Sous vide cocktails

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After receiving my Anova for the Christmas holidays I decided to start my experience making infused cocktails. Over the course of four days I infused 30 cocktails, all of which were then sampled and ranked by four people. Here are the top 4 picks from my experimentation:

  1. Blueberry crumble cocktail

2oz (60ml) vodka, 1/3 cup (50g) sliced blueberries, 1 cinnamon stick, 1g (1/16) vanilla bean, top up with apple juice.

  1. Bacon Ceaser

2oz (60ml) vodka, 5 drops liquid smoke, 1/2 tsp peppercorns, 1 tsp lime juice, 1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce, 1 strip of bacon, 2 pickled beans, 1/2 tsp crushed chilly pepper (optional), top up with Clamato juice.

  1. Cherry plum ice tea

2oz (60ml) vodka, 1/3 cup (45g) diced cherries, 1/2 plum (60g), 2 tsp honey, top with unsweetened steeped black tea.

  1. Pineapple cranberry cocktail

2oz (60ml) vodka, 3/4 cup (90g) pineapple tidbits, 1/3 cup (45g) sliced cranberries, 1 tbsp (15ml) lemon juice) top up with cranberry juice.

All cocktails were cooked for 3 hours at 60°C / 140°F in 16oz (500ml) mason jars (do not over fill! Leave a 1" air gap) then were chilled for 6 hours or overnight in the fridge. While some of these drinks actually taste better hot, I still recommend letting them chill for at least 6 hours first to reduce the bite of the alcohol then reheating afterwards if required.

Once the drinks are chilled, filter the drinks through a sieve, dispose of the fruit (it should have very little flavor left in it) then serve either cold or hot.

Using a 18 quart container works great for mason jar cocktails as you can fit 10-12 cocktails in it at a time.

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10 Likes
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This is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing!

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Iv done Cherry infused Bourbon and OMG, straight on the rocks ,simply perfection.

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My first SV cocktail was limoncello. I had been making it using traditional methods and wanted to see how it compared. Lemon zest, Everclear @ 140F for 4 hours. Mixed it with simple syrup to taste. I was very happy with the results.

That got me to try Orange-cello. Called it “It Ain’t No TANG” and it was delicious.

That made me try lemon-lime-cello. Called that “Not Quite Sprite”. Also delicious.

From there I ventured out into Vodka territory and tried a recipe from AmazingFoodMadeEasy.com for chili-tomato vodka to be used in Bloody Marys. It’s my new obsession and I am still tweaking the recipe and trying different chilies. My Saturday mornings will never be the same.

The in-laws lived in Brazil for awhile and they love Caipirinhas so for Christmas I made them a couple of bottles of infused cachaca, one was strawberry-mint and the other passion fruit. Both were huge successes.

Since I was bringing them booze for Christmas I decided I should include some old fashion eggnog. I pasteurized a dozen eggs and made REAL eggnog. I was never a fan of the drink but when done right, with quality ingredients, it was quite tasty and made a believer out of me.

Up until now I never realized how much alcohol I’ve infused SV. I swear I use my APC for food also. Really!!

Well, that’s enough news for now. Gotta get back to the water.

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I made a bottle of spiced rum using a double recipe from the ap for my partner for St Val’s day. It smelled like Christmas in a bottle. I’ll use a little less orange peel next time, because ‘very citrusy’ was his only comment

I’ll definitely be using the APC for making mulled wine when Winter comes in. No need to worry about it getting too hot. I love that.

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@Kquim oh wow this is awesome. I have been actually thinking about making some sv cocktails - definitely highly interested in this!

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What was your Orange-cello recipe, I’d like to try that.

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I used the zest from 6 oranges mixed with a liter of everclear. All in a ziplock bag at 140F for 4 hours. Strain, cool, and add simple syrup to tast. I use a 2:1 syrup:everclear ratio. Serve from freezer

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I have a lot of blueberries and think I will give this a try.

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This is the first I’ve heard of sous vide cocktails.

Doesn’t the alcohol get pushed out of the mixture? It seems that 1" headspace would be full of alcohol.

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All this sounds really interesting, I’m keen to give it a try!

Top up to what volume? After I have the vodka, blueberries, cinnamon, and vanilla in there, how much apple juice do I add? Or, alternatively, what’s the size of the jar? I suspect that it’s not 18 quart, because that’s 4.5 gallon :slight_smile:

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michihenning, below the recipe indicates what size mason jar I used and how far I topped up to:

Edneely, the alcohol can’t be ‘pushed out’ (evaporate?) of the mixture because it’s sealed in a mason jar. Also, I’m not too sure what you mean by the mixture being full of alcohol? The mason jar should be topped up with your mix, not alcohol.

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I wrote that I suspected some alcohol would fill the 1" headspace. But I looked it up and ethanol boils at 173. Your recipe calls for 33 degrees less than that, so this is not an issue. Thanks for the reply, and the original post. I’m definitely going to try these!

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This paragraph is near the end.

“All cocktails were cooked for 3 hours at 60°C / 140°F in 16oz (500ml) mason jars (do not over fill! Leave a 1” air gap) then were chilled for 6 hours or overnight in the fridge. While some of these drinks actually taste better hot, I still recommend letting them chill for at least 6 hours first to reduce the bite of the alcohol then reheating afterwards if required."

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Me bad, I somehow skipped over this. Thanks!

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ow, that are nice ideas of cocktails

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I’ve been lurking around this forum for a bit, but your post really caught my eye. Those infused cocktails sound like a dream, especially with that sous vide twist. Blueberry crumble? Bacon Caesar? Count me in!