Bitters

 Something non-denim related I've been into for the last couple of years is making bitters. There was a bitters renaissance at the fancier bars and restaurants a few years back- most places that prided themselves on having an edgy bar would have some house-made bitters on hand for a signature drink or two. Usually these were good, occasionally great, and sometimes it would have been better to stick to Angostura, frankly. That wave has passed a little, but the process can be fun and quite rewarding. Nothing tastes as good as an Old Fashioned mixed with bitters you planned out and brewed up yourself.

 The process is pretty straightforward: a combination of (typically) dried or fresh fruit, spices, roots, herbs and bittering agents are added to a menstruum (a dissolving/extracting fluid, in this case alcohol). Different ingredients might be added at different times during the extraction process- early for difficult to extract ingredients like nuts, most dried spice and some dried fruit, or closer to the end of the process for things which are easier to extract flavor from, like most herbs or soft fresh fruit. The extraction usually sits for 1-6 weeks, depending on ingredients and is often shaken daily to speed the process along.

 Next the solids are filtered out of the alcohol and added to a little water. This mash is boiled or simmered, then either let to extract for some time or immediately added into the alcohol. The reason for the double extraction using both alcohol and water is that different menstruums extract different compounds and flavors, to some degree. This step also cuts down the ABV of the finished product. After allowing the mixture to sit for a while (the flavors are believed to blend together more fully over time, and some makers will use a oak barrel to age the bitters or add wood chips to the mix for this step) the bitters are strained, filtered, sometimes marginally sweetened, and then decanted into smaller bottles.

 Here are the bitters I am using most at the moment:

*first time using imgur*

 From left: apricot, Jerry Thomas, mole, fig, and baking spice. The larger far left and right bottles are in their final test phases, and are having some final tinctures of solo ingredients or sweeteners added and tasted until I consider the blend to be satisfactory, at which time I'll decant these to smaller, labeled bottles.

 Anybody else tried this process out?