All of that being said, why did I not know about "Barrel Aged Cocktails?" Or that they could be homemade?
One of my best friends gave me a Hudson River Barrel Aged Cocktail Kit (the kit from here on), and the results have been pretty cool. Not only that but it has given me some interesting ideas. The kit is an empty 375 ml bottle, a cork stopper and a honeycomb oak stave that has been charred. For $12.50 and shipping its a great gift. As the recipient I can say it's an awesome gift.
Now for the recipe, I use water for reasons I will disclose later, keep in mind the bottle is about 12 oz so you have space for the recipe below times 4 if each part is 1 oz. The recipe follows and I'll write more about the hooch later.
Barrel Aged Manhattan
1 part White Dog Mash #1
1 part water
1 part Cinzano white vermouth
4 dashes Fee Brothers barrel aged bitters
After thoroughly mixing the ingredients you pour the mix into the kit. Then comes the wait.
I noticed an amber hue after about three days, and the aroma began to resemble a "regular" Manhattan.
After about a week I poured the mix into my flask and have nipped at on occasion.
To make my Barrel Aged Manhattan I decided to use Buffalo Trace White Dog Mash #1. It is a mouthful in more ways than one. At 125 proof I decided that water was needed to cut the proof of the White Dog. Along with the "white whiskey" I decided that Cinzano White Vermouth was appropriate, too many times the sweetness of sweet vermouth overpowers the oak flavor of any bourbon. I just wanted a little sweetness to see how the charred oak would taste. Finally I used the Fee Brothers Barrel Aged bitters just for the heck of it.
That is basically it for the cocktail, but the whole process did give me other ideas.
I'm a sucker for a good cocktail but also for a good hot sauce. In the past couple of months I have been making different batches of hot sauce. Since I got the kit I thought, what would a barrel aged hot sauce taste like, should I use a fresh oak stave? Or should re-use a "white Manhattan" stave? What kind of peppers would work to make that taste good.
More cocktails came to mind, what about an oak aged martini, the earliest examples of jenever (the predecessor to modern gin) were aged in oak before being bottled. The only thing you shouldn't do is use acid or citrus to soak in the oak as it were. Another idea that came to mind was re-using an oak stave from the "white Manhattan" to flavor some tawny port or Marsala.
In any case, there are plenty of other ideas and I plan to buy some more oak honeycomb staves to use in future projects. Please let me know if you decide to try this product and how you feel about the results in the comments area below.
