![]() Similarly, Tanya Cohn, global brand manager for Damrak, notes that the Virgin bottling is best enjoyed in a cocktail. “When we launched it was quite funny, people would drink it with a non-alcoholic beer.” Ultimately, however, they focused on its potential in mixed drinks, emphasizing spices that stand out when lengthened with sodas and other mixers. “A non-alcoholic genever is super niche,” says Ruben Wolvekamp of Kever. Genever is traditionally enjoyed neat for its whiskey-like maltiness, but it’s difficult to make that quality translate to a low-pH, alcohol-free spirit. Take Kever Genever 0%, produced in Amsterdam. “Sanitation is much more extreme for creating and packaging this material than you would ever need to be with an alcoholic spirit.” Though Wilderton gets to avoid some of the taxes and regulations that apply when distilling alcohol, he reports going to “great lengths” to prove to the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration that their products and processes are safe. “There’s a lot of insidious refrigeration costs,” says O’Malley. High-proof alcohol is essentially self-sanitizing, but water can provide a welcoming home for microbes. All these costs contribute to a slightly higher price: The Virgin bottling of Damrak retails for $24.99 versus $22.99 for the gin.Ī less obvious cost of producing non-alcoholic spirits is the care required to keep them clean. In total, getting a batch of Damrak Virgin into bottles takes the distillery about twice as long as it does to produce Damrak gin. They won’t dissolve in water.”Ĭapturing the desired flavors required an intensive distilling process that took more than two years to perfect, including running separate distillations for different botanicals and grinding or smashing them to extract more of their aromatic compounds. That gave us more challenges because the citrus flavors come mostly from the peels, but those are mainly soluble in alcohol. “The thing is, Damrak is quite a citrus-forward gin. “We wanted to have as close of a copy of the original Damrak as we could get,” she says. One of the company’s recent projects was the development of Damrak Virgin, an alcohol-free version of its Damrak gin. This allows him to distill at low temperatures that preserve delicate flavors but adds to the costs of production.Ī post shared by Damrak Amsterdam Gin distillates are especially difficult when it comes to oils, says Monique ten Kortenaar, master distiller for Lucas Bols in the Netherlands. “In replacing the impact with some other flavor intensity, I just use egregious amounts of botanicals.” Rather than using a typical pot still, which he says would distort the taste, he also rents time on an advanced spinning cone column vacuum still. ![]() “Compared to making gin, we are looking at four to nine times as much botanicals,” says O’Malley. When making a water-based spirit with the strength to stand up in a mixed drink, producers such as Wilderton use a heavier hand with the herbs, roots and spices that contribute flavor. By comparison, most basic distilled spirits in the U.S. 5% alcohol can be labeled as non-alcoholic. regulations, beverages containing less than. These get released when poured into a glass, sipped or mixed with ice or a cocktail, which is what enables the sensory intensity and complexity of distilled spirits.Īlcohol offers so many advantages for flavor extraction and retention that many, if not most non-alcoholic spirits use it at some point in the process, either as a base of distillation that is later removed or as a tincture added in trace amounts to the nearly finished product. Ethanol is an exceptionally good solvent for capturing aroma compounds. One big reason for the higher price? Even though water is cheaper than alcohol, it’s less effective at carrying flavors. Even for someone enthusiastic about trying alcohol-free options, that disparity can make them a tough sell. By comparison, one can nab a decent bottle of gin in most states for around twenty bucks. ![]() Nonetheless, non-alcoholic spirits often cost in excess of thirty dollars a bottle.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |