Sorted Fortune II

• Spirit of Stewed Peaches, Whey, Wheat & Oats w/ Sea Salt & Honeycomb
  
• 375mL
• 40% Alc. by Vol.

Suggested Serve

Martini Riff w/ 1oz Sorted II, .75 oz Muses, .75 oz Noturnal Persuits, .25 Yuzu Sec, Grapefruit Zest and a Cherry

 

Into the Bottle

Sorted Fortune, our Matchbook thesis in a bottle. It's an answer to a question -- what if we just took in the odds and ends from our favorite farms and food producers. Could we combine them in such a way, raise them in such a way, that they become beautiful and unique spirits.
We got a call from Briermere Farms, one of our favorite local orchards. They had heaps of seconds peaches and didn't have the capacity to turn them all to pies, jams and juices. Were we interested? Of course!
We picked up some fresh whey from our favorite yoghurt makers White Mustache in Brooklyn - and as soon as it came through the door our minds instantly went to peach pie with fresh cream -- fermenting it to dry, distilling and bottling it. We needed a crust. So we looked at the odds and ends grains we had around...some organic NY Valley Malt and Oeschner wheat, some organic Maine oats. We mashed the grains and set them up to ferment.
We wanted to stew the peaches. It would help us process out the stones and maybe denature any pectinase present in the fruit. We went to our earth oven, the fire pit we've dug into the ground. We built a small fire and then placed our iron fire pit over it. We filled it with peaches and began the process of cooking down and stewing our peaches over fire. Using shovels, we turned the peaches over, again and again. A beautiful and hot August day spent stewing peaches over a fire. It smelled amazing.
As the peaches melted, we took them out, pulling the pits, and setting them aside. Adding more peaches in, and turning the peaches over in our peach cauldron again and again until we'd worked through them all. 10 batches. About 1000 lbs of peaches.
We added the fire stewed peaches to the fermenting grain mash. We added the whey. And the co-ferment gracefully carried on. We pot-column distilled it a week or so later, let it rest in glass for about a year, before transferring it into a drum to rest on several frames of fresh honeycomb and a hunk of sea salt.
A collection of summer things...a reflection of summer bounty...a symbiotic relationship with the farms...
Fortune, sorted. Again!