Amaro-making process
Here’s what I know about making amaro. I’m barely a year into this, so: not much yet! But I’ll keep this updated as I learn more.
At the moment I have both a long and quick process that I use. I’ve learned is that time is an ingredient, it’s not critical for every batch but the results when you subject an amaro to time are different than when you don’t. While I’ve made multiple batches of each that turned out well, I’m still doing the science to narrow down whether I have a preference between the two.
Steeping
Spirit
Start with a higher-proof neutral grain spirit. Basically you want vodka that punches in at 50% or higher; you can use Everclear, but I understand it comes with its own gotchas so I can’t advise on how to modify at that proof.
Botanical selection
Amaro doesn’t really have rules, you can use whatever. Rhubarb, orange peel, cardamom, artichoke, it’s all fair game. My main suggestion is to favour dehydrated ingredients over fresh. Water content and especially exposure to oxygen can quickly turn volatile aromatics in fresh herbs into some weird green chlorophyll flavours that take a lot of ageing to turn around, so I’m in the habit of dehydrating anything I use before adding it. If you need to use fresh anyway, plan to minimize the amount of contact time – hours, not weeks.
Botanicals additions
Weigh out and record each ingredient if you want a repeatable recipe, but it can be fun to go by feel too if you’re up for that. Add them to a storage vessel along with your spirit and steep according to one of these two processes:
- Long process – more traditional (I think? Needs citation) process that extracts deeper compounds but takes more time to integrate flavours. Combine all botanicals together at the start, let steep for 2-3 weeks then proceed to finishing.
- Short process – this is quicker in that you can turn around something drinkable in a few weeks, less if you skip fining. It will still take the same amount of time to make and bottle as the long process though. Split this one into two additions:
- Addition one – 48 hours. The more delicate aromatics that might need longer to express go in at the start. This can be spices, dried herbs, tinctures, dried fruit, etc.
- Addition two – 24 hours. Whatever your recipe, think about what will introduce the most bitterness: barks, roots, citrus peel, coffee, etc. That goes in later.
Blending
Strain botanicals
Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the spirit into a bowl but reserve the aromatics.
Water boil
Advice I’ve come across is putting the reserved aromatics back into a pot with 2x your intended final water. Bring that to a boil, then let it steep till cool. Strain again and mix that water with your sugar. This step is optional though, and I’m not yet sure how it affects the final result so I want to try split batches with and without at some point to decide if I want to keep it or not.
Sweeten
Measure out your intended ratios of water and sugar, heat and stir till all sugar is dissolved then immediately remove from heat. Let cool and combine with the reserved spirit, stir well.
Fining
Optionally, you can use fining agents to remove residual sediment. I find that even after being passed through a coffee filter, non-fined amaro ends up with a bottom sediment layer that makes the last pour from the bottle fairly off-putting. Still tastes fine, just isn’t pretty.
I’m still narrowing down a precise regiment here, but what seems to be working well is:
- First pass: bentonite clay and re-hydrating properly – 4+ hours with 60C degree water before mixing well to combine. I let that sit for a week to drop out as much as possible.
- Second pass: sparkalloid, also re-hydrated with warm water 10 minutes. After vigorously stirring in, I let it sit for another until the amaro is see-through and there’s a compact sludge layer on the bottom.
- If the amaro doesn’t go fully see-through, it’s still totally fine. Just use more of each fining agent next time.
Packaging
You can bottle in literally anything, it’s a spirit and will preserve well. I like to use 375mL wine bottles with reusable cork stoppers, but whatever you have is good enough. Make sure to clean your bottles, or even better bring them up to a quick boil in a pot of water. It’s high enough alcohol that your sanitation doesn’t need to be spotless, but just remember that you’ll be putting this in your mouth so clean accordingly.
For each bottle, pop in a funnel and pour off the finished amaro, carefully watching the fill level so you don’t overflow. Move the bottle aside and repeat until just before the sediment starts pouring out too. At this point you can discard, or if you have a pourover coffee setup you can wet the filter then slowly pass the remaining liquid through to reclaim a bit more. It will drip slower and slower, so be prepared to wait a few hours in total.
Once all bottles are filled, cap and store to age.
Ageing
Age will do a lot to integrate the flavour compounds in any amaro recipe or process, so the longer you can wait before opening the better. I reserve the leftovers from each batch in smaller sampler jars to take notes along the way, and try not to open bottles before I’m happy with the results.
That said, the quick process amaro can be turned around in a week or two so don’t think of any of this as a must do. Great amari are subtle, well-balanced mixes of integrated flavours and that’s great, but a fresh raw amaro can be spectacular in its own right. The rules here are whatever you want them to be.
And that’s about what I know so far. You can read up on past batches I’ve made in the Amaro log.