How Do I Make Bitters from a Starter? Good Questions

Q: I was at a party recently and my foodie host gave me a small bottle of bitters starter to take home with me. I completely forgot about it until recently, with all the buzz about bitters shortage.

Does anyone know how to make bitters from a starter, or have any thoughts on what I should do with this stuff?

Sent by Katie

Editor: Wow, Katie! We have no real idea on how to make bitters, but it sounds might intriguing. What a great party gift. Here are one or two links to get you started, and then we'll throw this out to the readers.

• How to make bitters at Spirits and Cocktails
• How To Make Your Own Bitters at Drink Dogma

Readers, have you ever made your own bitters or dealt with a bitters starter?

Next question?

(Image: Kegworks)

Comments (6)

I made my own bitters the last winter. I started out by looking up a few recipes and realizing that I could put in anything I wanted. I got a big 3 L jar, added 2 bottles of everclear, and 17 other ingredients including persimmons, rhubarb, cinnamon, cloves, cynar, cardamom, fennel, and peppercorns. As an extra bittering agent, I used gentian extract.

3 weeks later, I strained out all the solids and ended up with the tastiest bitters I've EVER had. Also the strongest. Now, if only I could remember the other 9 ingredients....

what IS bitters starter? this is the first i've heard of it, although my husband has been saying he wants to make bitters for awhile now.

@wyzomyn, that is what I was wondering too. After a little more googling around, I do wonder if it's really the "bittering agent" - the herb that will make things bitter. The first article above lists bittering agents like "gentian, quassia or even wormwood."

Here's a great article about home-made bitters (with a whole series of accompanying recipes) on chow.com from a couple of years back.

http://www.chow.com/stories/11154?tag=rbxcch.2.a.2

It's been on my to-do queue since it first appeared but other projects keep bumping it down. This post has just pushed it back up a few positions. Thanks for the reminder. If we start gathering ingredients now the bitters can be ready as gifts for the next holiday season I bet.

I made this recipe for citrus bitters a few years ago and liked it a lot:

http://www.missginsu.com/2007/12/day-12-what-me-bitter.html

Since then, I've played around with different types of citrus, varying types and amounts of spices, base liquors, etc.

I guess it's more of an intense infusion than "bitters" in the classical sense (see above re: bittering agent), but it really gives my drinks that extra bit of depth and character that a shot of traditional bitters would. Plus, the whole concocting/taking notes/agitating jars process is very Mad Scientisty, if you're into that sort of thing.