Homemade liqueurs are super simple to make, all you need is a container, fruit, sugar, alcohol and time.
Container:
We use a 1-litre clip top jar but Mason jars are just as useful. Make sure that it is clean and the seal is still good.
Fruit:
Traditionally, sloes would be the fruit of choice. Pick them in late autumn and freeze them for a week. This helps break down the cell structure but you can always make a cut into each sloe to get you started quicker.
Any fruit can be used. We have had excellent results with raspberries, apples, blackberries and strawberries, look for bargains in your supermarket. We’ve also had good results with frozen fruits, specifically frozen fruits of the forest. The only fruit that we’ve tried which didn’t make the grade was melon, all berries and citrus fruits will work.
See below for some more ideas for homemade liqueurs.
Sugar:
White granulated sugar is easy to obtain and easy to use. No need for various shades of brown sugars or the more expensive castor sugar.
Alcohol:
Traditionally gin is used. As fas as I can work out, gin was readily available and relatively cheap in the UK due to our connections with the Dutch. What we have discovered, quite by chance, is that any spirit can be used and the different taste profiles and liqueur colours are all unique. We’ve made sloe gin, sloe vodka, sloe rum and sloe whisky. Obviously, brandy and bourbon would both work in your homemade liqueurs.
Time:
This could take years from bottling to drinking but we have developed a technique which takes just hours – more later.
Method:
The alcohol needs to be able to get ‘inside’ the fruit so strawberries need to be halved, apples sliced, sloes ‘nicked’. Frozen fruit has already had the cell structure damaged so can go straight into your container. You are looking at getting your fruit level nearly up to the neck of your container.
Now pour your sugar over the top so that it forms a pyramid and you can’t get any more onto the pile. This should give you a good starting point next time you make it should you find that your homemade liqueur is not sweet enough.
Take your alcohol of choice and pour it into the container washing the sugar down with it. Fill up to the neck of the container. It should take about 750ml. Save the empty bottle, you need somewhere to put your finished liqueur later!
Seal up your container and then shake to try and mix up the sugar. Put the container somewhere dark and cool and shake it every day until all of the sugar has dissolved. Now try and forget about it for as long as you can, at least a month but some people have managed to put theirs away for years. Homemade Liqueurs will keep for many years if stored in a cool, dark place. Sloe gin certainly does improve with age.
Quick Method:
We have a Sous Vide machine which will speed up the process enormously. Not sure if we were going to like the Sous Vide method for cooking meat (the original purpose), I bought the cheapest one I could find but have been very happy with it. The machine itself is about the size of three cans of beans stacked on top of each other. One end contains a water heating and circulating unit whilst the other end has a digital display. Essentially you put your liqueur container in a water bath with the sous vide machine. The sous vide machine will heat the water bath and keep it at that temperature for as long as you have set it. We have found that 65°C for two hours is just about the right time.
Once the two hours are up, put your container somewhere safe to cool down. Strain the liquid out and back into your original bottle, not forgetting to test it for taste, colour, sweetness, smell, etc. A shot glass for each test has been known to happen!
Don’t throw out the fruit. Sloes aren’t that tasty and can be reused for another batch (three times seems to be enough), but the soft berry fruits can be eaten with a sprinkle of sugar and heaps of ice cream. The colour does leach out of the strawberries but they still taste amazing.
Alternatives:
Sweets. Use the same technique as above but instead of fruit use sweets. Rhubarb & custard, strawberries & cream, pear drops, Werthers Old Original, Fox’s glacier mints, Fox’s liquorice and aniseed (tastes like sambuca), sherbert lemons, etc
Chocolate. After Eight mints, Matchmakers and Skittles (not the green ones) are well-known variations. The After Eight version can even be made by putting your sealed container into a dishwasher for one cycle, there should be enough heat to melt the chocolate. If not, put it in for a second cycle and vigorously shake the container. As a rule, try and avoid the darkest chocolates as they tend to give a bitter taste to the drink. Orange segments with milk chocolate are great but a version made with dark chocolate was almost undrinkable.
Herbs: Let’s just say I haven’t tried using herbs but there are plenty of recipes around the internet. Sage, basil and rosemary seem to be popular, I haven’t found one with chives yet! Try this recipe from food.com
Spices: Cinnamon, vanilla pods, cloves, chilis, cinnamon, allspice, star anise… Check out our Homemade Spiced Rum recipe. Also, try crystalised ginger, you don’t need to add sugar and paired with brandy it is incredible (and rather too easy to drink).
Inspiration: Go into any large supermarket and browse the alcohol shelves. Toffee vodka, strawberry gin, honey whisky, cherry brandy, cinnamon whisky, the list goes on and you can make all of it at home with the added bonus that someone, somewhere thinks they’ve produced a taste mix sensation. They’ve done all the hard work of testing different taste combinations so you don’t have to (although there is nothing to stop you. Wink, wink.)
More ideas: Watch this Youtube video to see what I’m thinking of doing next. Once you’ve finished with the oak chips from this recipe try the second of Cuoredicioccolato’s recipe where he reuses the oak chips and manages to age rum in only seven days.