Gin with speck and horseradish? Garage22 makes it
Taking a stand for quality meat
How is a gin that tastes like speck and horseradish made? Do you drown a piece of sausage in it?
Yes. There are three ways to get the smoky flavour into the spirit. Gin is a draught spirit, so we can afford to macerate the raw material in alcohol. And that's what happened with our Speck and Horseradish gin. You can also use smoked spirit, as in whiskey, or infuse the final product with smoke. We at fourth edition of Speck and Horseradishfor Amaso and available at Naše maso, we are going to combine the first and third methods, that is, in case the gin is not sufficiently smoky after maceration and distillation.
What does the recipe roughly look like?
We ordered about 50 kilos of pork cracklings, already ground from Amaso, added lots of spices, juniper, mustard, horseradish and other herbs and macerated them in alcohol for five days.
Why not just sausage, why not Prague ham?
We always knew we wanted to make a gin with meat. It's a slight departure from the gin tradition and the classic flavours that people normally think of - citrus, olives, spices. In addition, the makers of our still, Arnold Holstein of Germany, mentioned that the Germans like to use residual heat during distillation and heat up meat in the still. So we had the idea in our heads from the beginning.
Why a sausage?
We already have three editions of Speck and Horseradish in our portfolio, and the fourth one will be created in collaboration with Ambiente. For us, sausages are an iconic Czech thing. They combine smokiness, juiciness and nostalgia. Špekáček evokes fire and the atmosphere of evening gatherings, comfort and meeting friends. By the way, we have already used Prague ham in gin for the Hemingway bar. They make it into drinks there.
Would a guest enjoy the Speck and Horseradish gin better in a drink or neat?
That's the question. I guess it depends on how much he's willing to experiment. I'd be happy to use this gin to wash down a pork knuckle at a barbecue, or to mix it into a cocktail - perhaps a negroni, which would benefit from the smoky components. It also tastes good in a Bloody Mary cocktail, which when combined with gin is called a Red Snapper. But it also works with a classic martini.
I like your unexpected connections between different branches of gastronomy. You're getting your caraway seeds from a bakery, your banana peels from a Brazilian restaurant. What other forms does your collaboration with Ambiente take?
We regularly make caraway seeds and blue gin dyed with a flower called butterfly flower for the U Kalendů restaurant. For the brewery Dva kohouti we made a gin with blackcurrants and recently also one with raspberries. Collaboration comes naturally. I've been going to the Dva kohouti for a good four years now, we all know each other and the idea came spontaneously over a beer. A favourite cocktail there, although it's not exactly a cocktail, has become the Sliv-gin, a combination of raspberry gin and plum brandy.
What about the Speck and Horseradish?
That came about when my colleagues and I went to Naše maso to buy a few sausages to try out, and we met general manager Radek Chaloupka, and it was time for Speck and Horseradish. Now it's made especially for them, from Amaso sausages. Other times, a bartender or someone from the restaurant comes to our distillery, draws up his idea and then we proceed from there.
That's a lot of collaborations and bottles of gin for one small distillery.
We are planning to open another distillery outside of Prague where we would also make our own fermentations and experiment more. I'd like to collaborate with the Štangl restaurant, where they use the noble koji mould a lot. The thing is that in our distillery here in Holešovice we can't make moonshine, i.e. distillate from kvass, because we are in a residential area, not to mention how aromatic such production is. I'm not saying that we're going straight into gin distillate, we have it shipped in from the Kojetín distillery. But we would like a base for fruit spirits.
Garage22 was the first gin distillery in the Czech Republic to venture into bold and unexpected flavour combinations. Was it a big step into the unknown for you?
It was, but we simply didn't want to create a gin that already existed on the market. We do have classics like London dry style, our Gin22, and blue gin that changes colour based on pH, but we still wanted to come up with something really interesting. Fortunately, gin is variable, you can play around with it. You just have to bear in mind that some of the ingredients change flavour when heated during distillation.
Like?
Truffles, for example, smell incredibly bad right after the product is finished. So it has to be left to age for at least a month after distillation. Then it can go on the counter. Similarly, the Speck and Horseradish needed time. However, guests who know our gin and have been to see it here at the distillery are curious to see what else we come up with and are open to new flavours.
Are there any boundaries at all? Have you ever gone so far that an experiment failed?
I don't think there are any. We've never said to ourselves that the result is not good.
What's the wildest idea you've toyed with or maybe even implemented?
This year, tripe and horseradish were in play for Speck and Horseradish. I'm very interested in tripe, and tripe was the one that my colleagues and I thought was the most feasible. If we added some smoked paprika and onion flavour to a gin like this, we'd have smothered tripe. And with a dash of truffle, it would be Italian-style tripe again.
That's very adventurous. You either love tripe or you can't even smell it.
I've had gin with oysters and seaweed. Here at Garage22, we tried the shrimp and mandarin and were very pleasantly surprised by the results. Now we are also experimenting with shiitake mushrooms combined with lemon spirit and trying to work with banana peels. If the result turns out well, we will be taking the peels from Brasileiro, as they make fried bananas in bulk. I have a shelf here in the distillery where I keep my bottles of experiments. When a bartender from a place comes in and wants to try something a little different, that's where I reach.
What makes you think of macerating shiitake or shrimp?
I like to walk into Hall 22 in the Holešovice Market and see what ingredients are on offer. I've also been in gastronomy for a while, working on the set and behind the bar. It's all stored in your head and then the idea comes to you.
Do gin distillers go anywhere for inspiration?
We're lucky that we already import a lot of interesting gins, but we often work with extra flavours, so there's nowhere to go for inspiration. However, we have recently been to Copenhagen Distillery, where they make excellent aquavits (ed. note: a caraway-based spirit with herbs like aniseed, tasting like absinthe)it's a very beautiful distillery. And we are going to the fair in Katowice, where there is a bar based on sour cherry, we are really looking forward to this tasting.
Has gin always been so popular here in the Czech Republic?
I think its popularity has grown in the last ten years. Gin may not have as much tradition here as slivovice or beer, but there is a small gin scene here. Even people who used to only drink fruit spirits are getting into gin.
What's the main difference between the gin I buy in the supermarket and the craft gin?
It's the place of origin, the idea, but mainly the approach. I think it's nice that a bartender or a customer can go to their local distiller in Holešovice and get the gin directly from the source, taste some sub-juice... Plus, in craft production, you can process leftovers - just banana peels, for example. But it is a fact that there is a social group in Prague that seeks and appreciates quality and access. It is clear to me that when I go to the regions, the people there may not be so open to craft gin. But that's also the plan.
What specifically?
We'd love to do a negroni tour around the country and introduce this iconic cocktail to the general public.
Is gin more of an aperitif or can it also be paired with food?
Gin is versatile, it can be paired with salad. An example is ceviche (ed. note: fish sliced thinly and marinated in lemon or lime juice) with a fruity or citrusy gin. For me personally, however, gin is mainly an aperitif. Its freshness whets the appetite. But if you use gin to make, say, a negroni, then it plays more the role of a digestif, a relaxing drink. Specifically, Speck and Horseradish goes well with meat, i.e. with the main course, or with slaughterhouse specialties instead of slivovitz.
What do I mix your caraway or aquavit with if I don't want to drink it neat?
Definitely caraway with grapefruit soda. It's a bit weird, but it's great. By the way, we get our caraway from the Petravec oil mill and they toast it in the Eska bakery in bread ovens to make it smell even better and more intense. Our Fiesta Gin or Aquavit also goes well with grapefruit soda. I also recommend it to people who don't seek out the juniper aroma, which is essential in gin.
