There is an interesting ripple effect that happens when you make too much vermouth (a common problem, of course.) The last batch that I made was for my wood aging experiment which was between two and three times larger than my usual batch. I expected that I wouldn't need to make more for a while, but I didn't realize just how long it would be. The thing is, having a large stockpile of vermouth gave me more time to work on other projects. These projects gave me new things to drink other than vermouth. The result was almost exactly two months between vermouth productions.

Those two months are now over, as I just made batch #21 last night. Not much has changed from the last version (although I am not aging this batch) except that, on a whim, I added a little bit more of almost every ingredient.

Cooked ingredients

• 25 cardamom pods
• 25 juniper berries
• 8 cloves
• 1 star anise
• 1 tsp rooibos
• 750ml wine

Raw Ingredients

• 250ml wine
• 350ml brandy
• 3 oz oloroso sherry
• .5 oz sweet orange
• 2 oz bitter orange
• 1/16 tsp salt
• 30 drops wormwood
• 35 drops gentian
• 35 drops cinchona

Sugar

• 8 oz caramelized sugar

I have been thinking about tincturizing (tincturifying? Maybe I should just say "making tinctures out of") all of my ingredients. This weekend I will start macerating the cardamom, juniper, and cloves, and we'll see what happens...