The Cranberry Bitters Project

I decided this year that I wanted to create a holiday gift for some folks, and that it should involve booze. Little did I know when I launched into the Cranberry Bitters Project 2013 that it would take months of toil, but since it is done I figured that it was worth documentation here.

This was a double batch.  Step 1 - lightly dehydrate 64 ounces of fresh cranberries and orange peel (leaving the pith off) in the oven by spreading the fruit onto a baking sheet and cooking at ~200 degrees for a few hours.  The recipe I was following said to cook for 30 minutes, at which point the fruit should begin to burst, and that is when you remove the pans.  For me, the fruit didn't get there for almost three hours, so keep an eye on your berries.

Step 2 - portion out the berries and orange peel into mason jars and fill about half way with a 1:1 mixture of everclear (grain alcohol) and high proof vodka.  Once you have the fruit and liquid in there, you will want to try and mash everything down enough to submerge the fruit in liquid.  It isn't super important to get every bit of the fruit under booze, because eventually those cranberries are going to soak up the liquid.  At this point, leave the jars in a cool dark place for two weeks and shake them once daily.  I also suggest flipping them when you shake them so they spend every other day on their lids to be sure all your cranberries are getting a chance to drink up.

After two weeks you're going to add the stuff that makes your bitters bitter.  Gentian root powder, quassia bark chips, some star anise and a half cinnamon stick.  The amount shown below is enough for one large mason jar.  

Wrap all those goodies up in a double layer of cheese cloth, tie if off with a string, and dunk it into your mason jars.  Now repeat another two weeks of the shake and rotate cycle.

Waiting is a big part of the bitters creation game.

Now you are ready for the fun part, and here is where it gets messy (thus, no more pictures).  You are going to take all of the fruit from your jars and sqeeze all of the juice out of it and set that aside.  You'll do this by getting a set of rubber gloves (lest you be red-handed for several weeks post maceration) and a long roll of cheese cloth.  I found that you want to place a baseball-sized lump of fruit into the cheese cloth and squeeze until all the liquid is drained.  More fruit than that and you'll never get all the juice out. 

At the end of this you will have a pile of fruit and a jar or so of liquid.  Take that liquid and seal it, and put it aside for a few more weeks.  Then take your pile of macerated fruit and orange peel and throw it into a stock pot with two cups of pure cranberry juice (nothing with any sugar added).  Simmer the mixture on medium heat for about 15 minutes.  Then take what you get from that pot, put it back into the mason jars and wait two more weeks (shaking and rotating all the while).

Last step is to go through the cheese cloth process once again with your fruit and squeeze everything out of the jars.  You'll want to marry the two batches of liquid that you have now in a large pitcher and add a cup of sugar, which you should stir into the liquid until dissolved.  Portion that potion out into whatever receptacle you prefer and gift away.

Cranberry bitters can be substituted for other bitters options in just about any cocktail, but for the uncreative here is how to make the above cocktail.

Black Manhattan:

2 ounces Bourbon Whiskey

1/2 ounce Nocino Walnut Liquor

1/2 ounce Sweet Vermouth

5 dashes Cranberry Bitters