Tau..

Your lack of Aquavit is catastrophic..!!

Man ..you are living lean and on the edge..Get a grip man and step into it..

A true Viking would spit and laugh in the face of adversity..

A burning boat it is for you..

Go sack ..burn and pillage the neighboring kingdom for more funds for the elixir of life..

While you are getting ready to sail off to burn and pillage..here is a recipe for you to make up a batch to be ready for you when you get back..

Here is a recipe for the most popular flavoured vodka in Scandinavia.

Akvavit -The Scandinavian flavored vodka.

The most famous flavored vodka from Scandinavia is probably Akvavit (or Aquavit if you ask from any Dane.) Akvavit is not actually vodka, it is just specially made grain based spirit flavoured with caraway seeds and sometimes aged with oak. Most fanciest type of Aquavit, the Norwegian "Linie Aquavit" even travels in oak barrels on a ship from Australia and back, just for getting the special flavor... Other well-known brands are the Danish "Aalborg" and the "Aalborgs Jubilæums Aquavit".

Akvavit has quite long roots, the oldest recipe that I found is dated back to year 1642, this is a Finnish recipe is from year 1802, and this is how it goes (converted for home distilling purposes):

• 1 kg of barley flour
• 1 kg of oat flour
• 2 kg of rye flour
• 5 kg of cooked and smashed potatoes
• 5 kg of gristed rye malt
• about 30 L of water
• 15L of sour mash (from previous batch) or 20g of citric acid and 10l of water
• couple of juniper branches
• ½ L of beer sediment
  
  
• Clean linen cloth and some rope
• 50 - 70L bucket
  
  
• 100 g of coarsely chopped caraway seeds
• 500 g of powdered charcoal (made from birch if available)
• 20 g of coriander seeds
• 10 g of dill
• Couple handfuls of washed sand
• Cotton bag, big enough to hold all these
  
  
• Copper or silver coin
  
  
• Large bottle (and optionally some oak (and sandalwood) chips)

Put the grains and potatoes in the bucket and soak in the sour mash for couple of hours. Boil the juniper branches in 30litres of water; remove the branches and pour the boiling water on the grains and potatoes and stir well. Leave there over night, and in the morning check the temperature (must be 20 - 27 degrees Celsius) and add beer sediment (or about 50g of ale/porter yeast). Stir. Cover the bucket with the linen cloth and secure tight with rope. (You'll see why in a day or two). Let ferment until there is about 10cm (4") deep layer of clear liquid on the top (this should take about two weeks or so). Distill in a water/steam bath pot still (with the tails from previous batch) three times (just like you were making Irish-type whiskey).

Fill the still with the middle run from third distillation and put the coin in the still. Fill the cotton bag in the following order: first put sand in the bag, enough to cover the bottom of the bag. Then put the spices (caraway seeds, coriander and dill) in the bag. Mix the charcoal and the remaining sand and put in the top of the bag. Hang the bag below the stills outlet tube, so that the distillate can drop through the bag to the receiving container. Distill slowly; the heat input to the still is correct when the coin rattles about once in a second (col... col... col...). Collect until the tails show up. Cut the distillate down to 50vol.% with spring water (use bottled water if you can't obtain fresh spring water) and age in the glass bottle at least for two months. (Add couple of oak (and sandalwood) chips if available).

Simplified recipe (of my own invention)

• 4 L of 40 vol.% vodka (or well made Moonshine...)
• 30 g of caraway seeds
• 5 g of coriander seeds
• 5 g of dryed dill
• Some oak chips
• Splash of Irish whiskey

Combine all in a large jar and macerate for a week. Filter trough a coffee filter and ad a teaspoonful of glucose (dextrose), age for a month or so.

Akvavit is mainly used for aperitif, and it is commonly served ice cold from 4cl shot glass. Traditionally there is some salted Baltic herring or smoked salmon served as "sakuski" with it. Another traditional way of serving any type of vodka is that you put a silver coin in bottom of a large cup and pour coffee on it until you can't see it anymore, then pour enough vodka in the cup so that you can see the coin again; drink the whole cupful with one swig...(Warms well in the winter). And, of cause, the real smorgasbord is never complete without an ice-cold bottle of Aquavit...