Spirits, Booze, Liqueurs...

[Risker]

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

[Corum]

Recipe from Forager on the River Cottage forum

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 that was pretty evil too!

[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 http://www.cellar-homebrew.com/store...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/2...ial-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
... 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

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?

[Risker]

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall made some on tv the other day.

http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes...ecipe_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:

[Roxy]

Sounds great Mr Flibble! I've never seen one of those little machines before. Mmmm cherry vodka. I used to drink cherry brandy all the time as a teenager lol

[Mr Flibble]

Yea, i was going to do cherry brandy, but realised the only brandy we have in is cognac, which seemed just a bit too OTT

Cherry stoners are great. We've the one pictured above, it works perfectly every time.

[Roxy]

Ok Mr Flibble. You've convinced me. I'm going to pick up some extra organic cherries tomorrow. How many would you use in a bottle of vodka? I haven't a fresh bottle of vodka here, but I'll pick one up on either Friday or Saturday.

Then you can expect a few more questions I don't have one of those stoners, but I could probably just split the cherry with a knife and remove the stone that way right?

[Mr Flibble]

What's in an extra organic cherry?

I must stress that I've not tried it yet, so it could all go horribly wrong still! I used a load of cherries then added enough vodka to cover them, so if you want to make a bottle full you'll need quite a few. Splitting in half should be fine, though many people seem to leave the stones in (I partly removed now so they're easier to eat when removed). You may want to prick them if you leave them whole. There's a recipe here:

http://www.liqueurweb.com/cherry.htm

which you may want to follow if you don't trust my method to suceed

[Corum]

Just been thinking about what we've got on - homebrew-wise - and the list is getting interesting:

Just finishing off what's left of the Nettle Beer - bringing that on Saturday to VBB's bash (only a couple of bottles left sadly)

Sage Wine's in bottles now - ready towards the end of the year

Turbo Cider is in plastic pop bottles and that too's ready for Saturday

Nettle Wine is in the demijohn still - that's recently cleared but we're giving it a few more weeks just to make sure.

Finally, the Peapod wine is looking a rather nice luminous green in the demijohn and that'll be next year's tipple

Of course, we've got an empty fermenting bucket and an empty demijohn which need filling...

Sadly, the Sloe, Lemon Verbena and Blackberry wines have all gone Very nice they were too (my fave was the Sloe, but they were all very nice).

Two months from now, the Sloe season starts all over again This year I aim to get Sloes, blackberries, Rowan berries, elderberries and quite a few more types of berries without travelling more than five miles from home. Anyone can do it! My demijohns have been working flat out this year and I'm quite chuffed with the results.

[Roxy]

Thanks Mr Flibble! I'm going to have a go at that this weekend.

Oh and lol @ the extra organic cherries I was going to buy some anyway to eat, but now I'll make sure to by extra for the purpose of making alcohol

[Roxy]

Right....I now have the (extra) organic cherries , the sugar, the vodka and a decent sized airtight glass jar. I'll be putting it all together tomorrow.

The cherries should be ready for eating in a few weeks, and the liqueur should be ready by Christmas time (according to the recipe). So it might be a while before I can let you know how it really does turn out, but it'll be an interesting experiment nonetheless.

[Mahk]

I made home made grenadine syrup once because I couldn't find any on the market that was all natural and without artificial color. It took me quite some time to find pure pomegranate juice but one day I did and I brought it home. Silly me thought the natural sugar content would suffice so I didn't add any sweetener and proceeded to boil the juice down (I think they call that "reducing") at low simmer to evaporate out the water to make a syrup.

It worked but it was sour/tart as hell. I may try again someday but I will definitely add some sort of sweetener first.

Tequila sunrises were big back then (20 years ago).

[Mr Flibble]

I'm not sure I even like grenadine, for me it just serves as a colouring. It needs to be a heavy sugar syrup in order to sink properly. If i were to make it I'd probably make gomme (i.e. as sugary as is physically possible for a liquid to be) using cranberry juice instead of water.

[Aradia]

Corum, have you ever made marrow rum? If so, is it good?

I've just seen a recipe and am going to give it a go as I'll soon have enough marrows to feed china!

The recipe is here is anyone fancies trying it

http://www.massivemarrow.com/recipes

[Risker]

Right, since the bad news about strongbow I've changed my mind again about trying to make my own cider.

I picked up 3 Demijohns from freecycle today, this is the only equipment I have right now.

I'm going to get 5 litres of morrisons own brand apple juice from the supermarket tomorrow.

I'm looking at the yeasts I can get on ebay, which of these do I need?

Wine yeast 5g for £1.20
Yeast Compound 60g for £2.70
Yeast Nutrient 100g for £2.99

Also, do I need to buy airlocks? I don't have any bungs either so should I buy them or make do with something else?

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.

What's do the terms 'ferment out' and 'rack off' mean? The priming the bottle with sugar bit, does that just mean put a teaspoon of sugar in?

