Maylört - Part I
The journey begins...
Malört, you either love it or you hate it. Well, if you’re from Chicago that is. If you’re from anywhere else, you either find it’s taste off putting, or you’re like “What the heck is Malört?”
Let me give you a little background. Malört is a wormwood-based digestif that was created in Chicago and is still mostly a Chicago based spirit, despite it’s wider distribution footprint. The recipe has supposedly improved it’s taste over the years, but it’s still something that takes a refined (or battered) palate to appreciate.
Introduction to Malört
My first taste of Malört was years ago when I was visiting my brother in Chicago. We were brewery hopping and stopped at some place nearby Goose Island that I don’t recall the name of. We had our beers, and a man sitting a few seats down that bar asked if we wanted to do a shot with him and asked if we’d heard of Malört. I hadn’t, but I’m always willing to do a shot and try something new.
Little did I know what I had just gotten myself into. The bartender lines up three shot glasses on the bar and pours us all a shot. We knock it back, and that’s when it starts to hit me. The bitter, fusel alcohol didn’t burn so much going down, but the aftertaste lingered for what seemed like eons. It was probably only a minute of so, but it felt like licking a battery and chugging gasoline then eating pavement.
From then on, I made it my mission to introduce my friends to the wonders and pains of Malört. Whether it be on weekend trips with friends to Chicago, shots before/after a game of ultimate frisbee, or plying friends and family with it when they visit my home, I’ve had more than my fair share of Malört. And now it’s not even that bad when I drink it.
Despite all of that, I believe Malört can be made more palatable and provide a better experience with a little creativity and ingenuity. Which is why I started Maylört. You can read more about what exactly I wanted to do and how I’m going about it in my “Welcome to Maylört” article.
Root Beer Malört
Sprecher Brewing, Potosi Brewery, and Point Brewery make some of the best root beer in Wisconsin, and I enjoy treating myself with a can/bottle of them every so often. But I’m not above drinking A&W, Barq’s, or other brands. That’s how much I love root beer. So when I was looking for a way to use the rest of the root beer barrel candies that had been sitting in a container on the kitchen counter, I figured why not start out Maylört with a candy infusion.
To make this version, I took two 4oz mason jars and added about five or six crushed up candy barrels, then filled them with Malört. At least twice a day every day, each jar got a vigorous shake to help the flavors infuse and shake out. After three to four days the candies were completely dissolved.
Now it was time to make some cocktails! I gathered up all my supplies and headed over to Buzzed With Brian’s house where he was hosting some friends and having a fire.
Going in to crafting this infusion, my vision was to use it in a Negroni riff, in place of the Campari. Then, inspiration struck and I thought why not add some coffee liqueur as well, because the interplay between those two flavors would yield something quite exquisite.
For the first real Malört cocktail I’ve made, it turned out far better than I ever could have expected. The sweet vanilla/caramel flavors from the root beer along with the licorice tempered the harsh bitterness of Malört and the cocktail in general. There was still some lingering aftertaste from the Malört but it wasn’t terrible.
The only thing I didn’t like about this one was that there was too much coffee flavor that overshadowed some of the root beer that I wanted to shine through. In future iterations, I would dial back the coffee liqueur to just a bar spoon’s worth and up the Root Beer Malört to a full ounce. That should give you a much better drink.
The Build: Root Beer Malgröni (needs a better name)
1 oz. State Line London Dry gin
1 oz. Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth
¾ oz. Root beer Malört
¼ oz. State Line Coffee Liqueur.
Because I made about 8 oz of the root beer infusion, we ended up making a second cocktail as well. This time, we went with a Boulevardier. For the whiskey, we used a bourbon, from Driftless Glen Distillery in Baraboo, that was finished in vanilla cognac casks.
Folks, this was such a fantastic beverage that I would be willing to drink again and again. I never though I could say that with something including Malört. The vanilla bourbon by itself was excellent, add that to the root beer flavors, and it is a pleasurable encounter with vanilla that soothes your soul and leaves you feeling warm and tingly inside.
With how limited the release of the bourbon we used was, this drink make be hard to re-create. I’m sure there’s some other vanilla type whiskeys you could use. It’s worth playing around with to see what you can create.
