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Making your own booze

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Making your own booze

Postby Amyw » Tue Sep 22, 2020 11:18 pm

People that are friends of mine on FB might have seen I recently made some of my own gin . Filled a sterilised Milner jar with raspberries , sugar , almond extract and whole almonds , topped up with normal gin , then left to do its magic for a week in the bottom of my wardrobe , as it needed somewhere dark .

The results are ahem ... potent , but very nice . Anyone else made flavoured gins/vodkas/anything alcohol related?

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Pampy » Wed Sep 23, 2020 12:22 am

I've made blackcurrant and raspberry liqueurs - just home grown fruit macerated in tequila for 6 months, turning the jars every couple of weeks, then strain. I kept them for a couple of years before trying them and was very surprised at how good they tasted. I've also made spiced pineapple vodka - big chunks of fresh pineapple, a bit of sugar and cinnamon sticks in vodka, left for about 6 months, shaking every week. All kept in a cool, dark place while "developing".

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby scullion » Wed Sep 23, 2020 12:57 am

i've had a go at a few.
other than the usual sloe gin, i make a fortified wine called feuille de pêche (flavoured with peach leaves), a similar base flavoured with cocoa nibs, kümmel - from a recipe of uschi's, and last year some elderflower liqueur.
one of the ones i'm going to have a go at next is a triple sec/cointreau type of thing.
i'm not really a lush!

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Sep 23, 2020 1:17 am

I’ve made sloe gin, damson gin and a limoncello

Wishing I’d remembered Cheshire Cheese’s plum liqueur when all those lovely Victorias were around last month - it’s a basic fruit + sugar + vodka recipe but the trick is to throw in a bit of golden rum or brandy when you strain it, really rounds out the flat our

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby karadekoolaid » Wed Sep 23, 2020 5:05 am

If anyone´s got a recipe for limoncello, I´d be very grateful. Love the stuff!

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Kacey » Wed Sep 23, 2020 7:14 am

I always use Ursula Ferrigno's recipe:

6 unwaxed lemons
70cl bottle of vodka
225g sugar
450ml pure bottled water

Soak the lemons in bowl of cold water for an hour, then dry them.
Peel the rind from the lemons leaving the pith behind
Put the lemon rind in a wide mouthed jar and cover with the vodka. Leave in a dark place for 20 days
After 20 days dissolve the sugar in the bottled water, then leave to go completely cold
Add the sugar water to the lemon zest and vodka and stain into sterilised bottles.
Leave in a cold dark place for 7 days before serving.

I've also done the same with oranges and limes. If you make the above with oranges and add a cup of brandy, it makes a very good alternative to Triple Sec.

I've had a go at all sorts over the years, Quince Liqueur was very successful. Kummel tasted good but looked grim.

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby ZeroCook » Wed Sep 23, 2020 7:26 am

.
Gorgeous stuff. First recipe comes from locals on the Amalfi coast. Recommended. Added the others for comparison.

https://www.saveur.com/article/Wine-and ... imoncello/

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/201 ... ecipe.html

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/limoncello



.

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby halfateabag » Wed Sep 23, 2020 7:47 am

I've dabbled over time..... some quite interesting flavours pouring out over the years. Use no frills spirits and fruit like sweet melon works well with voddy. A vanilla pod works well too. Blackberries meld with whiskey :wino. I have on the odd occasion used fresh chillies with some fruits - a spicy winter kick on Boxing day in the hip flask......

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Sep 23, 2020 9:23 am

ZeroCook wrote:.
Gorgeous stuff. First recipe comes from locals on the Amalfi coast. Recommended. Added the others for comparison.

https://www.saveur.com/article/Wine-and ... imoncello/

.

The Saveur recipe is how we were shown at the limoncello makers in Sorrento, trouble is the recipe doesn’t say which strength, 60, 75 or 95% alcohol and Wiki suggests Everclean (weird name for a drinkable spirit) is available in all those strengths

In Sorrento they used 90% alcohol and steeped for 14 days, by which time the zest looked weirdly blanched, then they adjusted to 25-30% alcohol with sugar syrup, but they didn’t say how much sugar which the Saveur recipe does

High strength spirit is hard to come by in the UK and probably not cost effective if you can get it

Edited to add: I was sufficiently interested to search, at around £34 per litre it’s probably more cost effective to buy imported Sorrento or Amalfi limoncello as the best lemons aren’t cheap!