I really need everything explained to me in the simplest possible way if anyone can help, including when I should put the bung in the demijohn or leave it out etc.

[Corum]

OK Risker...

I'll answer questions as we go in the same order as you asked them:

For three demijohns, you'll need fourteen litres of apple juice (4.5 ltr per gallon as they are imperial measures)

Yeasts - neither - you need Youngs Compound, as I mentioned above... for £1.70

To be honest, I don't tend to buy brewing stuff off ebay - Easybrew is where I go for it. It's usually better quality than a lot of stuff on ebay - for example, the bottle corker I use is an industrial piece of kit not made in China.

You can get everything you need there.

Yep, you do need to buy airlocks. They are dirt cheap. You need bungs (ones with holes in) as well as the mixture can get pretty lively, and you've got nothing to stick the airlock into. Finally, you need to buy a proper syphon tube with a tap and a stiff tube at one end like this.

Buy the Bubbler airlocks which are a lot stronger and easier to use than the other type with little lids which keep pinging off!

I'll make my explanation a bit easier to follow:

1. Sterilise everything including the demijohns, bungs and airlocks (get a spare bin to use as a sterilising bin - we use our kitchen bin, which is fine - it gets a regular clean out). Use Milton tablets - they are the best and easiest to use.

2. take 3ltrs of apple juice, pour into the demijohn. Add the yeast compound (1 heaped teaspoon).

3. stick the bung into the top of the demijohn and stick the airlock through that so it stands upright. Pour a couple of teaspoons of water into the airlock, so it collects in one of the bubbles. Leave for two days.

4. Two days later, remove the bung and airlock and add the rest of the apple juice. Replace bung and airlock as before. After this point, try not to disturb the demijohns.

5. You'll notice after a day or so, what's inside the demijohn goes very cloudy. Wait for a few days until this is cleared (the yeast compound contains bentonite). This is 'fermenting out'.

6. Racking off is basically making sure there's no scum on top of the mix, sometimes you need to pour the mix into another demijohn - using a coffee filter paper to filter out all the yeast, etc. I didn't need to last time, I just bottle the cider.

7. I bottle the cider by placing the demijohn with the cleared cider (or whatever) on a table and the bottle it's going into on the floor in a saucepan to prevent spillage all over the floor. Take the airlock and the bung out. Take the tap off of the syphon tube and stick the tube through the bung so the weighted end (see pic) is at the bottom. stick that into the demijohn (it's gravity fed) and replace the bung.

8. If you've never used a syphon tube, it's easy but takes some getting used to. You have to suck a quantity of the cider through till it gets to the tap, which you turn off, as you don't want to swallow any yet (wine's worse, believe me! ) Leave the tube hanging downwards.

9. Get a bottle and pour in a teaspoon of sugar (priming), this makes the cider a bit more lively (it's like adding CO2 to a barrel of beer, which is filth!) - then, get funnel with a coffee filter paper in and stick that into the bottle.

10. Fill each bottle in turn. You'll notice that you only get four litres out of a gallon demijohn as the remains will look like very milky coffee and you definitely don't want to drink that.

11. Seal the bottle(s) with the screwcap which came with it (make sure you keep that ) and leave in a place where it won't be disturbed for another week or so.

12. Drink!! Total time should take no more than two weeks (mine at VBB's party was the first bottle of two that I made).

[Risker]

Thanks corum! That's alot easier for me to follow

I've decided to use the website you mentioned (even though the FAQ doesn't fill me with confidence)

I've put in my basket...

3 x Bored Cork Bung @ 30p each
1 x Youngs Auto Syphon @ £6.99 (The one you mentioned is out of stock)
3 x Bubbler airlock @ 60p each

Is this the compound I need?

Also I was thinking of adding this for the sterilising.

Have I got everything there? Should I get extra of anything as I don't really want to pay their £5.50 delivery charge more than once.

I mentioned that I was only getting 5 Litres of apple juice because I thought I'd only waste 1 demijohns worth of it first

[Anastazee]

Two months from now, the Sloe season starts all over again This year I aim to get Sloes, blackberries, Rowan berries, elderberries and quite a few more types of berries without travelling more than five miles from home. Anyone can do it! My demijohns have been working flat out this year and I'm quite chuffed with the results.

I would love to try to do this!

[Hemlock]

Risker, (corum here... nicking H's login again!)

that - I believe is the compound you need - if it's the same as the ebay one
Don't bother with the sterilising powder, Milton tablets are far cheaper and more than adequate.
not sure about the syphon tube. Why not find a local homebrew shop - you should get everything you need there, without the shipping charge.

Anastazee,

what's stopping you?

btw, we finished off the cider on Friday night and it was much better four weeks later given extra time to condition

[Risker]

Thanks Corum. I found this website which is really cheap and has low postage rates too so I've ordered a load of stuff from there.

