Hop bitters

[Microscopist]

I do like a cocktail now and then and I love bitters. I've seen semi-recipes for hop bitters on the net but they all start with soaking the hops in alcohol.
That to me doen't seem right - most commercial bitters use both water and alcohol extraction and I thought hops needed a reasonable boil to get a good bitter extraction so I'm thinking of trying it a bit differently -

Boil one batch of hops in water to make a puckeringly bitter tea, then add that to a tincture made from fresh aroma hops. Then unite and adjust to 40% EtOH.

I'm wondering what other aromas might do well in the mix - a little citrus peel seems obvious, what about black pepper? any other suggestions?

 

[Breadontap]

Sounds great. Depending on the flavoring hops you use you could use a variety of things. I love citrus with peppers. I recently made a mosaic guava IPA that's killer. I'm not sure what would go with a piney hop like chinook.

Please post some results.


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[Microscopist]

I'm now thinking stick to what I know and make beer bitters - use the hops but balance them with the sweet coffee and chocolate notes of high roast malts. Might might my gin look quite funny though.

 

[lpsumo]

I'm making a grapefruit bitters at the moment and the recipe includes hope. I just threw them in the alcohol with the rest of the ingredients so we'll see how it turns out.

Let me know how your boiled hops tincture goes

 

[Microscopist]

Your post spurred me into action - just catching up after the house move. I'm going for 'beer bitters'.

15g Boadicea hops in 180g 90% alcohol
15g of the same in 300ml wort from todays brew, reboiled for a couple of minutes basically just to pasteurise.
I'll let them sit a few days then unite, leave for a week and then try them in gin.

I figure keep it relatively simple as I can always make additional extracts of spices and add them in later,.

 

[Microscopist]

Mixed the two parts and got a horrible looking lurid green swamp. Left it to sit a couple of week, strained and settled. Got an amber liquid at end.
Tried it in Fever tree tonic -
Hop is definitely there, but it needs further concentrating- I needed around 20 drops in 150ml tonic for a worthwhile flavour
Cold teaish background needs dealing with too.

I reckon on boiling down to about 15% volume, making up to 70% alcohol and adding some lemon peel extract as the next step

I need a woody note in there, not sure what will fit the bill though, maybe actual wood?, as in oak powder.