Home made liqueurs

[don4l]

The sloe gin thread got me thinking.

There are many superb recipes for home made liqueurs. I've tasted Bullace vodka, and it was delicious. Today, I collected some sloe berries and some blackberries. I'll use the sloes in gin.

I feel that the blackberries could really enhance a gin, vodka or even a whisky. Does anyone have any ideas?

While I was collecting the sloes, a friend said that he was making apricot brandy. He has put some apricot and some sugar into some brandy. Apparently, it has started fermenting. I will get to taste it when he feels that it is ready.

So... tell us about your home made liqueurs.

[sjabrown]

Limoncello.

Dead easy: ingredients = good quality vodka, lemons, caster sugar and a kilner jar.

Pour vodka into kilner jar. Add peel of lemons in ratio of peel of 5 lemons per litre vodka. Seal jar and leave for a month agitating it every few days. The lemon peel can be peeled by knife or grated. After a month filter off the peel from the (now yellow) solution. Make syrup - 250g caster sugar and 250mls water per litre vodka (heat in pan till dissolved). Add to the solution, mix, and pour into bottles. Store in freezer. Goes very nicely with vanilla icecream.

[vournikas]

Home-made sloe gin is nice. Home-made blackcurrant vodka & cherry brandy is even nicer.

Our rule of thumb is to use a demijohn, and fill with fruit to a depth of 4", then add half a bag of caster sugar and top up with enough vodka / brandy to cover the fruit by about 1".

Shake to demijohn daily for two weeks, then leave to stand (shaking occasionally) for a couple of months.

Strain into bottles through muslin, and enjoy.

[oilydan]

This is my first year with fruit in the garden, so far I have:

Redcurrant Gin
Raspberry Vodka
Gallons and Gallons of cider

Still waiting on the Pears, more apples, and quince to ripen.

[anonymous-user]

damson gin
ginger wine

[randlemarcus]

In the pantry, on the in progress shelf, we have : Beech Leaf Noyau, Blackberry Whisky and Blackberry Vodka. These are all good solid easy ones.

[hornetrider]

oilydan said:

Redcurrant Gin

That sounds like a good idea! Looking forward to experimenting as my freshly planted fruit bits n bobs start to mature over the next few years.

[ZedLeg]

Skittles vodka

[C0ffin D0dger]

I've made bramble whisky before now as well as sloe gin. It was very nice.

Same principle really, blackberries, whisky (nothing fancy, supermarket blended scotch is fine), sugar, whack it all in a Kilner jar and leave for 3 months shaking it from time to time. I'm told it's a good idea to take the blackberries out after that as it can go a bit woody. Bottle and leave to mature. It's ready to drink straight away but gets better with age.

BTW not wishing to be a pedant but another post mentioned earlier about their apricot brandy fermenting. There is no fermentation involved in the creation of these liqueurs, all you are doing is infusing a base spirit with a fruit or other ingredient. Fermentation requires yeast and you can only ferment sugary concoctions (i.e. grape juice -> wine, malted barley sugars -> beer) to around 20% alcohol maximum and that is using some very special yeast strains. To get any stronger you have to distil the end result and that is currently illegal to do in the UK.

[oilydan]

C0ffin D0dger said:

BTW not wishing to be a pedant but another post mentioned earlier about their apricot brandy fermenting. There is no fermentation involved in the creation of these liqueurs, all you are doing is infusing a base spirit with a fruit or other ingredient. Fermentation requires yeast and you can only ferment sugary concoctions (i.e. grape juice -> wine, malted barley sugars -> beer) to around 20% alcohol maximum and that is using some very special yeast strains. To get any stronger you have to distil the end result and that is currently illegal to do in the UK.

Are you sure?

Fruit does contain natural yeast and will ferment if left at the right conditions.

My Gran's sloe gin was always slightly higher in alcohol than the base gin, according to the hydrometer. Rocket fuel.

My cider seems to be fermenting away quite nicely, with no added yeast.

[C0ffin D0dger]

oilydan said:

Are you sure?

Fruit does contain natural yeast and will ferment if left at the right conditions.

My Gran's sloe gin was always slightly higher in alcohol than the base gin, according to the hydrometer. Rocket fuel.

My cider seems to be fermenting away quite nicely, with no added yeast.

With respect to fruit liqueur infusions yes - 100% sure.

Yeast is a funny thing as the stuff it produces, alcohol, eventually kills it once a high enough concentration is reached.

There isn't a yeast that I know of that can survive in 40% alcohol (i.e. Gin strength). So called turbo yeasts can ferment up to around 20% alcohol but that is about as far as you can go.

A hydrometer does not measure alcohol content, it measures the gravity of the liquid it is placed in i.e. how dense it is. Water is generally used as the reference so has a gravity of 1.000, sugar dissolved in the water increases its gravity as it makes it more dense. Alcohol has a much lower density that the sugar it is replacing. Therefore the gravity is a good indication of how much sugar is available in something for a yeast to ferment. Typically home brew beer starts around the 1.040 - 1.050 sort of level on the hydrometer (the original gravity), once fermented it should approach 1.005 to 1.000 depending as to how sweet the finished product is likely to be. This is the final gravity.

With your Gran's Sloe Gin the gravity reading on the hydrometer is increased as you've added sugar to it. This sugar doesn't ferment for the reasons I've given, it simply dissolves in the Gin adding sweetness. The gravity should be more or less the same from when you start making the sloe gin to drinking it. If anything it is weaker than the base spirit as you've diluted it with the sugar and sloe juice. Still plenty strong though

Your cider is a different thing, yes fruits do have natural yeasts on them, these are often used to ferment and this style of fermentation is particularly favoured by the farmhouse / rough cider producers. The starting product is apple juice, it has no alcohol to begin with and is essentially a flavoured sugary water. It is not 40% Gin. The natural yeast will ferment the sugar in the apple juice until a point as either the sugar supply has run out of the alcohol content has got too high for the yeast and killed it. You are left with cider which may be sweet or dry depending on the final gravity.

There endth the lesson

[sgrimshaw]

Last year we did Plum Brandy and Plum Gin - both excellent.

This year, following a trip to Poland, we were inspired to use Vodka so we've got Plum Vodka and Cherry Vodka.

Using less sugar than last year - even though they were nice, they were very sweet.

Both Vodka's are ready and are very good.