How to Make Jägermeister at Home

 

Greetings, I am Wagner Ramírez, artisan liquor maker. 

I have set out to interpret the Jägermeister and make an acceptable version that can be prepared at home.

The first step

To decipher the recipe for a liquor we must answer the following questions:

What is the percentage of sugar?

There are three ways to answer this:

Laboratory Level

Place the liquor in a distillation equipment, evaporate the alcohol, determine the density of the liquor, and calculate the percentage of sugar.

Internet User Level

Research this information on the internet, but you will not always find a good result.

Artisan Liquor Level

Do a tasting and give a subjective estimate. This is my favorite technique.

What is the percentage of alcohol?

There are two ways to answer this:

Laboratory Level

Place the liquor in a distillation equipment, distill the alcohol, measure the density of the alcohol, and calculate the amount of alcohol.

Internet User Level

Investigate this data on the internet, it is the manufacturer that provides us with this information.

What techniques are the most feasible to make this liquor at home?

To answer this, you only need experience in the art of making spirits, I will give my humble opinion later.

What percentage of botanicals are used in this preparation?

This is a great debate. Experience has taught me to start with 200 grams per liter in the first experiment and then adjust.

What are the botanicals that make up the recipe?

This is very difficult to know, but we can get pretty close. We must do a thorough investigation, gather the available information, and use logic. Reading or listening to the opinion of professional tasters helps a lot, even doing our own tastings. I also recommend:

• Look for old labels or advertisements that can give information.
• Investigate the economy, history, and geography of the place where the liquor is produced.
• Determine if the drink is suitable for certain religious groups, so we can discard some ingredients.
• Investigate if the drink has any medical contraindications, so we can rule out some ingredients.

What is the proportion of each of the botanicals?

This is impossible to know, unless we hire a spy, but this is not the case. Here the only feasible thing is to use our experience and common sense, for example, cinnamon is very strong, it should be used little, the orange peel provides a lot of bitterness, the clove replaces several spices, the good herb is almost universal, the anise brings freshness, but should not be abused. Research gin recipes, these give us ideas on how to balance a recipe. We must inquire to learn.

My Conclusions

• The liquor emerged in 1935, in Lower Saxony, as an interpretation of an older recipe. It was designed by an artisan liquor maker named Curt Mast, who was the son of a vinegar producer.
• I estimated a sweetness of 130 g of sugar per liter (13%).
• It has 345 ml of ethanol per liter (34.5%).
• The botanicals are cold macerated with a neutral brandy.
• The macerate is strained, matured in oak, decanted, and then filtered cold.
• It adjusts with water, sugar, and alcohol to meet the standards.
• The manufacturer informs us that 56 botanicals are used, gives a short list, others are deducted by visitors to the plant or professional tasters. The manufacturer acknowledges that there are 13 top secret botanicals and one of them comes from Costa Rica. We managed to determine these with certainty: licorice, anise, ginger, juniper, saffron, nutmeg, lavender, cinnamon, cloves, bitter orange peel, lemon peel, cardamom, star anise, chamomile, coriander seeds, grains of paradise, pepper of java, yarrow, dill, good grass and rose hip.
• I prefer not to credit the legend that certifies deer blood or opium as secret ingredients.

Recipe Design

Once the research was finished, my challenge as an artisan liquor maker was to design an accessible recipe to make at home and with easily available ingredients. If you don't have an ingredient, use your imagination, take into account the availability of spices from your region.

This recipe makes for a 750 ml bottle.

Ingredients

20 g peppermint.

20 g of chamomile flower.

20 g of lavender flower.

20 g of dill berries.

20 g of dried lime peel.

20 g of dried orange peel.

20 g of prune.

8 g of ginger.

8 g of coriander seeds.

8 g of cardamom.

8 g of anise seed.

8 grams of star anise.

8 g of nutmeg.

8 g of cinnamon bark.

8 g of cloves.

8 g of black pepper.

4 g bay leaves

4 g of saffron.

4 g of coffee beans

1 tablespoon of vanilla essence.

5 g of toasted oak chips.

1 liter of 40% alcohol vodka.

100g of white sugar.

Process

Place all the botanicals to marinate in the vodka.

Let marinate for a month.

Strain the botanicals, without applying pressure.

Allow to settle for a month to deposit the sediments to the bottom and separate them.

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

Filter with cotton.

Bottle.