Making homemade chili liquor

[AntonGarou]

I like making liquors, but now I'm a bit stumped: having bought really good chili peppers(not sure of the variety- 5-7 cm pods with serious heat: 3 lent strong authority to 2 kg of stew) in a farmer's market I want to make chili liquor, but my usual method of taking a 750cc bottle of 95% grain alcohol, adding a cup of water, 1kg sugar and 1kg fruit obviously won't work well here, even if I had 1kg of the peppers. Does anyone has advice to offer on how many peppers I put per a bottle of grain alcohol?Also, any ideas of what spices I should add other then a stick of cinnamon and a vanilla pod?

[Роберт]

No idea how much chile pepper you should use, but it sounds like fun.

Whole peppercorns might be a good addition. I've done pepper vodka before (as in salt and pepper pepper) and it's kinda spicy. I wonder if a touch of cinnamon would go with it. I guess you'll find out.

[mercutio_stencil]

The recipe you use depends on the variety of pepper you use and your intended purpose for the liquor. All of the chili drinks I've made have been intended for mixing, or cooking use, so they run strong.

I tend to just fill up a nice swing top glass bottle with dried peppers, then fill in the vodka. You don't need Everclear. It turns out too spicy to drink more than a tablespoon of at a time, but delicious in a Bloody Mary, or just a strange take on a Martini. A nice mix of spicy peppers and smokey peppers give it more depth and flavor.

If you want something to drink straight...I don't know, that concept is scary.

[AntonGarou]

I definitely want something to drink straight. Therefor I don't want it to scorch people's tongue off, but thanks for the recipe

[PAstrychef]

I would start with a measured amount of powdered chili, heat-infused in a set amount of vodka. Do a series, with different amounts of chili. Once you have an idea of how much chili gives a useful amount of heat, you can work up a formula from there. And some sugar in the mix would make the beverage balanced on the tongue and give a nice syrupy mouthfeel.

[Роберт]

You know, for just starting off, you could do something similar to what PA said, except my suggestion would be to use a small amount of alcohol (6-8 oz?) and what you thing will be sufficient amount of hot pepper.

Then once it's infused, mix a small portion of it into the other alcohol. Take a tiny taste. How much more heat does it need? If it's already pretty hot, be careful about adding more. Go in stages until you get it right.

Then note how much you used so you'll have a better idea next time. WARNING, though. Pepper heat varies from pepper to pepper so you will NOT get consistent results. It may be best to ALWAYS prepare your liquor this way so you have better control of the heat in the final product.

[PAstrychef]

Oh yes, I was thinking of small samples, just to get an idea of the ratios. Otherwise, you would end up with lots and lots of not really drinkable chili infusions.
If you want to buy cheap vodka for this, you can improve it by running it through a Britta style filter.

[Роберт]

Oh yes, I was thinking of small samples, just to get an idea of the ratios. Otherwise, you would end up with lots and lots of not really drinkable chili infusions.
If you want to buy cheap vodka for this, you can improve it by running it through a Britta style filter.

Right, but I was just saying just make one pretty strong one and then mix it to taste with non-hot stuff.

[Obby]

If you want to buy cheap vodka for this, you can improve it by running it through a Britta style filter.

Sorry for the ignorance, but does that actually make it taste better? What exactly does the Brita filter do to the vodka that, say, a paper filter wouldn't?

[PAstrychef]

If you want to buy cheap vodka for this, you can improve it by running it through a Britta style filter.

Sorry for the ignorance, but does that actually make it taste better? What exactly does the Brita filter do to the vodka that, say, a paper filter wouldn't?

Traps smaller impurities and many more chemicals. A paper filter won't affect chlorine, but a Britta one will. If the vodka has been made with, effectively, tap water, it will have all of the stuff that the municipality it was made in puts in its water. Never heard of fluoride being a taste-enhancer.

[Whitekiboko]

If you want to buy cheap vodka for this, you can improve it by running it through a Britta style filter.

Sorry for the ignorance, but does that actually make it taste better? What exactly does the Brita filter do to the vodka that, say, a paper filter wouldn't?

Traps smaller impurities and many more chemicals. A paper filter won't affect chlorine, but a Britta one will. If the vodka has been made with, effectively, tap water, it will have all of the stuff that the municipality it was made in puts in its water. Never heard of fluoride being a taste-enhancer.

What are you, a member of the John Birch Society? : )

The water filter is essentially what the grey kangaroo filters are... I would go with a baseline of black pepper and be judicious in use of the capsicum peppers, maybe even doing it in steps.

Heat, like my other cooking love salt, can't be taken out, only diluted.

[mercutio_stencil]

If you want to buy cheap vodka for this, you can improve it by running it through a Britta style filter.

Sorry for the ignorance, but does that actually make it taste better? What exactly does the Brita filter do to the vodka that, say, a paper filter wouldn't?

The activated charcoal also captures some of the less pleasant compounds. Or pleasant compounds depending on the substance going in. Scotch comes out clear, strangely enough.

[Bakemaster]

Mythbusters looked at filtering vodka in one episode and decided it helps but once you pay for the filtration you might as well just be buying the better vodka.

[Amarantha]

Personally I just stabbed a fresh locoto a few times and then put it in the bottle.

[Sheikh al-Majaneen]

From what I've read, it is best not to use a brita filter, because all that plastic will mix into the vodka and make it weakly poisonous. It is best to use activated charcoal, like put a teaspoon of it in the bottle or something.

[darthchazza]

I made some Chilli vodka once, from memory I decided that one bottle of vodka shares between two people in one night so I added enough Chilli to make two big serves of thai curry to my preferred level of spiciness: 6 of the prik kee (mouse shit/birds eye) chilli. It started off very spicy but I added a smallish amount of sugar, about 4 tablespoons and that took a lot of the heat a away leaving me with a very pleasant drink. Also worth noting that alcohol has been proven to increase the perceived spiciness of chillis.
An even better idea than this is Chilli Chocolate Vodka do the above along with half a cup of good dark cocoa powder and put it through a coffee filter.

[Роберт]

An even better idea than this is Chilli Chocolate Vodka do the above along with half a cup of good dark cocoa powder and put it through a coffee filter.

That actually sounds pretty good.

[AntonGarou]

Well, after I consulted various people I decided to put 2 decapitated peppers and other spices in 750 ml of 50% alcohol solution and add 125g sugar. The problem is that currently the heat is too strong(yes, I already removed the peppers) and I'm debating how I can moderate it without diluting and/or overshadowing the taste of the other spices. Does anybody have an idea of what I can do?

[Роберт]

Make a version without the peppers but with all other spices?

[Whitekiboko]

Add sugar.

[rajonmestra]

Add sugar.

here's a simple recipe i got thru research:


Chili Vodka

Preparation time: 5 minutes Stand 3 days

Ingredients

1 bottle (750 mL) vodka
1 long red finger hot pepper
1 long green finger hot pepper
6 grains coarse sea salt

Remove 1 oz (30 mL) vodka from bottle.

Cut slits down sides of red and green pepper; insert into vodka bottle along with salt. Let stand for 3 days.

Strain and keep for up to 1 year. Chill in freezer