“I am in need of some assistance. I’m assisting in putting together a new bar menu for the place I work at and I pitched the idea of making an allspice dram to which they put full responsibility of that task on myself. I know that there is the long drawn out way of making it but I was wondering if it’s possible to use a sous vide to speed up this process? I’ve barely been doing this for a year so I’m semi-new to all the alcohol infusions and creations and whatnot. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!!!”

-Kieran

Dear Kieran,

There is a way…But a way much more dangerous than the kraken itself!

For real though, sous vide is a good idea (aside from just buying some St. Elizabeth allspice dram). I’m trying to think how I would do this. Although it depends on the drink you’re making, I would start with the highest proof booze you have. The easiest to procure is cheap 151 rum. The reason being that alcohol is a solvent and it’ll suck flavor out of anything you immerse in it. The higher the proof, the better.

You could sous vide this for a couple of hours or you could also rapid infuse it of which there’s two good methods I know of.

First there’s the less fancy way by taking the allspice and 151 and spinning it in a vitamix for five minutes, allowing it to sit another half hour or so, then straining all of this through a coffee filter. I’m assuming you don’t have a centrifuge, by the way.

Note: Always strain through a chinois first to get all the big chunks out, then through a coffee filter, it’ll make your life easier.

The second method of rapid infusion is to throw your allspice berries and 151 into an iSi whipper and blast it with two N20 canisters. Shake it up, let go of the gas however you want and then voila, you have allspice liquor. Try to resist doing whippets afterwards. Here’s a link for you. Be sure to break up the berries first in a molcajete or spice grinder.

You’ll also have to strain this through a coffee filter.

Once you strain it off, you’ll want to adjust your ABV. I’m shitty with math but you can simply cut your strained 151 in half by adding equal parts simple syrup to make it 75.5 proof, or 37.75% alcohol. That’s a pretty easy one but it’s relatively high proof for a liqueur. If you want it less sweet, add more water and less simple syrup. For example, if you start with a pint of infused 151 you can add a cup of filtered water and a cup of simple syrup.

You can also cut it by a third to make it less potent. So let’s say you start with a pint of rapid infused 151 and want to make it 50 proof just add a pint of water and a pint of simple syrup. This is generally a good way to go, as the allspice flavor will be very strong depending on how much of the spice you used.

As always, test and taste this in small amounts before going all in.

On that note, I always go big in the beginning because I don’t want the cutting action of the water and syrup to dull the allspice flavor. I’m thinking you should use a pint of 151 and see where 100 grams of allspice berries takes you.

Hopefully you’re using this homemade allspice dram with either rum or whiskey. I would hate to give you this advice and find out you’re shaking or stirring up a vodka drink with it. That would make me sad.

Good luck, dude.