Aske Stephenson mixing up a stir with Bibby lab equipment
Aske Stephenson develops hand-produced cocktails designed to introduce consumers to new and unusual flavour combinations.
The firm needs to distil alcoholic liquids for making cocktails, but the process generates heat that can impair cocktail flavours.
The Stuart RE300 Rotary Evaporators can operate under vacuum, meaning pressure of the system is lowered, so alcoholic liquids can be distilled at lower temperatures to maximise flavour.
Past product usage
Thomas Aske, co-founder of Aske Stephenson, said it has been using Bibby products for more than five years in its bar, The Worship Street Whistling Shop.
“More recently we have begun producing a range of retail products, including bottled cocktails, using an RE300 evaporator from Bibby,” he said.
“We originally had an RE100 evaporator but have recently moved on to the newer RE300 model. We remained with the Bibby products due to the simplicity of the instruments, which makes it easy for non-scientists to use.
“The evaporator enables us to distil at low temperatures, which aids the retention of delicate flavours both in our bottled cocktail range and the cocktails we produce at The Whistling Shop.”
Sous vide (“under vacuum”) techniques are also part of production of syrups, cordials and liqueurs.
The low temperature and long maceration times can extract a natural flavour from ingredients, said Aske.
Aske Stephenson is using Bibby’s technologies to produce Peanut Butter & Jam Old Fashioned, Leather & Walnut Sazerac and The Revery cocktails.
Rotary evaporation technique
Katy Bridge, assistant product manager at Bibby Scientific, said rotary evaporation is used in science laboratories to remove solvents from a solution, concentrate a solution, and reclaim solvents and vacuum dry wet solids.
“In the food industry [they] are used to create intensely flavoured distillates and reductions from almost any starting material.”
Bridge said it was seeing increasing interest in applying scientific technologies to industries such as cocktail mixology and sous vide.
“Sous vide cooking involves the use of a vacuum sealer and water bath that work by gently and slowly infusing elements to produce intense flavours,” she said.
“By using a water bath mixologists can create flavour infused spirits, fruit caramel and juice infusions without needing human intervention or constant monitoring.
“Initially sous vide was used in high end Michelin starred kitchens, but more recently you will see them used in an array of different restaurants and pubs due to the benefits that sous vide cooking provides. It has even been explored by some of the big food manufacturers and airlines due to the consistency of the results.”
