Barrel Aging and Recent Epic Cocktail Fail #1

Since beginning this blog, I have been excited about creating new cocktails and sharing the recipes and my experiences with you.   While I have been interested in bourbon and rye for around four to five years, I only began barrel aging cocktails one year ago.   Since then, I have made the following different creations: Old Fashioned (twice), Boulevardier, Vieux Carre, Manhattan, Negroni, and I have barrel aged a blanco tequila that came out a beautiful anejo.  I hadn't aged a drink since this summer's batch of negronis, so I was eager to start something up.  Plus, it would give me something good to write about eventually.
This summer I stumbled across a cocktail online that is a take on a Manhattan called a Creole Cocktail.  Basically you combine bourbon or rye, and vermouth, with a bit of both Cherry Heering and Benedictine.  It is very similar to a Remember the Maine, but instead of the herbal tones of absinthe, you use Benedictine.  I enjoyed the cocktail very much, and thought that I should barrel age that sometime.
Fast forward to this past weekend.  I was at Costco with my wife, and we were in the liquor section.  Costco's prices are great for large quantities of booze, which is what is needed for a 3 liter barrel.  We found a 1.75 L of Knob Creek bourbon that was 100 proof.  I always like to use higher proof spirits when barrel aging.  Perfect, I thought.  What do you know, but just a few steps past is a vermouth! It is an extra dry vermouth, a Cinzano Extra Dry 1 liter bottle.  I started to riff in my mind:  the recipe calls for a sweet vermouth, however I have heard of a dry Manhattan (or blonde Manhattan).  Granted, I have never tried one before.  But how cool would it be to make the Creole Cocktail with this white vermouth?!  Nevermind the political / entho / social ramifications of a white vermouth in a creole cocktail; creativity doesn't get stuck on those paradigms!  I made my purchases, and couldn't wait to get home to experiment.
Now would be a good time to let you know that before you spend your hard earned cash on liquor to age in a barrel, you should probably make sure that the drink you are about to make is something you'd enjoy on its own.  Fortunately, I had the insight to do this.
I added:

• 2 oz Knob Creek 100 proof bourbon
• 1 oz Cinzano Extra Dry vermouth
• 1 barspoon (5 ml) Cherry Heering
• 1 barspoon (5 ml) Benedictine.

I added a bit of ice, stirred for 20 seconds, and quickly strained into a rocks glass.  It smelled strong.  Perhaps a bit bitter.  I then went in for the taste, and it was absolutely disgusting!  I'm talking there was no harmony of flavors.  The vermouth tasted like a harsh white wine that didn't belong in the same room as the bourbon.  The Cherry Heering and Benedictine just added insult to the flavor argument.
What to do?  I had a 1 liter bottle of this evil extra dry stuff! My grand plans of creativity were ruined.  But wait!  I had an idea.  It is called a Creole Cocktail; what if I added some creole bitters to the drink?!  I added a few dashes of the some Bitter Truth Creole Bitters.  I stirred.  I re-tasted:  and the drink was even worse than before.  The flavors made me want to vomit.  I had to throw the rest down the sink.
Back to the drawing board.  I decided I better prep my barrels since I hadn't used them in months.  One was so dry, it took 8 hours of continuous refilling of water to get the staves to swell up and stop the leaking.  This was probably fortunate, as it prevented me from hastily making a cocktail, for if I poured anything into the barrel, it would instantly leak out.
Usually, when adding the ingredients into the barrel, I vary from the actual proportions in my test drink.  This adds some excitement and mystery when it is time to taste the final product.  Such was the case here.  I usually use Dolin Sweet Vermouth.  I bough some Carpano Antica this time to try it and add some variety to my life.  I mixed my first drink according to the recipe above, only changing out the Cinzano for Carpano Antica.  This yielded an infinitely superior tasting cocktail.  However, I was afraid the floral notes in the Carpano Antica were slightly overwhelming the herbals from the Benedictine.  Having already committed in my mind that I was going to use my new vermouth instead of my usual Dolin, I decided to increase both the bourbon and accessory flavors of Benedictine and Cherry Heering.  With more whiskey in the background, the herbals can spread out more.  I hope my plan works.  In my experience, the oak of the barrel really evens out all flavors, so absolute precision isn't as important as overall gestalt.
I ultimately used the following recipe proportions for what is barrel aging now:

• 2.5 oz Knob Creek 100 proof bourbon
• 1 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
• 1.5 barspoons (7.5 ml) Cherry Heering
• 1.5 barspoons (7.5 ml) Benedictine

What about all the white vermouth?  I decided to get a little funky.  I am now barrel aging a martini.

If you Google search what is the best proportion of gin to vermouth, you will get a million different answers.  I'm sure it is dependent upon both the gin and the vermouth coupled with your individual preferences.  I had a bottle of Hendrick's gin that I bought at my previous trip to Costco to simply try the stuff (it's okay / I'm not a gin connoisseur).  I ultimately am aging the following drink:

• 3 parts Hendrick's Gin
• 1.25 parts Cinzano Extra Dry Vermouth

This will be kind of exciting, because my only non-whiskey aged drinks have been a Negroni that was incredible, and aging straight tequila.  In a month I'll have a lot to write about!

I still have around 750ml of the Cinzano Extra Dry, now in my fridge.  If you have any good ideas on how to best utilize this, please let me know!

Stay tuned for Epic Fail #2: Thanksgiving 2017 Signature Cocktail Trials and Tribulations.

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