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Distiller’s Perspective: Reconstructing an Original French Amer
The Golden Moon Distillery in Golden, Colorado, recently closed its doors after 16 years of producing creative, award-winning craft spirits—such as its Amer Antik, closely based on a mid-19th century recipe. Here, Stephen Gould explains what went into the old-fashioned bitters, and he shares advice for up-and-coming distillers.
The Golden Moon Distillery in Golden, Colorado, recently closed its doors after 16 years of producing creative, award-winning craft spirits—such as its Amer Antik, closely based on a mid-19th century recipe. Here, Stephen Gould explains what went into the old-fashioned bitters, and he shares advice for up-and-coming distillers. <a href="https://spiritsanddistilling.com/distillers-perspective-antique-amer/">Continue reading.</a>
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Our Amer Antik was based on the original formula for amer, which is amaro in Italian or amargo in Spanish—they all mean bitters. This was produced and very popular in the French colonies, and later in France from the 1830s.
I acquired distiller’s notes from 1851 and decided to see whether I could create what is essentially the original product. I also had old samples of some of the original formulas. After two years of playing around with it, I got the flavor profile correct.
It’s a nine-step process, and the only deviation from the original formula is that we removed an ingredient called calamus root because the FDA considers it a carcinogen, so it’s not allowed. I’ve had distillers accuse me of using that ingredient because they think they can taste it. But what I was able to do is reverse-engineer a flavor profile using other ingredients.
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