The Build: Boulavörtier
1 ¼ oz. Driftless Glen bourbon finished in vanilla cognac cask
¾ oz. Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth
¾ oz Root beer Malört
Grilled Pineapple Malört
For week two, I wasn’t sure what to do, but Brian had suggested doing something with grilled pineapple and mixing it in a highball with some tepache that him and his wife, Aryn, made. Tepache, for those that aren’t familiar, is a traditional Mexican beverage made from fermented pineapple. To make it, you take the core and peels from a pineapple and add unfiltered cane sugar or brown sugar then let it ferment. You can sort of equate it to a pineapple kombucha for all intents and purposes.
I liked the idea of using some fruit in one of my infusions and exploring tepache in a new way. Plus, it gave me an excuse to get out the grill and cook something fun up.
Elizabeth and I had some rib eye steaks in the freezer won from a meat raffle quite a while back that we’d been meaning to grill for a nice occasion. But those occasions don’t always come unless you make them. So on Sunday evening we decided to make it a special day to celebrate the nice weather, planting our garden, and just enjoying our life together.
We sliced up the pineapple, sprinkled it with a brown sugar and cinnamon mix, then tossed it on the grill beside a medley of vegetables and the steak. Seeing the steaks cooking alongside the pineapple had me salivating in anticipation of a delicious dinner. And when it was all done and cooked to perfection, we sat out on our front porch to a wonderful meal.
But before enjoying dinner, I took a couple of the slices of freshly grilled pineapple, chopped them up and threw them in a jar with Malört. Because I was dealing with fresh fruit, I let this one sit for 24hrs before straining out the pineapple and leaving me with seven to eight ounces of infused spirit.
After taking the pineapple out of the Malört, I decided to pop one into my mouth for a preview of what I could expect from the spirit itself. Turns out, no matter how much you enjoy grilled pineapple, soaking it in Malört does no favors to the fruit. It was horrendous, and I could barely keep it together after ingesting it. After that I wasn’t sure that this infusion was gonna be worth it.
Later in the week, we invited Brian and Aryn over to our place to sample some highballs. They brought over a bottle of their homemade tepache to use. But I couldn’t let it be just one single highball. To make it more interesting, I searched Woodman’s grocery store for other pineapple flavored beverages. That journey ended up with me bringing home a can of De La Calle! pineapple spice tepache (one of many tepache flavors from De La Calle!) and a bottle of pineapple Jarritos (Mexican soda).
With everything in hand, we were ready to take flight and fly high(ball). Because the Malört and mixer each were pineapple focused, I decided I needed one more thing to help give it something extra. That something was ginger beer to complement the sweetness from the pineapple.
All three highballs we made were distinct enough that they each had pros and cons. It was a real Goldilocks situation for me with the homemade tepache being too dry, the Jarritos being too sweet, and the canned tepache being just right (or as right as it could be).
All of them felt a little bland and lacking a punch that I was hoping for. I think adding some simple syrup with help bring a better balance to the drink and smooth out the flavor profile as well. In all of them, the Malört was more prevalent that the previous infusion. But with the limited amount used in this drink, it wasn’t as harsh and didn’t linger for long. They were still drinkable and I ended up finishing all three.
The Build: Pineapple Malört Highballs
1 oz. pineapple Malört
~ 1 oz. Barritt’s ginger beer
~ 5 oz. tepache/Jarritos
What’s Next?
Halfway through Maylört and the drinks are flowing. This journey has inspired me to get back into crafting more cocktails at home and playing with ratios and ingredients to see how I can tune the classics into something more to my tastes.
As for the next flavors creations, I’ve got a fat washed Malört that I will be using in a drink to celebrate Memorial Day. Then for the final one, I’m thinking of doing something with rhubarb or maybe exploring the farmers market and using other fresh ingredients to make something springy. I’m not quite sure what it will be, but I’ll need to decide on it soon.
What I do know is that these next two batches will stretch my ability to create something worth drinking, but I still believe that it’s within my reach. Come back for Part II to hear how the rest of the month tasted!