Blending in Cream Liqueur base

[HLD]

Was wondering what experience anyone had with blending in cream base medium into their spirits. I'm leaning more towards not adding any extra sugar, so the cream base would be the only sugar added. My other option was a glycerin/sugar/lactose mix but why reinvent the wheel if someone has already built the cart. I've looked through the forum and there isn't a lot on coffee liquors, which is what I'm interested in making. On a small scale I've used the Still Spirits base but I wondered how it compared to larger more production focused makers.I would also like suggestion on the best way to blend that with my base spirit. Any ideas, suggestions and insights would be appreciated.

[provincial]

Where did you net out on this? I'm working on one right now also. Thinking of doing a cold brew for 6/8 hours get double strength coffee flavor then blend down with water and base spriit. Working on adding a little sugar, vanilla and some sort of creme element as well like a lactose or powdered milk. Dont think you would need glycerine as with sugar and lactose you should get a nice body.  Been looking around for some solid recipes but I think its that basic.  Filtering and sediment on the coffee will be the issue. 

• We are going to use a light to medium roast (dark roasts come out bitter) - 8 ounces of ground coffee to 8 cups of water.  
• Let it soak no longer than 12 hours
• Mix your sugar and water ratio. Play around with that till its a balanced tasting coffee. 
• Add your base spirits and then tweak with the flavorings but use sparingly or it destroys the tasty coffee balance. 

Let me know where you get to

 

[Silk City Distillers]

Just got a sample of the Signature Spirits/Ultrapure cream base.

It’s surprisingly nice, haven’t done much with it but at first taste, it seems fairly versatile.  Max abv is around 17 I believe.

Only challenge is MOQ is a tote.

[Huffy2k]

Silk, we do a bourbon cream with Ultrapure as the base cream.  It's been very well received.  The tote (actually a tote sized bag on a pallet contained in a cardboard outer shell) really pushes our equipment handling equipment to the limit though.  We debated about doing this last year given the MOQ but decided to go for it and ended up selling out of everything way earlier than we planned.  We will probably do 2 separate tote deliveries this year.

[bluestar]

7 hours ago, Huffy2k said:

Silk, we do a bourbon cream with Ultrapure as the base cream.  It's been very well received.  The tote (actually a tote sized bag on a pallet contained in a cardboard outer shell) really pushes our equipment handling equipment to the limit though.  We debated about doing this last year given the MOQ but decided to go for it and ended up selling out of everything way earlier than we planned.  We will probably do 2 separate tote deliveries this year.

We were looking at a bourbon cream using the same base, but we found we could not add as much bourbon to the base cream as we would like for the flavor profile we wanted. Would be interested in learning more on how that went for you.

[HLD]

On 10/21/2018 at 3:48 PM, provincial said:

Where did you net out on this? I'm working on one right now also. Thinking of doing a cold brew for 6/8 hours get double strength coffee flavor then blend down with water and base spriit. Working on adding a little sugar, vanilla and some sort of creme element as well like a lactose or powdered milk. Dont think you would need glycerine as with sugar and lactose you should get a nice body.  Been looking around for some solid recipes but I think its that basic.  Filtering and sediment on the coffee will be the issue. 

• We are going to use a light to medium roast (dark roasts come out bitter) - 8 ounces of ground coffee to 8 cups of water.  
• Let it soak no longer than 12 hours
• Mix your sugar and water ratio. Play around with that till its a balanced tasting coffee. 
• Add your base spirits and then tweak with the flavorings but use sparingly or it destroys the tasty coffee balance. 

Let me know where you get to

I'm experimenting with creating a base by adding vanilla to my spirit first then adding spice blends to create a layered flavor, some savory and herbal to fill in the coffee gaps. I found that light roast ( like right after first crack) or a medium roast from central america/panama region works really nicely for what i was going for but more trials. I steep ground for 16-20 hours in distilled water. Right now I'm still playing with the type of sugar to add, glycerine is possibility if I couldn't find a cream base that I liked. I'm hoping to have something I think is good in a couple of weeks. Everything takes a lot more time than I have right now. 

I'll post when I have a decent one I'm happy with.

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[Huffy2k]

4 hours ago, bluestar said:

We were looking at a bourbon cream using the same base, but we found we could not add as much bourbon to the base cream as we would like for the flavor profile we wanted. Would be interested in learning more on how that went for you.

Shoot me a PM with your email and I'll fill you in on how we dealt with that same issue. 

[indyspirits]

8 hours ago, Huffy2k said:

Shoot me a PM with your email and I'll fill you in on how we dealt with that same issue. 

Trying not to be critical, but why wouldn't you want to share that information with everyone?

 

 

[Huffy2k]

I dunno, seems kind of proprietary to share on a public forum I guess.  I realize we're here to help but I'd just feel more comfortable sharing via pm.

[MDH]

Here is a Science Direct link which may be helpful to you: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/liqueurs

Regarding coffee liqueur, there are several ways to approach it. If you are looking for more volatile, caramel aromas, make a redistilled liqueur with the beans. A major brand, Van Gogh Coffee Liqueur, has a variant which is just coffee distillate. If you want more body, do an infusion of beans. Or do both, and then blend them.

I personally like to use medium to medium-light beans, but not too light or dark - the former being rather vegetable-like in aftertaste and the latter being acrid. I do a 24 to 48 hour infusion with the beans in chilled spirit - like a cold brew - and then quickly separate them. This allows volatility and body without anything acrid or astringent.

Last but not least, the secret to a good coffee liqueur is to find flavors that are already in the coffee - dissect the beans like you would a spirit, wine or fragrance - top notes (most volatile) to base notes (least volatile) and then pair it with the flavors you find in it. So if your coffee has a bit of an orange aspect, add a little bit of orange. Or if it smells caramelly, add maple, and so on. All just in amounts enough to enhance the central coffee flavor but not overwhelm it.

Sorry to be long-winded.

[indyspirits]

18 hours ago, Huffy2k said:

I dunno, seems kind of proprietary to share on a public forum I guess.

Understood. Thanks!

[HLD]

Thanks for all the responses! The holiday season caught me by surprise and I have been swamped since late October with work, this project and a few others. Things are rolling along though. @Huffy2k I will most certainly contact you. Oh and I'll post an update on the coffee liquor experiment.

[Shindig]

Can anyone tell me how long you need to mix the spirit with the cream base so it it well mixed and STAYS mixed? Thanks!