Comments on: Keeping it Fresh

By: Chuck

Chuck — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:44:17 +0000

Cocktailian sf fans who read Larry Niven’s work will pine for a stasis box for storing their liquor …

Barring that, vermouthy things get pumped with wine preserver gas and stored in the fridge, and the spirits I drink more slowly (aged, expensive stuff) gets the gas too. Rye and gin and the like goes fast at our place, so we don’t worry.

My big regret about my beloved Carpano Antica vermouth is that it only comes in liter bottles and always suffers by the time we get toward the latter half of the bottle, even when we think we’re drinking it quickly. I do wish we could get 375s of this stuff. Would decanting it immediately into smaller bottles help, do you think, or would any exposure to air, even as we’re transferring it, begin its decline? If it’s the former I’ll just start saving my 375ml Cinzano, Noilly Prat and Vya bottles …

By: Mike S.

Mike S. — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:14:46 +0000

For vermouth and other aromatized wines, I use an inert-gas wine preserver and keep them in the fridge. I also keep genever-style gins in the fridge, but not for preservation purposes; I just like the way genever tastes cold. As for the rest of my spirits and liqueurs? I just keep them capped/closed and stored in my cabinet. If there’s some decline over time, so be it — I can only worry about so many things in my life, and this cannot be one of them. That said, if there’s a definitive solution out there, I’d probably try it.

By: DJ Dubonnet

DJ Dubonnet — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:15:07 +0000

In my case, I am restricted by economy; I only have so much space in my sideboard, and so much money, so I focus on just a couple of different brands of each base liquor at a time.
For liquers and such, I buy the smallest bottle I can find. I wanted to try out Navan and kirsch earlier, so I found them both in the airline-sized bottles.
I tend to buy according to season as well; this past winter I went through two bottles of applejack, but didn’t buy any after that. Now the fall is here, and applejack is starting to appeal to me more.
So my home bar flucuates; I don’t try to have one of everything, so I go through everything pretty consistently.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:43:58 +0000

the original bottle is a romantic thing but i’ve found that you really need to decant into smaller bottles for the practicality of the home bar… oxygen creates most of the aged flavors we all love so it shouldn’t exactly be demonized. but it is good to keep things at the level of oxidation the artist intended…

i use small canning jars…

By: TheSkilletHead

TheSkilletHead — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:35:58 +0000

I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent wondering the same thing. I don’t own the vacuum seal systems or anything and, with the exception of scotch and top shelf liquors, I keep my entire bar topped with pour spouts with the large dust/fruit fly covers. I’ve become reasonably certain through research that alcohol stored that way (not quite sealed) will not evaporate at any meaningful rate, so I’m been more concerned at the flavor. I’ve been trying to get educated with classic and original cocktails and therefore have a bunch of ingredients that aren’t used too often and am worried that in a year or two my investment in the bar is going to go south.

Maybe I’ll just have more parties. Hmm.

By: rowley

rowley — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:55:38 +0000

Paul ~

I’m a bit of a museum geek, so this is a bit of a geeky answer. First option is to drink the spirits in a timely matter once they are opened. Got a collector’s bottle? Plan on time with good friends.

On the other hand—and here’s the geeky part—the natural history museum staff who handle specimens preserved in alcohol spend a LOT of time researching evaporation rates and the solubility of supposedly inert seals. The Society for the Preservation of Natural
History Collections (SPNHC and pronounced ’spinach’) put out a pamphlet called “Supplies and Materials for Museum Collections” in 2006 that recommends SpecTape, Inc.’s SpecTape, #ST-408C, a “Transparent polypropylene coated with an acrylic-based, extremely adhesive aggressive.” For the record, I’ve got no connection to the tape folks; just worked with plenty of critters in alcohol and recognize that pros in an entirely different field have already been looking into the problems of hooch evaporation/oxidation.

Yeah, the “extremely aggressive adhesive” gives me pause and propbably would be inappropriate for a bottle you wanted to crack open once every few weeks, but once a year? Maybe—just maybe—that or something like that could come in handy.

Shoot me an mail me if you’d like a copy of the report…

By: davetender

davetender — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:35:04 +0000

I haven’t had anything real expensive to save for long periods of time, but my favorite white tequila, El Tesoro platinum, looses it’s subtle floral notes and picks up a harsh citrus pithy note within weeks. On the occasion I pick up a bottle, I use a VacuVin wine vaccum and keep it in the fridge. It seems to help keep the shelf life be a bit longer than the 2-3 weeks before that off flavor starts to develop.

Of course when it starts to go it’s as good a reason (not that I need one) as any to buy some limes for margaritas.

Good link btw Tiare.

Cheers

By: tiare

tiare — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:46:17 +0000

As a rum person i can only really refer to rum here and rinking it within 6 months seems to be optional, as well as using screw top closures rather than natural cork even though cork is more “nice”

My own rums always goes within the 6 month time frame anyway.

Here is a discussion on this topic from the Ministry of Rum:

http://www.ministryofrum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=455