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Grapefruit Liquor


flyhigher87

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Hey guys i'm making a Grapefruit Vodka.  But I figured I'd post it under Gin since you guys would probably know best. \

Anyhow I have tried macerating and distilling in the Pot and I have tried In a Gin Basket.  Gin Basket seems to be a bit stronger or at least it turns white with less grapefruit peel, i'm equating this to being stronger but it may not actually be stronger.  I and everyone else loves the aroma and taste, but I have two problems.

1. It does not seem that the Grapefruit packs enough punch.  Its just not quite strong enough and when I try to increase it, it louces(turns white however you spell that).  Do you guys have any ideas how I can make the aroma stronger?  Without it turning White?

2.  It also seems to loose its aroma faster than my gin.  I tried to distill it with Orris and Angelic root as a fixitive but it totally ruined the aroma for me.  Do you guys know of any better ways to keep in the aroma?

 

Thank you so much

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i know nothing about your question im jus bored so let me tell you a story i heard the other day . a fella i ran into the other day spent 20 years in a coca cola bottling plant . while discussing bottling at 45 % vs chill filtering he told me about cream soda . cream soda used to be clear but they were having problems with clarity post bottling . there solution was to add pink colouring , now cream soda is pink . so im thinking if that may work for your product . just a thought lol

tim  

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This is a tricky tricky tricky issue.

Citrus oils are primary complex mixtures of terpenes (like gins), where the ratio of specific terpenes will impact the distinction of type of citrus fruit.  The vast majority will be d-limonene, but there are dozens additional terpene constituents.  The terpenes will make up about 95% of a citrus oil, the other 5% though, is very important to the flavor and aroma (esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, etc).

Problem with terpenes is, they are easily oxidized, and they are not well soluble in alcohol.  You seem to have run into both of these already.

So, doing what you are doing, to add more flavor will require getting more terpenes in your final product.  Which means more louching, not less.

And keeping that flavor there will require you to ensure that as little oxygen as possible makes it into your final product.

You can increase the proof to increase the solubility of the terpenes, you may be able to increase your flavor at higher proofs, but this might be challenging for vodkas.

For clear citrus beverages with high water content, typically you would utilize a deterpenated citrus oil.  This would include everything but the terpenes, or sometimes less of the terpenes.  Using a commercially produced flavor might cross a line for you, but the fact is, to increase the grapefruit flavor, you need to remove the d-limonene to the point of eliminating louching, though maybe not entirely, if you like the flavor profile as is.

You can, of course, create your own deterpenated grapefruit extracts to use in your vodka.  This is going to require some additional time, effort, and equipment.

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There are a few different ways to remove terpenes from citrus oil.  Vacuum fractional distillation is looked as the best process if flavor and aroma are key, but supercritical co2 extraction is all the rage lately - this is mostly driven by the marijuana extracts industry.  While there is a ton of journal literature on the topic, you'll find there is an almost complete lack of practical information on exactly how to remove terpenes from essential oils, as this is generally in the realm of trade secret, and the flavor/fragrance folks are incredibly secretive, I suspect nobody is going to tell you exactly what levels of vacuum, temperatures, and fractions make the secret sauce, there will need to be trial and error.

The easiest approach is going to be to acquire a deterpenated food-grade grapefruit oil from a good flavor house, and to add that as an additional step in your process.  I'd keep doing what you are doing, and use the additional oil to boost the flavor profile you are already achieving using your own extractions.  What you want to look for are "folded" oils, the number of foldings indicating the number of distillations and level of terpene removal.  Yes, this is such an obscure corner of flavor science that they've even made up their own terminology: washed, folded, 5X, 10X, etc etc.

Otherwise, if you want to do it yourself, you'll need to drive head first into some pretty gear-heavy chemistry, vacuum stills, thin film distillation, SFE extractors, rotovaps, etc etc.

This technique is at the pinnacle of modern craft distilling.

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On 8/6/2018 at 3:57 PM, flyhigher87 said:

Hey guys i'm making a Grapefruit Vodka.  But I figured I'd post it under Gin since you guys would probably know best. \

Anyhow I have tried macerating and distilling in the Pot and I have tried In a Gin Basket.  Gin Basket seems to be a bit stronger or at least it turns white with less grapefruit peel, i'm equating this to being stronger but it may not actually be stronger.  I and everyone else loves the aroma and taste, but I have two problems.

1. It does not seem that the Grapefruit packs enough punch.  Its just not quite strong enough and when I try to increase it, it louces(turns white however you spell that).  Do you guys have any ideas how I can make the aroma stronger?  Without it turning White?

2.  It also seems to loose its aroma faster than my gin.  I tried to distill it with Orris and Angelic root as a fixitive but it totally ruined the aroma for me.  Do you guys know of any better ways to keep in the aroma?

 

Thank you so much

Just to be clear, you are trying to make a flavoring agent to add to vodka? Or are you trying to make the vodka by putting grapefruit in the still when distilling the vodka? If the latter, that is, by definition, not vodka nor flavored vodka.

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18 hours ago, Patio29Dadio said:

Why not just a maceration of neutral spirit and fresh peel and then chill filter?

That could qualify as flavored vodka (provided the neutral spirit was actually classified as vodka before flavoring, just GNS won't count, see other related thread). But grapefruit from peel can be very bitter.

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