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Cajun-Inspired Amaro Brewery
40+ years ago I was stationed in Italy about 35 miles from Udine, home of Amaro Nonino Quenasentia. It is my very favorite Amaro. So it has been my quest to make an Amaro as close as possible. So after lots of reading and researching, I took a stab at it and came up with something pretty good. Second batch I tweaked and improved it significantly. So here is the recipe. You can start with commercial grappa if you want, I make my own so I have more control over my product. I like to sweeten with wild local honey.750 ml grappa8 g gentiana root12 g dry bitter orange peel 12 g dry sweet orange peel 12 g annis seed6 g chamomile (organic for tea)4 g whole cloves4 g whole allspice berries 4 g coriander seed4 g licorice root4 g whole turmeric 5 g angelic root1 fresh sage leaf (from my garden)4 g fresh rosemary (from my garden)4 g quassia chips4 g chinchona barkPinch of saffronIngredients that are hard to break up (bark, chips) I smash a bit with a hammer than all ingredients go into a coffee grinder and pulse until they’re broken up but not into a fine powder. I use a stainless steel mesh hop tube (part of my brewing kit) to put the ingredients in, the tube goes into a half gallon glass jar and I add the grappa full strength. I let it macerate for 3 weeks, shaking it up every couple days. At 3 weeks I lift the tube out of the jar and let it drain into a glass to catch all the drips. I hate to waste Now it’s time for the math. Based on the strength of your grappa, calculate how much water you need to add to bring it down to 35 ABV. That will allow you to calculate total volume. Based on total volume, I replace an appropriate amount of water with honey for sweetness at a rate of 2 fluid oz of honey per 750ml of amaro. I hope this makes sense to everyone. If not I’ll try to explain it another way For me, this produces an amaro very similar to Nonino. The color will be very dependent on the color of your honey. Of course you can always just use sugar to make a simple syrup if you prefer not to use honey. One drawback of honey are the solids, especially unfiltered honey. I just love the flavor. If you really want completely clear amaro, let it settle for a week before you bottle then siphon off the top into your bottles. Here’s a pic of mine. Obviously, adjust sweetness to your taste and leave out any ingredient you don’t like. Deleted ingredients will change the flavor. Hope y’all enjoy………
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1 Reply
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Thank you for posting that Rappell! That sounds like a great recipe.. now It looks like I will need to do a Grappa run this fall…
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