Flavored Vodka's

[hagar681]

There is a lot of talk about flavored vodka's on the board, but I never seem to be able to find anything about the process used. When is the flavoring actually added? I have always assumed it was the last step before bottling, because if you flavored before proofing the flavor profile would be changed greatly when the spirit was proofed to bottle strength. Am I correct in that assumption? If not can anybody give me a brief explanation.

[Panoscape]

There are so many different ways to flavor your spirit... carter head/gin basket, 24 hour soak in still before run, maturation after run, spray infusion during run, during fermentation, and on and on...

So, the answer is to use what ever process that works for you to obtain the flavor profile you're after.

[bluestar]

Isn't it correct that to be a "flavored vodka" the flavoring has to be added to the vodka AFTER the vodka is distilled, and hence, the total could not be redistilled, because then it would no longer be a vodka? So things like using methods for a distilled gin would not count.

Strangely, I guess a compounded gin could also be considered a flavored vodka?

Yes, you have to measure proof AGAIN after flavoring, to determine labeled proof. But nothing says you couldn't flavor at one proof and cut to another, before bottling, I believe. I think that is the original question asked. Any rectifier out there making flavored vodkas can answer definitively?