I want to make cocktails that require bitters and I need to be schooled on them
what should I base my choice on?
are angostura bitters overrated?
I made a good enough ginger beer, so should I try making bitters myself as well?
Champagne cocktails!
Angostura is a nice all around bitters. Bartenders who buy boutique bitters brands might find it underwhelming but I like it. Peychaud's is another popular choice, but might be more difficult to find.
You can try making your own, but you want to try a few different ones first, so you can an idea of what you should be looking for.
>>7417110
Angostura isn't overrated in my opinion. Peychaud's is also good but in my opinion it isn't as good as Angostura.
Fee's orange bitters are good too and they're a significantly different taste.
side question: how do you pronounce angostura?
>>7417110
Angostura bitters are the standard because they're so versatile, that's how they survived prohibition and the general decline of cocktails. They're a must have in any bar for any drink that calls for "aromatic bitters" but doesn't specify a brand; you can throw angostura in and the results won't be disastrous. You also need Peychaud's (also an "aromatic", but very distinct from angosutra, with a licorice taste to it. Can't have a sazerac without them) and an orange bitters. I actually have two kinds of orange, Regan's, which has more spice and dried orange peel flavor to it, and Fee's, which tastes and smells much more like just a fresh fruit. Once you have those three you should be clear to make a good portion of the cocktails out there.
Other bitters that I think are worth having around:
barrel aged bitters. These are getting easier to come by now that people have figured out how much some time in a barrel can do for just about anything alcoholic. Fee's makes one, as do several whiskey makers, and smaller bitters startups are all doing their own. Imo the very best is Abbott's Bitters from tempus fugit, which is based on the original recipe for an old brand of aged bitters.
grapefruit bitters. Most cocktails that call for grapefruit juice are supposed to be made with white or gold grapefruit juice, as that was the only kind of grapefruit available back then. Pink and red had better marketing behind them though, so now they're available all the time but white is an expensive seasonal thing and the bottled juice is usually restriced to just one or two less than stellar brands. The bottled white is still the best call though, and you can make it taste closer to fresh with a dash of grapefruit bitters.
stirring's blood orange bitters. These aren't really like other bitters, they're low-concentration and you'll use them in small shots rather than dashes, more like a liqueur really, but when they're called for there's really no good substitute
>>7417110
Agno is killer, anyone that calls it overrated is a contrarian faggot.
Ive got no less than 20 bitters in my home bar but always go back to agno.
Its good to have a selection of different bitters but a lot of the time 3-4 will do.
My most used are
>agno
>agno orange (very strong, almost too orangey, use in moderation)
>peychauds - cant make a sazerac without it
>A good chocolate bitters - bitter truth is good
>grapefruit bitters - again bitter truth, great in daquiris
wild cards may include dale degroff pimento bitters and bittermens celery shrub, respectively great for martinis and bloody marys
Protip - avoid fee brothers, artifical as fuck, their orange is passable
>>7417110
whats your ginger beer recipe?
I'll def try angostura then, thanks everybody
>>7418469
>agno is killer
>agno orange
>agno
that would be ango since the name's angostura, wouldn't it?
>>7418702
get 1lit of water to boil
veeery finely mince some 100g of ginger root, don't bother removing the bark
place it in the water, turn off the stove and cover the pan
leave there for more than 1h and less than 1h and a half, stir once in a while
squeeze a lime (or two depending on preference, one is enough for me) and add some 50g sugar (or, again, more if you prefer sweeter)
put it in the fridge
it's not really good alone but it works quite well in cocktails
also thinking about it using a teapot or something with a low heat efficiency so that the water cools more slowly
As has already been said, start with Angosutra and orange, and explore once you've gotten used to the possibilities of these. They can be used for soups and stuff, too, not just cocktails, by the way. Look into it.
I also agree with >>7418469 about Fee Brothers. They taste relatively sugary, and if you look at the label you'll see they have a ridiculously low alcohol content. Proper bitters need high alcohol to extract the flavours. I don't know what Fee Brothers does in their process, but it just can't be right.
>>7419245
im a huge mule fan so that sounds good to me. i like it really gingery
>>7417314
>>7417110
Angostura and peychauds. Saying they're overrated is like saying Tetris is overrated. Or like saying strawberries are overrated. They're both classic formulas that will never change. Whether you like them or not doesn't really matter.
You can't have an old fashioned without ango, a sazerac without peych, etc.
Anyway, for other bitters (orange, grapefruit, jerk, chocolate, etc), I like bittermens brand the most. Fee brothers is overrated and watery.
Your home bar isn't really a cocktail bar if you don't have ango and peychauds
>>7419253
They use a lot of artifical flavours.
>>7419245
I'm developing a ginger beer recipe too but it seems relatively similar
1.25 gallons water to boil
10 oz ginger food processed in a cheese cloth bag
simmer for 50-60 mins
let cool, usually have about 1gallon of water left
add
once about 85 degrees (bee hive temperature) add 1.92 oz honey
1/8th teaspoon yeast
bottle and cap
let sit for 3-6 days
There you go, great fucking gingerbeer, and legally non-alcoholic. Just add more honey/sugar and let ferment longer onbottled to make it alcoholic
>>7420913
Forgot to mention, usually use some sort of neutral wine yeast, like champagne yeast, its pretty cheap.
>>7419245
Agno = agnostura
Their rum is more than respectable too.
>>7420943
Except that it's Angostura
>>7417432
ang-gas-tura
>>7417110
I tried orange bitters once, never again, they add nothing except excessive orange peelness to a drink, and there's a reason people generally zest lemons and not oranges.
>>7422579
That why you dont use much, literally 2 drops will do it in most cocktails
>>7420961
Yeh im dyslex
