Variety of spices and herbs opens the home brew enthusiasts opportunities to change the appearance, smell and taste of the drink. In dry or fresh, ingredients such as saffron, vanilla, rosemary, pepper, cloves, are not of much use to the body. But when added to the brew, they reveal a lot of useful properties, contribute to a better absorption of drink, and give it a pleasant fragrance, affect the taste and appearance.
Add herbs and spices must be not in Braga before the distillation in the moonshine, and already cooked moonshine, as a small amount of alcohol in the original liquid will not allow the spices to give all of their nutrients. The duration of the infusion depends on the selected ingredients to brew, as well as temperature. In general, the process can last from 10 days to 6 weeks. If the temperature increase, it acquires the desired beverage flavor faster. Re-distillation of the resulting infusion allows for more vivid, concentrated flavor.
Spices to change the taste and aroma of the drink
When using the recipes of home-brew with a variety of spices and herbs, it is important not to overdo it with supplements and know exactly what taste will give this or that ingredient to your drink:
- Light bitterness - citrus peel, cinnamon, vanilla, dry bay leaf;
- Partly spice - saffron, rosemary;
- Easy pungency - allspice;
- A strong pungency - black pepper, ginger root, cloves;
- Spicy-hot taste - dry nutmeg, cardamom.
Almost all the spices (except for a saffron) can be mixed with each other to produce interesting and unusual flavor characteristics. It is important to remember that the alcohol content in the moonshine is high enough, so the spices in such conditions greatly affect its taste.
Herbs to give the drink an unusual color
There are many herbal supplements that, in addition to flavor home-brew give an unusual color:
- Light golden - orange peel, saffron;
- Yellowish - Melissa, celery leaves, a very small portion of saffron;
- Pale Blue - Fresh sunflower seeds, blueberry broth, filtering the finished broth through the dry leaves of yarrow;
- Brown - oak bark, caramel;
- Green - fresh parsley leaves or black currant;
- Bright red, burgundy - blueberries.
With the infusion of the finished drink on these ingredients, you can completely change its color and surprise guests unusually bright, fragrant and useful potions.