. Was it Yeltsin either way? The hairy bald rule is a thing in Russia

Alison: 34:24

That's pretty funny.

Evan: 34:26

and Peter, the third who was absurdly drunk, loved, pepper vodka.

Alison: 34:31

side note. I don't know what happened to it. Oh my God. A while ago. So there were some, there was some greet means like quite a while ago when the second Harry Potter movie first came out, Vladimir Putin was like, I don't know how long he'd been in office at that point, but. People got really annoyed because Dobby the house herself from the second, starting in the second Harry Potter movie, people were saying, it looks like he's modeled off of birth, off of a flat Amir Peyton.

Evan: 35:06

Better than being modeled off Gorbachev's birthmark.

Alison: 35:10

Yeah. I believe there was an Actual lawsuit about it.

Evan: 35:14

Oh,

Alison: 35:16

If I can find further information about it,

Evan: 35:19

mm.

Alison: 35:20

Awesome. Anyways, back to infusions, I, found it great sending recipe called GLAAD. We two GS gluc. Is that how it's pronounced

Evan: 35:31

And as they're missing the Uber napped

Alison: 35:34

a classic Scandinavian hot spiced wine punch served with raisins and almonds. Ooh, this sounds so

Evan: 35:42

right. So mold wine is something, a lot of people are very, familiar or potentially familiar with. And as we are approaching proper winter and what we should have one episode more, I believe before. Yeah. Well, if one episode that should come out the day before Thanksgiving, so maybe we'll get the punches there, so next time we'll probably be doing cocktails or punch. We shall see what we can, schedule up, but, and malt wines are effectively very, for simple form of a punch. You take wine and you add heat and spice. And mulling spices, which are sometimes the same as cider spices.

Alison: 36:23

These are very complicated processes, guys. I, I really, I don't know how anybody manages that. It's really, it takes a lot of time and effort and thought to toss a bunch of things into a pot and turn on the stove.

Evan: 36:37

Turn the stove on like medium, low. I bought two bottles of wine in the pot, or if you have a, Crock-Pot just turn it on and your home will smell incredible.

Alison: 36:47

Yeah, It's it's a really complicated, painful

Evan: 36:50

really complicated. I mean, dude is one of the more complex recipes and it includes at least this one, orange zest cinnamon stats, cardamom, clove, almond, raisin sugar, and some Brandy. That's it.

Alison: 37:05

okay. But did you read the instructions?

Evan: 37:08

Yeah. Step one for basic. Pour the wine into a pot. use the, put the zest.

Alison: 37:12

instructions are essentially dump everything into a pot and boy,

Evan: 37:16

Yup. My, my bid warning for mold one.

Alison: 37:21

Is that it's too delicious and you have to make sure you can stop.

Evan: 37:25

Yes that, but also try to make sure it doesn't boil

Alison: 37:28

Yeah.

Evan: 37:29

both because it'll then stick to your pot, which becomes a pain to clean up, but

Alison: 37:33

also because you don't want to leave all the alcohol.

Evan: 37:38

you, unless you are operating a still, in which case, why are you listening to us? Talk about mold wine to distill some wine based liquor spice.

Alison: 37:48

Also if you're operating a still don't tell us about it,

Evan: 37:53

Well, unless you're in New Zealand or, operating in your own distillery.

Alison: 37:57

where you that dude from YouTube who,

Evan: 37:59

he's from New Zealand.

Alison: 38:00

Oh no, not the guy who always says. Not for human consumption.

Evan: 38:08

Oh No, not

Alison: 38:08

being invert educational purposes. Oh my God. There's a,

Evan: 38:12

not him. To my knowledge, we've not had any Kiwis download the show yet, but if I'm wrong, let us know.

Alison: 38:20

Okay. I'm going to send Evan at least a video on this dude making Slivovitz from scratch. I do not know. where this guy is, but all of his videos have a disclaimer about how, nobody will be drinking this. Sure. Buddy share. Yeah. Basically take a pot, put wine into the. Red wine usually. And then you put spices in there, cinnamon, clove cardamom. Those are All great options or similarly warm and cozy spices.

Evan: 38:51

All spices. Another popular one.

Alison: 38:54

Adding Brandy is perfectly acceptable. turn on the stove

Evan: 38:58

Yeah.

Alison: 38:59

and then try not to shove your face in there when it smells so incredibly good

Evan: 39:04

True. Get a ladle.

Alison: 39:06

poured into a mug.

Evan: 39:08

Yep. That's about it.

Alison: 39:10

Proceed to drink too much of it. because it's really tasty.

Evan: 39:14

Absolutely. Do you have a much more to say on Mulligan and infusion because

Alison: 39:19

I've gone on like four really long tangents. This episode already. You really want to attempt to me again?

Evan: 39:27

we'll see how many of them make it in.

Alison: 39:29

Oh yeah.

Evan: 39:30

We're gonna have a fun tangents episode.

Alison: 39:32

We're going to have like five tangents at this rate because both of us are incapable of not going on tangents.

Evan: 39:40

That's the best part.

Alison: 39:42

Oh, absolutely.

Evan: 39:43

but I think otherwise we should just let tell people, make these they're incredibly easy. You probably you have many of the ingredients and all the tools. You can find plenty of recipes for whatever style you'd like and the ingredients aren't hard to find either.

Alison: 40:00

And I mean, if you're having that much trouble, you can really, you can shoot us a message if you really want suggestions.

Evan: 40:06

Absolutely. We'd love to help.

Alison: 40:09

Yeah. So. Always welcome to shoot us a message. like I say to new people, when they start work with me, feel free to ask me any questions. If I can't answer, then I probably know who to bother to get an answer from.

Evan: 40:29

Exactly. We will do our best to Jeanette the people with the best resource we can.

Alison: 40:33

Yup.

Evan: 40:36

And I think

Alison: 40:37

we still don't know how to end episodes

Evan: 40:39

don't have a sign off.

Alison: 40:41

so happy for men Tang.

Evan: 40:43

Happy fermenting.

SheBrews, HeBrews: A Jewish Fermentation Podcast

Episoide 12: Mulling Infusions

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