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Basil Liqueur

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loveofrose

loveofrose

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Nov 9, 2012
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Basil Liqueur

Pick ~40 basil leaves, harvested in the morning when the leaves are the most aromatic. Clean and dry.
Add leaves to 750 ml Everclear.

Infuse 20 days, then to taste. (No more than 6 weeks).

Cut Basil infusion with honey and water.
-Try 1/2 cup honey and water to top off 1 liter. (~250ml or 75% ABV)
Add more to taste or treat as a concentrate for cocktails.

Good as a digestif.
Especially good in a Bloody Mary.

Store in the freezer.


Better brewing through science!
 
LOR, Did you muddle them first or just add whole? There are tons of different basils, did you guys use the regular basil? We also grow the Thai basil, I can see muddling some of these leaves plus stems and flowers to produce a strong basil with licorice flavor, great idea! WVMJ
 
My partner and I have planted at least seven varieties of basil this year. One of them has leaves the size of romaine lettuce, and others have small leaves like the Thai basil. Is there a method for infusing in mead? As in get a high ABV (15% to 20%) add it to secondary?? Or will lower ABV (10% to 14%) be able to infuse as well?? Anyway great recipe!!! I'm not into the hard liquors (anymore!) so mead would be my prefered infusion substrate...
 
I just throw them in whole. I used sweet basil from my garden. I think any other basil would be good.

You won't need stems, flowers, or muddling to get the licorice flavor you want. This is the color of less than 10 hours extraction:

ypepu2a3.jpg


Beautiful already!

Better brewing through science!
 
EJM3 said:
My partner and I have planted at least seven varieties of basil this year. One of them has leaves the size of romaine lettuce, and others have small leaves like the Thai basil. Is there a method for infusing in mead? As in get a high ABV (15% to 20%) add it to secondary?? Or will lower ABV (10% to 14%) be able to infuse as well?? Anyway great recipe!!! I'm not into the hard liquors (anymore!) so mead would be my prefered infusion substrate...
Click to expand...

Mead will extract basil flavor and some color, but not the emerald green everclear does. Basil and mead go very well together. A nice dry sparkling mead with muddled basil is very nice on a hot day!


Better brewing through science!
 
My first 5 gallons of dry traditional should be done in a bit (thanks to K1V), so maybe I'll have to allocate a small portion to have added herbs from the garden. Thanks for the great and tasty idea(s):thumbsup:, I think I can even interest my mostly non-drinking partner to get on board with this one! ARGH!! Now I'm totally out of any drop from this batch for myself at this point. Guess I'll have to just expand to at least one more fermentor/carboy combo, and save up for a bucket (maybe two??) of some more local honey, a few more bits-n-bobs (as the Brits say), maybe a few more... Um... Oy Vey! A definite M.E.A.D. flare up, gotta do something about it and increase my income and stave off the DTs :sad4: ;D...
 
Alas... can't get Everclear here, but basil sounds interesting. We bought a 3" pot of purple basil with tons of plants which I repotted and are now planted all over the place.... Same situation with sage and oregano too.
 
Oregano is a vegetable right??? I have one that is currently over 24" across and ~14" high. I generally get 2 harvests per year out of him. My purple basil just does not want to germinate. All the other types I have sown are germinating quite well, so I think I'll just sprinkle a few seeds of purple around the edges and fill in a few blank spots, and provide me with lots of fun opportunities to make some interesting mini-me(ad) experiments.
 
Darn. I was hoping, but alas, back to herb status. I just hate it when I say I have a shrubs of herb in my backyard. This is Washington you know :rolleyes:...

Maybe a multi-herbal Metheglin for the To-Brew-List, and a multi-basil Metheglin for the Soon-To-Brew-List. It looks like my traditional is finishing fermenting without my intervention. So I will have to get my plan of action ready to go in the next month or three...
 
EJM3 said:
Oregano is a vegetable right???
Click to expand...

That's actually a quote from my household... after my hubby was shaking some into soup and the perforated shakey-shakey lid came off and all the whole jar went in... It was good soup. We now consider it a vegetable.

That said, I did a really nice sage metheglyn a few years ago that's probably going to be good to drink soon. No colour infusion whatsoever though, but I had the sage in for primary fermentation.
 
Today I filter this year's limoncello. Zest of 18 lemons in a total of 5 cups vodka, with a simple syrup. It has been sitting in a closet for about 3 months, soaking up the lemons. Smells like liquid sunshine. Looks like it, too.

Also just bottled a fig infusion - half fresh black mission figs and half dried figs for some sweetness. The black mission give some of that fresh, "slightly green skin" fig taste and smell.

The yearly pastis is done as well, this year with extra rose petals and a touch more lavender... but not so much that it challenges the anise and licorice.

Yum.

I'll post pics later.
 
Sounds good Jim H! :)
LoveofRose I wonder why this needs to be stored in a freezer. I suspect it is because honey is added. Although at 20%alc+ it goes against my intuition. Think we should need freezing this even if we decide to "treat as a concentrate for cocktails"? Thanks :)
 
Stasis said:
Sounds good Jim H! :)
LoveofRose I wonder why this needs to be stored in a freezer. I suspect it is because honey is added. Although at 20%alc+ it goes against my intuition. Think we should need freezing this even if we decide to "treat as a concentrate for cocktails"? Thanks :)
Click to expand...

You don't have to store in the freezer. That's just how I like it!


Better brewing through science!
 
Finished product. Nice to have a dash in a dry traditional mead. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1404772729.922219.jpg


Better brewing through science!
 
Basil Bloody Mary

1.5 oz Vodka (Ketel One)
1 oz Basil Liquer
1/2 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
4 oz Zing Zang Bloody Mary mix
4 dashes Tabasco
1/2 tsp Horseradish paste
4 dashes Worcestershire
White Pepper
Celery salt

Put all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake it. Pour into a nice tall glass.

Garnish with celery stalk, garlic stuffed olive, and pickled okra. I like my Bloody Mary to come with a snack!


Better brewing through science!
 
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