How to Make Bitters

I have been looking into making some herbal concoctions for the health benefits.  Some things I have heard about all my life but have never been around them or even tasted them.

I understand that bitters are good for indigestion.  I thought they were something you put in a cocktail.  So while searching for information I came across this article on how to make bitters:

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-homemade-bitters-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-197883

I bought some bottles like these on ebay:




Some of the ingredients that are mentioned I have and some I don't so this will be an interesting experiment.

These are the ingrediants I am going to use:






A suggestion someone might want to try:

I have a whole blog just about Bitters, including some of my own formulas.  Check out: https://southernappalachianbitters.blogspot.com/

I am a huge fan of bitter things and this has been on my list of "when i get around to it" for far too long.
I've got some burdock I'm growing just for leaves, I think that will go in, and we have some nice local candidates as well (I don't want to use dry imported herbs).
The article suggests using 50%+ alcohol. I have access to vodka or cachaça (38%ish). Do I just assume that it won't last as long, or do you suppose there is some other consequence of using lower proof spirits?

Tereza Okava wrote:I am a huge fan of bitter things and this has been on my list of "when i get around to it" for far too long.
I've got some burdock I'm growing just for leaves, I think that will go in, and we have some nice local candidates as well (I don't want to use dry imported herbs).
The article suggests using 50%+ alcohol. I have access to vodka or cachaça (38%ish). Do I just assume that it won't last as long, or do you suppose there is some other consequence of using lower proof spirits?

Lower proof spirits are just fine for bitters.  Some folks even make them with vinegar.  A good combo is burdock and dandelion root with some juniper/cedar berries.  That is a very mild bitter.  If you want it more strongly bitter, oregon grape/barberry root would be a good option to include with burdock.

Judson Carroll wrote:

Tereza Okava wrote:
The article suggests using 50%+ alcohol. I have access to vodka or cachaça (38%ish). Do I just assume that it won't last as long, or do you suppose there is some other consequence of using lower proof spirits?

Lower proof spirits are just fine for bitters.

I agree with this, and I have what I imagine to be an explanation, too.  

Bitters (which are really just tinctures of bitter things, usually mixed with other flavors to make them more interesting or pleasant) are typically made, like tinctures, with a 50% solution of alcohol and water (which is another way of saying "100-proof vodka".)  Both water and alcohol are effective solvents, but they dissolve different things or they dissolve the same things with different degrees of effectiveness.  So mixing them 50/50 is a way to maximize the power of your solution to suck all the essential goodness out of your herbs and roots.

You could run the spectrum from pure water (you'd lose some preservative effect and have to take care that your solutions didn't mold or ferment) to pure alcohol (well, 95% is as high as the average consumer can get) and all that would happen is that your flavors would change some (because different amounts of different essentials would be extracted) and you might get less flavor out (because mostly alcohol or mostly water might be less effective at dissolving your particular essentials).  So it's an efficiency issue pretty much.  But meanwhile back at the ranch, any distilled spirits, even fairly low-proof ones, will work because you're still harnessing the synergistic effect of having two different solvents working away at your expensive, precious, delicious herbal material.  A ten or twenty percent imbalance in the alcohol/water ratio isn't going to be that important at the end of the day.

That's how it's been explained to me.  I've made a lot of tinctures and extracts with 100-proof vodka (usually as the first step toward making liqueurs) and with 80-proof (40%) and I can't tell the difference.  So I think it's all good.

I found some threads on bitters that might be helpful:

https://permies.com/t/47249/kitchen/Making-Digestive-Bitters

https://permies.com/t/133886/kitchen/Bitters-history