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Suffs » Wed Sep 23, 2020 9:53 am

Back in the day when I was more of a party person we were all making all sorts of stuff from sloe, blackberry and damson gins to limoncello and various vodkas ... there was one doing the rounds using those little cola bottle jelly sweets.

And of course we made our own alcohol too ... not just flavoured it ... making fruit and flower wines, ciders and beers from scratch ... some friends ‘distilled’ their own ‘Apple liqueur’ by freezing homemade strong cider to make a tiny amount of “Angels’ Tears” .... a nip of that at New Year was a significant treat indeed ... and necessitated an escort home in case a ditch jumped out and grabbed you :lol:

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby scullion » Wed Sep 23, 2020 10:17 am

i forgot - i make a litre or two of 'irish cream' every christmas, too. it disappears rather quickly - surprisingly, into young men - i always think of it as a 'girly drink'!

i will start a small batch of your triple-sec today! does it work better with any particular breed of orange?

i haven't made wine for a long time - i think childcare got in the way...
i have made gorse flower (a coconut-y flavour), rhubarb (really nice, light rosé, and the two staples of blackberry (lovely rich and fruity) and apple. and beer.
i made some of that coconut/rum drink once, from a kit sold at boots (when they had a home-brew section) it was rather good.
i have frozen apple wine, too, when it wasn't a particularly good batch. it came out really good - much better than the wine that went into the freezer.
ex neighbours or ours, who worked at a local brewery, used to make wine from cartons of juice from the supermarket - rather successfully.

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Seatallan » Wed Sep 23, 2020 10:43 am

I have sloe gin on the go as well as damson vodka. I like blackberry brandy too but we're not well off for blackberries around here for some reason.

I made rowan gin one year and it was lovely. May try that again sometime. :wino

I've never made proper home-made wine. I did think about trying it this year but things got away from me. Perhaps next year. My father was a champion home-made wine maker. His blackcurrant wine was to die for.
Food, felines and fells (in no particular order)

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby liketocook » Wed Sep 23, 2020 11:09 am

I make bramble flavoured gin every year to give as gifts at Christmas. Previously I've made cherry flavoured rum and strawberry vodka using the bags of frozen fruit you get in the supermarket, both worked really well.

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Busybee » Wed Sep 23, 2020 11:12 am

Sloe gin on the go here, as well as maturing strawberry gin.

DS makes beer, but unusually has none on the go at the moment. Will remind him to get brewing for Christmas, not that we will be having any guests.

We are surrounded by luscious ripe elderberries, but my Dad’s foray into wine making has put me off homemade elderberry wine! :lol:

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Pepper Pig » Wed Sep 23, 2020 12:35 pm

I have damson gin doing its thing in my airing cupboard. Never made it before so it had better be good.

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby karadekoolaid » Wed Sep 23, 2020 12:42 pm

Thanks, Kacey and Zero!
I doubt I´ll be able to find proper alcohol here so I´ll stick with the vodka version.

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Hickybank » Wed Sep 23, 2020 11:43 pm

I have 2 Ltrs of Blackberry & Bullace gin on the go, had a siop before putting it in cupboard,very nice

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby halfateabag » Thu Sep 24, 2020 7:25 am

Scull, I used a marmalade orange one year for triple sec - very much suited my palate... very orangey

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Renee » Thu Sep 24, 2020 9:12 am

I am so impressed with all your efforts! :clap :clap

Back in the day, 60s, 70s I made homemade wine, but from a kit and a wonderful cherry brandy also from a kit. I also dabbled in beer-making, using hops etc. I once made one which was identical to Guinness, but didn't write down the ingredients that I used, so that was a one-off.

Hickybank, it's interesting that you mentioned bullaces, because across from me there were trees where I could pick them. They didn't have much flavour, but were nice enough when ripe. The Council came along and thinned out a lot of the trees, which needed doing, but no more bullace picking whilst out for a walk. :(

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Re: Making your own booze

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Sep 24, 2020 10:53 am

halfateabag wrote:Scull, I used a marmalade orange one year for triple sec - very much suited my palate... very orangey


Interesting
The best commercial triple sec is made from Curaçao oranges, which I thought might be the rough looking tropical oranges, but it seems are probably Sevilles adapted to West Indian conditions

https://beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/xvrNmJx45N/

I think I’ll try kacey’s version, the proportions and timings “feel” right, but I’ll wait for the best lemons sold by weight to come in (Brexit permitting)

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