Hic! fruit liqueurs! Hic! fall over

[xylaria]

How did everyones sloe gins, rumtopfs, cherry brandys ect ect turn out?

My rumtopf turned out lovely. It was very fruity. It tasted like summer, where the blackberries and bilberries were most dominant, and it had that good for constitution thing that fresh bilberries have. Eating the fruit is like been hit on the back of the head with a spade though.

The sloe brandy is fine, I prefer it to sloe gin, but compared to the rum topf its mediocre. I might dispose of the rumtopf fruit into the one of the brandy bottles.

Next years experiment will be sea buckthorn vodka.

 

[John Fenna]

Sloe Gin, Plum Gin, Blackberry Brandy, Blackberry Vodka, Blackberry Whisky (we had a good Blackberry harvest here) all great.
The plums and blackberries made great puds with a little icecream...
I luv you, your my best mate you are........

 

[TallMikeM]

the sloe gin turned out absolutely brilliant. So good that we have to keep reminding ourselves that it's 40% falling over juice. The only downside is I only made 8 pints of the stuff. Got a long wait till the next harvest of sloes.
The elderberry and blackberry wine is still maturing, but when I racked it the other week it tasted pretty darned good.

 

[EdS]

not ready yet - I tend to leave it for 9 month to a year.

 

[mentalnurse]

i am trying to make some blueberry wiskey should be done for fed time...i hope.

 

[Hicup]

both my blackberry whisky and brandy came out a treat !

 

[match]

Missed the blackberries this year, but made up for it with sloes, damsons and elderberries (of which I still have 7kg stripped and in the freezer).

Damson gin was lovely, sloe gin is still pickling (I find it tastes much better if stood for at least 3-4 months). Damson, elderberry and apple wine turned out super-sweet (and currently around 16%), so am making another batch of dry elderberry to make a blend with. the cider has almost completely cleared now (thanks to my flat being 10 degrees due to a heating failure!) and will be being bottled this or next weekend.

Next on the list is elderflower wine (picked and froze a few kgs back in autumn), ginger wine and some parsnip wine (when I've reclaimed some more demijohns )

I'm sure I'll be clinking with all this booze at the next Scottish meet!

 

[gregorach]

Yep, the sloe gin turned out lovely... As did the blackberry , raspberry and elderflower wines (which those who were at the last Loch Tay meet sampled).

You still have 7kgs of elderberries, Matt? Hmmm... I didn't get any this year. And my fermenter (well, one of them ) is empty...

At this rate, we're going to be competing with Cairn O'Mhor soon.

 

[mace242]

The first year I ever made sloe gin. I used the worlds cheapest gin as I was unsure if I'd like it and how it'd turn out. It's one of the yummiest things ever. I'll be making as much as I can next year. Also I will try other things that I meant to but didn't have time for this year.

Oh and whilst we're on the subject of yummy things - thanks to whoever said about Stags Breath too.

 

[match]

Yep, the sloe gin turned out lovely... As did the blackberry , raspberry and elderflower wines (which those who were at the last Loch Tay meet sampled).

You still have 7kgs of elderberries, Matt? Hmmm... I didn't get any this year. And my fermenter (well, one of them ) is empty...

At this rate, we're going to be competing with Cairn O'Mhor soon.

I can easily spare a kg or 2 if you're interested - give me a PM and I'll chip off a bit (note to self - when freezing 7kg of elderberries, freeze them in 7 1kg bags, not the other way round )

 

[DoctorSpoon]

Damson gin is my favourite, I find it has a better sweet/sour balance over sloe. We're still finishing off last season's and haven't started on the new yet. When we decant it the kids enjoy the damsons on their breakfast meusli ... what a way to start the day

 

[PJMCBear]

The most surprising homebrew from this year has been my Elderflower and Ginger wine. I don't really care for sweet wine, but this one is fantastic. Think of the flavour of elderflower cordial and add a ginger beer kick. Really nice.

The worst has to be Rowenberry wine. It turned out very bitter and too dry for my tastes, although SWMBO quite liked it once I'd added half a nutrasweet tablet to each bottle.

As for the spirits - some experiments really hurt my head.

 

[spamel]

God, I still haven't done my sloes! They're still in the freezer! As soon as my Tax Disc turns up, I may have to drive to get some cheap vodka. I'm rubbish at doing things!

 

[gregorach]

Good on you for trying with the Rowan. It's one of those things - there's a good taste in there somewhere, but it's buried under a mountain of foul bitterness.

I'll have to try adding some ginger to next years elderflower - sounds like a good match!

 

[bikething]

I just spent most of the weekend sieving, filtering and bottling sloe gin, sloe vodka, cherry vodka and blackberry brandy...

i'm sure I didn't get as many bottles out of it as i put in....


too much quality control I reckon