Spirits, Booze, Liqueurs...

[Risker]

Turbo Cider? Sounds good, I'd like the recipe

[Corum]

Recipe from Forager on the River Cottage forum :D

Ingredients:
4.5l apple juice, (look for 100% apple juice preferably with no additives).
1 tspn General purpose wine yeast
1 tspn Yeast nutrient

Place 3 litres of juice in a sterilised demijohn. (it tends to foam a lot so don't put it all in). Let it come to room temperature.
Add the yeast nutrient and yeast. I usually make a yeast starter with a little bit of warm sugar water but you can just sprinkle the yeast in.
Shake the demijohn to distribute ingredients.
Leave to ferment for 2 days then top up with the remaining juice
Ferment out.
Rack off and bottle. PET bottles such as for cola etc work well.

You can leave it as a still/flat cider or prime the bottles with some sugar and leave in a warm place for a few days. Then leave somewhere cool for 7-10 days to condition.

Variations:
Add extra sugar for a stronger cider. With just juice it should come out at 4.5 - 5.5%.
Without extra sugar a standard beer yeast will work fine.
Depending on the juice a little acid may need to be added.

[Gorilla]

sounds like a cool idea, is it time-consuming? memories of my parents' lethal plum wine and exploding demi-johns in the cupboard under the stairs are a little off-putting ;)

my aunt gave me some home-made potato vodka once - it was green :eek: that was pretty evil too! :D

[Risker]

Time to hit freecycle to see if I can gets me a demijohn.

[Hemlock]

Darling! What is yeast nutrient?

[Corum]

You can tell I copied the recipe can't you? linky here :D http://www.cellar-homebrew.com/store/product.php?productid=524&cat=250&bestseller

I never use it me'sen so you can do without... ;)

[Aradia]

Elderflower 'Champagne' is a great one for beginners .. tastes great and is fast ... also, no specialist equipment needed.

[Mr Flibble]

We're drinking the first of it at the moment: 1 shot of the above, 1 shot of pimms, 2 drops angostura, 2 gin soaked lychees (slightly muddled), 2 gin soaked peach slices (slightly muddled), slice of lime, ice, topped with lemonade in a hi-ball glass. Tastes pretty good, the smell at least and some of the flavour of the lychee comes through. It's quite a freshing drink - traditional pimms is lovely, but it's nice to have a pimms based change. We both agree that it could be stronger - not decided whether it needs more gin, more pimms or angostura. I look forward to trying again a bit later in the month when more lychee taste has been imparted.

[Elahiya]

ooooh my gosh.... sounds really gorgeous! seems like we´d have a lot of fun, as you also are very creative in mixing...

have you ever tried to mix with smoothies? that is also very delcious. or you take pureed fruits. the best is to take frozen fruits, you won´t have to add some addiditional ice, just as decor LOL

i invented a vanilla/almond liqor http://ankescocktails.blogspot.com/2008/06/special-liqor.html
put some of it into your white russian... or to your drink above

[Mr Flibble]

have you ever tried to mix with smoothies? that is also very delcious. or you take pureed fruits. the best is to take frozen fruits, you won´t have to add some addiditional ice, just as decor LOL

Absolutely - blended frozen fruits (strawberries, raspberrys, blackberrys, redcurrants, blackcurrants), half a tub of mango sorbet and a bottle of sparkling wine is one of our summer favourites. It has almost like a sherbert quality to it.

[ichyBan]

damn, homebrew just took a step up in my world.

[Elahiya]

it´s not that difficult to homebrew something... and it´s a lot less expensive plus you know what you´re putting into it (no "hidden" ingredients..."

@ mr fibble: just with wine? LOL with some champagne or creamy liqor it´s also just awesome!

[Mr Flibble]

I've yet to taste any champagne I felt worth the money (or for that matter 25% of the cost), so whilst it may be good for some people, personally I think it would be a waste. Generally for cocktail use I tend not to use quality ingredients unless doing so makes a noticable difference (e.g. 'nepolian' brandy when it's one of 10 ingredients, VS when it's one of 2 or 3, VSOP when neat (I'm not yet rich enough for bottles of XO at home, but when the company is paying it's lovely)).

