How to Make Abbott's Aged Bitters - Full Recipe Included 

Hello may I ask a question : is there any alternative for the alcohols for the extract and Essence i need un alcoholic way 100% i saw people use glycerin but i am not sure if i can use it is it possible ?

@@Usama-76 hello, unfortunately, non-alcohol based solvents like glycerin and water won't work. Glycerin is too thick, though I'm working on a video to see if there is a method to do this without alcohol.

@@Artofdrink oooh nice i will be looking for it and hope you succeed

@artofdrink How does the rapid infusion method compare to this? Does it have any downsides, compared to the described in this video?

@Artofdrink thanks for the content, can you teach me how to filter it without ''lab stuff'', there's any other way to filter it besides the method you used or i need the ''lab stuff'' to do it? Don't wanna go on the 2 week route, thanks again love the videos

Thanks, I'll try to get them added in future videos, but for some of the videos just skipping to the "making" part misses important parts and then people send me questions, which are usually answered in the video. Though, yes, time stamps are convenient for quick info.

The Abbott’s family/lawyers just said that in court because they were infringing on the Angostura trademark. At one point early on they had a court injunction against them for filling old Angostura bottles with whatever bitters they made and resold them as Angostura. Also, pharmacists rarely used angostura bark as it was easily confused with nux vomica, which could be deadly. The angostura bark defence was just so they could use angostura in their name and not get sued. They didn’t actually say the used it, just theorised if they used it. It worked though.

Thanks Tony, and yes fun memories doing the whole Abbotts project. It doesn't seem that long ago but it has been 10 years when I made the butters.

Reducing with water helps to extract some of the water soluble compounds, as well as dissolve the sugar. You can make it with 190 proof spirit but when you add it to a drink it will go cloudy, if that doesn't bother you then it will be fine.

And the compound in tarragon (estragon) is partially soluble in water, so that is why I didn't need to separate the terpenes.

@@Artofdrink thank you again I appreciate it. I did invest in the 500ml Percolater the same one you have with the wide mouth. I am not doing alcohol drinks per say but more on the notes of a sparkling water and hops water. so i would imagine a reduction of a 10% water will keep it clear? or do i need to reduce more? thank you Debora

@@cardawg7164 typically 60% ABV is a good level

The refresh is removing the alcohol from the percolator and adding new alcohol. So over the period of 48 hours the cylinder should have completely new alcohol three times.

@@Artofdrink I'm sorry, but this is still quite unclear to me. Fill it up, open the stopcock. Let this perculate through. but then you say it's best to let it sit for 4 hours. So, let it perculate through or wait 4 hours? "...And then start draining it off". Then a "alcohol refresh", adding new alcohol, let it sit for until the next day (24 hours), drain it off and refresh the alcohol again, "and then do that once more in 48 hours and then you'll have a full and complete extract". Could you please go through the steps a bit more carefully and explain what you're doing and why? Aren't you losing some flavor when you're discarding the first two/three(?) runs of alcohol? Wouldn't the alcohol run before the last have a lot of flavor too?

@@therealpepeu You are collecting the alcohol extract at every step, do not discard any of the liquid, simply collect it in a bottle. When I say during the first step "let the percolate through" it just means a few drops to ensure the percolator is completely full, with no air pockets at the bottom. At each step, you are collecting the extract, so at 4 hours you drain the extract into a bottle, keep it, and add fresh alcohol to the percolator. Repeat. The alcohol can become saturated with the compounds you are trying to extract, which means some is being left behind in the powder, so the fresh alcohol keeps extracting the compounds until the powder is exhausted of all its flavour.

@@Artofdrink Aaah, ok. That makes sense. Thank you for your quick reply! Cheers!

Check out this video I made: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WB6XSsxDNNQ.html and it uses a Fernet Branca recipe I found.

That is just clean sand as it helps filter the bitters, if you watch this video it explains the how/why: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EvkbCkg9bPs.html

Look for an open mouth dropping funnel from Eisco Labs.

@@Artofdrink Thanks; I found it but it's out of stock everywhere. I'll keep checking back & eventually get one!

Good question, this link to a clamp works for both a 250 ml and 500 ml percolator/dropping funnel: www.hbarsci.com/products/prcmp07bh And for the lab stand, any will generally do as long as the rod is 20" in height. A wide base gives more stability if you are doing other things with it. This one is good: www.hbarsci.com/collections/metal-bases-rods/products/ch0653d1rd3

@@Artofdrink fantastic. thank you again. it's in my shopping cart now. : )

thank you

It could, though it won’t make your bitters dark since there is only small amount of sugar.

I used Ceylon cinnamon

@@Artofdrink Thanks! So, Mexican (= C. verum = Ceylon = canela) it is!

The problem with short videos is that I get too many questions about the details that are missed and answering the same questions over and over again gets really annoying, enough so I'd probably quit making videos. And did you ask me to provide my resume or is that a spelling mistake?

@@Artofdrink makes sense. Perhaps we are getting used to (badly) short videos. Keep it up.

​@@crazydubwise You know you can adjust speed? I have no trouble following him at 1.5x to 1.75x. Et voila, the video is however short you can stand it.

@@MrJhchristhahahah good one!