I think I might do a photo diary of my first attempt at booze making.

[Mr Flibble]

Don't bother with the sterilising powder, Milton tablets are far cheaper and more than adequate.

Now that I know that I know that I've drunk out of your kitchen bin I do hope so!

[Corum]

You haven't thankfully - it's the only thing that you can stick a fermenting bin and all the other stuff into.

Forgot to mention, don't buy a fermenting bin...

Check out your local small brewery, to see if they have any sugar syrup bins. They hold 50pts of liquid (12 and a half litres) and are perfect for most brews

[Aradia]

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!

Sorry for delay .. I only just saw this ....

recipese ...


Elderflower Champagne


8 litres (2 gallons) water
1.25 kg (2.5 lbs/5 cups) sugar
8 large elderflower heads
4 Lemons
4 tablespoons mild white wine vinegar

Boil the water and pour of the sugar to dissolve it.
Cool and add the elderflowers, juice of the two lemons, slices of the other two and the vinegar.
Cover with a cloth and leave for a day.
Strain with a fine sieve or muslin cloth, squeezing the flowers as you do to release more flavour.
Store in screw top bottles.
It will be ready in about 10 days to a fortnight and should be drunk within a month. Elderflower wine

Grated rind of one lemon
500mls (1 pint) of elderflowers - to obtain this pick or shake of the elderflowers
and place into a measuring jug. Don't push them down but do shake them down. Be careful not to add any of the bitter green stems.
3.5 litres (8 pints) of boiling water
1.3kg (3 lbs) sugar Juice of one lemon
25g (Half an ounce) yeast

Put lemon rind with the elderflowers and pour over boiling water
Allow to stand for 4 days, stirring occasionally.
Strain through a fine sieve or muslin cloth
Stir in sugar, lemon juice and yeast
Keep at room temperature to ferment, try not to let it go down to 18c (65f)
When you are sure all the bubbling has ceased, stir the wine and allow to settle for 3 days
Strain again carefully
Put in a demijohn (not bottles)
After 3 months maturing, put into bottles.

[Anastazee]

Corum: I will! However, I didn't see a method on here to do so. If you wouldn't mind sharing step-by-step instructions that can be used at home I would love to make this attempt!!

Another question, Do you do all of this for fun and personal use or do you actually sell an amount of it? Either way, I think it's really awesome. I like to make everything i possibly can at home, jam's, curries, chutneys, pickles. In Greece my family has vineyards and many fruit trees that i go back to harvest annually. I make my own olives and olive oil, and I pick the grapes for the wine. I just love the satisfaction of preparing things by hand. It's just so rewarding

[Corum]

I'll see what I can do... in the meantime, have a look on google for fruit winemaking as there are quite a few different ways. The kit you'll need is the same (including the bucket) as per the cider above, but you'll need corks, winebottles and something to put corks in with.

Everything I've made has either been shared with friends or given to family and friends/work colleagues - for example, my boss gave me three demijohns, so I gave him a couple of bottles by return. We do the same with our neighbours. If they give us some veg off their allotment, we give them a bottle of wine.

Me and Hemlock also gave some of the sloe gin in a nice fancy bottle to Hemlock's parents as part of their xmyth present last year.

I stick labels on the bottles but don't sell it.

I found a bottle of sloe gin in our house's cellar that had been there for about 20 years! Very nice it is too!!

[threeheadedpuppy]

Always wanted to try my hand at this - it sounds like good fun! I'd move to be able to brew my own dark lager, since no pubs sell it here, and the bottled budvar is nothing like what I remember in czech
Does beer need a lot more effort, or can it be as easy as this? One of the guys at work buys whole grain barley, wholesale and processes it himself, for the ultimate cheap beer production, but I guess you need a mill for that kind of thing...(pepper mill might not cut it i guess...)

[Corum]

threeheadedpuppy, there are some very good books on making home-brew. Beer does require much more effort I think, if you are going to go down the 'full mash' approach as you describe. I tend to use - and can recommend - the Woodfordes kits as they don't use any extra sugar. Everything you need is in there. This place is the cheapest for mail order

The Campaign for Real Ale produced some guides to brewing a few years back and they are probably still available.

The reason why I don't tend to make as much beer as wine, is that beer - unless bottled or kept in a pressure barrel (which is against my beliefs as to "what is real ale")- goes off rather quickly in comparison.

If I bottle my beers, they are classed as real ale - as they continue to ferment in the bottle That way, I keep them vegan by not clearing them with Isinglass.

[Corum]

Just found this on Amazon, which might give you the answers thp.

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/...Beer_Kits.html

[Risker]

Corum, does this look like it's about ready to bottle? The bubbling has slowed down to virtually nothing and there's white sediment in the bottom;



Also, when you mention bottling it, do the bottles need to be sterilised? and is it 1tsp per 2 litre bottle? If I put more in would it be a bit more bubbly?