No, not as a garnish...you know how vodka is fermented potatoes, and wine is fermented grapes, and beer is fermented...uh...barley? I think beer is a family of fermented things, there's rice beer, and barley beer, and wheat beer, and so on...and tequila is fermented agave -- so is there one that's fermented olives? I had a really good olive last night, and I imagine it would be good, but perhaps there's something about it which prevents it from happening (quantity?).

With all of the examples you gave, they all contain starchy sugars. Yeast eats the sugar and excretes alcohol. I doubt olives contain the necessary sugars.

Now, you could use olives for no more than a flavouring agent, but you would have to use something else with the required sugars to produce the alcohol.

Somehow, my idea of the resulting flavour doesn't float my boat.

YMMV.

Well, so far, all I've found is this. I have no idea which of the two scenarios you've described it is, but I'm going to try and track some of it down.

Thanks for your input!

Interesting question....

I would have thought it required more sugar than olives have, but then I found http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request115.asp....

however, it does not really use olives.... it uses Autumn olives, which are an Asian berry like fruit....

I suspect you're both right, and that most olives don't have enough sugar, but some of the more Mediterranean olives can be quite sweet (I think they're Mediterranean).

On 11/21/2007 at 11:25 PM, The Expanding Man said:

With all of the examples you gave, they all contain starchy sugars. Yeast eats the sugar and excretes alcohol. I doubt olives contain the necessary sugars.

 

Now, you could use olives for no more than a flavouring agent, but you would have to use something else with the required sugars to produce the alcohol.

 

Somehow, my idea of the resulting flavour doesn't float my boat.

 

YMMV.

It's called a "Dirty Martini" and is delicious.....  Gin, dry vermouth, and along with 2 or 3 olives, some of the fluid from the bottle!!