[KayJay]

Made some carrot whisky a while back, it went horribly wrong so haven't used the kit since! Aradia do you have a recipe for elderflower champagne please? Sounds good to me!

[Fungus]

I made 6 litres of cider a couple weeks ago .. tastes nice :)
Just put 6 litres of apple juice and a packet of yeast, a bit of extra sugar into an old water cooler bottle, made an airlock out of clingfilm .. wait a week .. voila! .. then filter out the yeast, bottle, drink :D
... worked fine here.
Of course you can make it more complicated but I dont see much point ..
Also making some elderflower champagne just now .. think its pretty much done now though.






(before everyone jumps on me being underage it was done with supervision/permission of parents - alcohol is legal here if given by parents in own home :) )

[Corum]

Fungus, it's actually legal for children to drink south of the border too (Just not to purchase alcohol under the age of 18, or to have someone purchase it for you!) I started drinking under supervision at quite an early age - courtesy of my dad and his Uncle Albert who'd sit me in the corner of the room with a bottle of Websters Green Label and I was sorted!!

Anyroad, back on topic... :)

On my travels recently, I discovered the Easybrew shop on Oxford Street in Brighton, where I got hold of a tub of Young's Super Wine Yeast Compound (specially formulated for high alcohol by all accounts!)

You only need a heaped teaspoon per gallon to the must (mixture) and it has got a Yeast Nutrient added.

Also, it contains Bentonite (instead of Isinglass) to clear the wine, so it's definitely Vegan :D

The makers are on the web it seems - www.youngsubrew.co.uk

I must admit, I shoved a heaped teaspoon into my last batch of nettle wine (which is currently fermenting) before reading the ingredients, so I am pleasantly surprised there's nothing grim in there.

[KayJay]

Made some carrot whisky a while back, it went horribly wrong so haven't used the kit since! Aradia do you have a recipe for elderflower champagne please? Sounds good to me!


Can anyone share the elderflower champagne recipe with me please? :thumbsup:

[Risker]

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall made some on tv the other day.

http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/elderflower-champagne-recipe_p_1.html

I've had second thoughts about making my own cider, there's not much point when apple juice costs the same as cider that's already made.

[KayJay]

Thanks Risker I must give it a try!

[Mr Flibble]

Last night I started off some Cherry Vodka. Not had it before, tastes quite promising after 24 hours. Didn't add sugar as is in many recipes; figured i can add gomme later if required.

Half the lychee/peach gin has gone now; I can thoroughly recomend it.

[Aradia]

Does anybody have any fab home-made cocktails to share for the summer?

I normally like PIMS and classic champagne cocktails, and margharitas. I need to broaden my horizons ..... what will you be drinking this summer.

[Hemlock]

The Xmas vodka sounds brilliant, I'm going to make some of that...thanks. Should be ready in time for Yule:)

[Mr Flibble]

On the first page is a PIMMS cocktail that is the first I've had that is as good/better than the original.

I had a cocktail in Birmingham last weekend that I'm trying to recreate, think I've about gotton the quantities now: Cognac, cointreau, cloves, cinamon bark, fresh ginger, blade mace, nutmeg and lemon peel. Served in a brandy sniffer on its side over a glass of water, rotated to coat the glass then set alight. After a while (which i should have timed but was a bit tipsy from champagne at this point) when the glass is too hot to pick up, tipped over (held by the base) into another brandy sniffer to go out. It's warm, less alcoholc than neat spirits, orangey and very spicy. When you take the first sip you don't actually get any in your mouth before you have to put it back in from breathing in the fumes of the hot spices. That goes after a couple of minutes and it's warm, still alcoholic enough and quite pleasent. I tried just making it in one glass without the poncing around, but it didn't work as well. More an xmas/late evening cocktail though than summery.

[Roxy]

The gin looks lovely Mr Flibble :) How did you make the cherry vodka? It's the season for fresh cherries here at the moment :)

[Mr Flibble]

There's lots of recipes online, but essentially just cherries in vodka with sugar if you want it. Bung it in a bottle, shake a lot then shake every day for a few weeks.

I didn't use sugar, just used ripe cherries that i stoned first with one of these:

http://www.cookshop.uk.com/prod_img/1848_1_large.jpg