Brad Distills 80 Proof Alcohol (Sotol) | It's Alive: Goin' Places | Bon Appétit

[Music] I'm just a ball Wayfaring Stranger while traveling in this world of woe yeah there's no sickness action hey guys today we're in Central Texas up in the hill country we hooked up with desert Dora distillery and we're gonna be harvesting some sotol plant to make sotol spirits we're gonna get out start harvesting some plants show you how they do it head back and distill it and show you the products so uh put the ocean backwards [Music] are we going that's what that means that I said join him joining me from desert door here is Ken Coburn Ken thanks for joining us a fix from and behind us we've got some pretty interesting plants here you wanna tell me what I'm about to get involved in here yeah we're gonna do the first process of making sotol which is harvesting so Soto I just see it where is the soda so tall I'm so sorry right behind us here so just by taking a glance at this plant you know it's looking like it's a it's loaded with all kinds of booby traps you want to show me the proper way to handle this bad boy yeah sure let's get her gloves on so we're gonna grab oh we've got a handful leaves like this alright alright name it not on your hand let the leaves start pulling those leaves away for the haircut pretty much just keep doing that until we get to the base of the plant there you go now before we cut off before we cut all this off mm-hmm let's take a look at this I mean this thing is all kinds of barbed up without the gloves I'm assuming this would be cutting the hell out of your hand yeah it leaves a pretty nasty mark on your skin there you go alright so we're gonna use a crowbar to get it out from the bar can't do alright alright okay get underneath like that it's gonna wiggle wiggle pop a little pot that's right well let me do it for you Ken go ahead give it a shot was honestly not expecting that to be as easy as you made it well I got good good teachers can do it man all right there you go look out for any centipedes yeah and centipedes yeah we got to watch out for those now you'll see scorpions Square pizza scorpion centipedes tarantulas all good yeah but looks like we're clear for this one yeah so that's that root system we're talking about very fibrous I mean I guess you'd have to be pretty tough to live out here for years huh absolutely and this is what we're looking for that that is what that contains all those sugars that we want to break down and format oh really not the big starchy curved ivory oh so it almost reminds me a little bit of like an artichoke pedal mm-hmm so it's in the family of the artichokes yeah so this we pulled out for the top of this a tall plant yeah see it's got an amazing looking little shine and texture to it is that plant is this little pedal itself edible I'm sure it is sure it is something like this weighing around you know 1015 pounds or so how much of a bottle with this bill yeah so it depends on the size and the weight but this one right here would probably yield about a bottle or so finish Brock so cool load this up in the truck maybe harvest a few more and then head back to the distillery and put me to work there huh sounds good sounds like a plan [Music] [Music] all right okay Brad you want to drive the truck absolutely five-speed for port of force me huh Rock n Roll man good ol American for yeah little bench seat yeah can't find him garden Benny no I would never alright whoever owns this truck I would never grew up on a five-speed for its beat same thing what year is this thing 77 Wow yeah fun sees a little work always do yeah [Music] really in the van oh no cameras but I'm in the truck right now minivan it's cool get in the van funny games are over Benny alrighty this is it huh is it first step is taking the plants that we harvested and loading them up into the baskets from there they go into the cooking oh yeah this is that big boy yeah I think that's two bottles right there easy that smell it's pretty nice ain't it here is the pride of Butte I'm still proud of this one yeah trim job my boys all these got going to they do a surprise what Centipede I'm coming in hot yeah oh yeah uh-huh is this just like a giant giant pressure cooker that's right what temperature are we cooking at we're cooking it at 100 degrees Celsius Celsius what's that in Fahrenheit so 212 degrees Oh boiling yeah we're gonna get some steam into there that's how we cook remember we're talking about breaking down those complex sugar structures yeah and we do that by using steam to break down those bonds okay and so yeah that's why it's in here cool how long does that go for it about three days well let that cook away and then what's the what's the next step in the process except is pressing so rattling pull these baskets out yep they'll have a tobacco kind of color to them move it closer to the press borrow that up and start pushing the plants inside there okay cool hey what's our and then like the pulp or the excess discarded juice comes out another yep that's right these flanges here prevent that than popping a help in there should I not be standing here you'll be fun okay no one got injured yeah well pop to it there you go we're gonna move this railing at the front yeah we are [Music] so we juiced out all those plants filled up this thing here what's the what's the next step well the next step is pumping this into the fermentation tank okay so now we've got our sotol juice in here the yeast is added into the tank where then it goes to work it converts those sugars into alcohol the last thing we do is check alcohol ABV how much shall call has actually got produced during that time and once that's recorded we'll go ahead and pump that into the still so it's really over after is the the alcohol that charges I think gloves off yeah you can see what's gonna lean right here okay sounds good so we've got our ferment it's inside the kettle won't bring it up to temperature and as that temperature rises your refluxing your so go turn the vapor and drop back down to the liquid and that's got a good lensing process yeah so if you're essentially trying to get the Pierce of alcohol through the top of that home so once you get your your pure alcohol it comes down there's another column let's what's going on in there this would be the condenser so packed with cold water when it touches cold water turns into liquid and that's what we're capturing here on the side amazing after a run will collect all of our spirit distillate inside here we'll test it again make sure we know that in this given volume its X ABV and then we'll proof that down to our bottle proof so we can we taste this at high-octane firewater you guys got yeah absolutely it goes and that's it close it so based off of that hydrometer it's saying about 90% yeah before you cut it all right well you improve it deeper what's a proof of her fit so this is Vernon you said about 90% alcohol that's right so what that translates into 180 proof that's right right yeah i octane hi Alton all right take a little nip absolutely I'm gonna smell it first yeah I would do it well it's actually pretty pretty like well I don't want to say calm but kind of taint it's not like it'll burn your nose that's a pretty mellow it is mellow on the nose oh sweet yeah so that thing that comes through the plant so not all the sugars get converted to fermentable sugars and we feel like the salt all juice that's inside the kettle but so that that kind of carries through it's amazing how it's it does still have that kind of sweet vegetal even after all that crazy process yeah you know I've smelled some super super high proof how calls before and it is does not smell as as pleasant as this no we're very proud of it yeah it's a fascinating plant and process you guys got going on there take a little nip I guess I kind of have to yeah oh that was a pretty unique experience in the mouth there I feel like it almost like evaporated before I swallowed it that's ninety four ninety percent so yeah sure yeah highly flammable yes it's actually actually pretty good hey slow down but yeah you don't want to drink too much of it I mean this is pretty awesome but I'd love can we jump in and take some of you guys this final proof that product absolutely yeah let's go yeah let's do that [Music] yeah this is our 80-proof so tall so it hasn't been barrel-aged okay so this is right out of the still or it's proof down to go about 40 percent I love these little what's the name for these cocoa pitas okay a traditional way of drinking so tall yeah let me smell it right off the bat here yeah again has that kind of sweet and it you know nobody I don't want to say buttery but it has a softness to it you know Wow right it's so much different on the mouth then that that were tasting straight I saw before I moved it what are some of the flavors you kind of get out of this I get mint a eucalyptus bunnery like almost buttery like right I'm very vegetal right and that comes through from the plant you know we saw where we harvested this plan we're in you know rocky soil and it is it must be a product of that too that like kind of terror terroir and you said this only real this only really grows in in Texas and in northern Mexico mm-hmm it spreads along into Arizona New Mexico as well okay but northern Mexico beautiful so I noticed over here you got a bunch of barrels you said your agent you pop some of this in them barrels and how long you let that sit you sit for about nine months I love the blue let's say Korea blue cobalt maybe yeah I get in that cheers Cheers that's nice that's that is pretty simple right there yeah I'm proud of what we've we've done here with these two very very simple it just brings me to a real happy place you know it's it's winter back home I'm getting real cold all right I'm just gonna close my eyes and see him crackling fireplace I don't have a dog but the dogs land by the fire I'm sitting there real cozy chair just nipping on this and then at ten minutes or so I might even fall asleep a little you know but it also it doesn't it's not a it's not a sluggish you know I think they call it a spirit for a reason I always say you know it kind of does live in you up a little much different than even wine or beer for that matter maybe that's just the cheers man thanks again yeah welcome is that wind an issue take two do believe me down Vinny oh sweet Mary I almost lost you once today baby you try and do that again right God sinks cowboy hat must hate it anyway alright guys well I hope you learned as much as I did about Soto learning about that plant and seeing it nothing about it screams hey pick me eat me ferment me turn me into a beverage it was the first time I ever had so little and it blew me away how much complexity and flavor depth there was to it I had these beautiful you know minty eucalyptus and soft vegetal flavors you know you get it you get a product that is distinct to this region there's something special about that well thanks again to the folks from desert door distillery for showing me how they make soda hope you guys had fun check it out try to get some and you know Bon Appetit huh so tall the hell was I saying sotto sotto all right hey guys today were out here in Central Texas up in the up in the hill country and we hooked up with dazzle should I say hooked up hey guys today we're in West us take three hey guys today we're out here and oh no not today sorry I'm overthinking this hey guys today we're out here in Central Texas up in the hill country we just want to say hooked up [Music]

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 1,767,259

Rating: 4.9329119 out of 5

Keywords: brad, brad leone, it's alive goin places, brad bon appetit, it's alive, brad makes, brad makes sotol, brad distills sotol, sotol, brad texas, brad goin places, brad leone 2019, brad sotol, what is sotol, sotol drink, making sotol, make sotol, distilling sotol, brad in texas, brad austin texas, brad makes alcohol, brad distills alcohol, brad alcohol, goin places, brad it's alive, it's alive bon appetit, texas hill country, central texas, food, bon appetit

Id: dn2S00y5BjA

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/plotthick]

1. Mr. Korbin is such a typical Texan. There are two types: talk your friggin leg off... or the ones like Ken. You'd think they have to pay $2 for every word they utter. Ken's attitude is all "I'm just here to be Brad's straightman. Wife said we need publicity. *sigh* He can't even say "sotol" right."
2. I miss Matt's editing so, so, so, SOOOO MUCH. Brad is always a delight... but WOURDER!

​

[u/iiRockpuppy]

These last two episodes have been much more energetic compared to the first one. Definitely less editing, more professional still. Brad is still so lovable.

This Ken guy was just not feeling it though, I gotta say.

[u/bishibashib0shi]

Anybody got a clue what Brad shirt/jacket is wearing?

[u/Chillyhead]

Anyone know who does the cover of Wayfaring Stranger during the opening of this episode?