Taters Blueberrie Liqueur

Post by **Tater** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:05 am

Blueberrie Liqueur This is a 13 gallon wash. This recipe is 35 lb fresh Blueberries 1/4 cup lime juice and 20 lbs sugar and 1 oz yeast EC-1118..Making the syrup will take around six more cups sugar and 4 oz honey
Wash berries pick out stems and unripe berries

Put cleaned berries in fermenting barrel

.Take 3 gallons water heat to boiling and add 20 lbs sugar 1/4 cup lime juice and bring back to boil till water clears and has a slight tint

Pour boiling sugar water over berries in fermenting barrel add more boiling water if needed to cover and stir with sharpened mortar mixer till berries are turned to pulped

After blending berries fill fermenting barrel to 13 gallons total wash .Be sure to leave head space Take a gallon of cooled wash and add yeast.Stir in get lots of air and let sit overnight.

Take pre started yeast and add back to wash stirring well

Next day it should have formed a cap and look like this.

Let ferment till done gently stirring in cap as needed to keep from drying out .I also will take berries in cap and squeeze in my hands[they were clean] a few times during fermentation to get all the pulp out of skins .I fermented this slow took almost a month. Distilled with a single run Started keeping soon as sweet taste stopped and kept till proof dropped to 80 proof got 2 1/2 gallons of 100 proof after tempering a tad. I did 2 batches of this so I had 5 gallons of finished product .Aired product a few weeks .Then took a 4 1/2 gallon jar and poured in 1 gallon frozen blueberries and filled rest way with the blueberry likker let sit 5 months

Removed berries from product.

Added 3 cups sugar to berries and shook to mix.

Let this sit in a warm place for a few weeks till sugar turned to syrup

Pour off syurp

Add back 2 cups sugar to berries

And so on till berries are drained of all their juice
Let sit till it turns to syrup and pour off

After collecting syrup I stir syrup to taste back into liquor added 4 oz of honey

Had to have a sample

Will now let sit for a few weeks covered with a coffee filter to air out maybe temper a tad to taste before filtering and storing in 1/2 gallon jugs .Longer it sits better it gets

stoker · Post by **stoker** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:15 am

the syrup thing looks interesting, I'll give it a try

Post by **Husker** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:35 am

I have made syrup before (Tater's method), on other fruits that had soaked for a long while in a strong alcohol (barrel strength). The fruit releasing the juice and combining with the sugar to produce a nice pretty clear syrup is surprising, but it does work, and works well. Extracts a lot of flavor, and a LOT of nice odor.

H.

stoker · Post by **stoker** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:42 am

Husker wrote:I have made syrup before (Tater's method), on other fruits that had soaked for a long while in a strong alcohol (barrel strength). The fruit releasing the juice and combining with the sugar to produce a nice pretty clear syrup is surprising, but it does work, and works well. Extracts a lot of flavor, and a LOT of nice odor.

H.

does it have to be soaked in alcohol? or can it be done with fruit only?

TRANSPLANTED HILLBILLY · Tue Mar 20, 2007 3:18 pm

if not soaked in alcohol, you are, for all practicle purposes makin preserves to put on your biscuit or ice cream. if you leave the fruit in the syrup that is.

Tater, have you, or anybody else on here ever heated the fruit and sugar to speed the process before adding the alky? Just wonderin.

rangaz · Post by **rangaz** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:00 am

Is the steeping of the blueberries entirely necessary or can the syrup be made with just the sugar and fruit, then added to the spirit?

Post by **Tater** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:11 am

TRANSPLANTED HILLBILLY - Ive tried heating the likker soaked fruit and sugar and it changes it taste a bit I thought.Kinda like the differance between fresh fruit and pie taste.RANGAZ-Sure it can be made from fresh fruit I like the steeped fruit best Plus I dont worry about molds or the like.

Monster Mash · Post by **Monster Mash** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:57 pm

What is the reason for adding the frozen fruit to the liquor as apposed to fresh room temp fruit?

Post by **Tater** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:16 pm

I picked the all the berries at the same time if i hadnt of froze it it wouldnt of kept.But freezing it will break up cell walls in fruit /berries to make it easyer to make a wash out of.But if ya do freeze your fruit thats for soaking use it frozen dont thaw before adding to likker .If thawed in the likker it keeps its shape and color.

Monster Mash · Post by **Monster Mash** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 8:19 pm

Guys, Can you use frozen blueberries (thawed out) for the fermentation?
Thanks!

Post by **Tater** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 3:47 am

Yes I usally freeze fruit before ferminting it.I think it fermints better when frozen first.Berries were just so ripe and was ready to grt started I didnt freeze in this run.Have also used canned berries that a friend gave me once.

Post by **theholymackerel** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 8:19 am

Freezin' fruit breaks up all the cell walls and releases the juice easier.

Monster Mash · Post by **Monster Mash** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 12:25 pm

This has been an excellent learning tutorial. I looked through the archives on making cuts with fruit based washes for brandy. I noticed that they seem to differ quite a bit as far as the cuts at %abv. Whereas with grain I might cut for whiskey at 80% down to 60% it seems that with the brandy the tails cut is at 80%. I haven't run into a general heads cut number yet. How much heads did you collect (also % abv) before switching to the center cut with this fuit based brandy? Thanks again for the info.

Post by **Tater** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:18 pm

I allways go by taste.When sweet taste starts to fade I keep till bead drops [ 80 proof] I dont seperate heads and forshots. I toss both into ant killin jar tails I use in next run.Most my washes start out at 140 proof or so that wash had added sugar .But thats with my still Im sure others run a bit differnt.Now when ya dont keep till it starts tasting good and quit before it starts tasting bad how can ya screw up

goose eye · Post by **goose eye** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:19 am

takes awhile to pick them berrys. looks good. was that alittle over a 5gal bucket full.
these boys aint ever been able to hold that scent
so im tole

Post by **Tater** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:34 pm

goose eye wrote:takes awhile to pick them berrys. looks good. was that alittle over a 5gal bucket full.
these boys aint ever been able to hold that scent
so im tole

Yep goose was a tad over 5 gallon bucket per 13 gallon wash. I agree the taste of blueberries is faint in the likker same as pear.Both make an excellent liqueur though.

stoker · Post by **stoker** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 12:40 pm

forgive my ignorence, but do you taste a lot of the original fruit (the fermented fruit) after you have added the syrup?

I would like to make a pantydropperstylething with neutral spirit and syrup. so, not too high alcohol (25°), good fruit taste and pritty sweet.

comments?

Post by **Tater** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:44 pm

Most of what I make is same fruit is used in making likker as the liqure .So It would be hard to say .Syrup has lots of flavor The fruit likkers usally have a fruit after taste .When I use unflavored rum/molasses likker I can taste a faint rum aftertaste.But rum goes well with fruit anyway.

stoker · Post by **stoker** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:39 pm

ok, I'll give it a try when the syrup is ready

stoker · Post by **stoker** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:01 am

I try to make syrup from fruit, without being soaked in alcohol.
should I add some shine to the sugar-fruit mix?

will the alcohol take more flavour from the fruit then the sugar on its own?

I'm collecting lots of jars with fruit-sugar right now, being the fruit moment.
and when I have the syrup, I'll start experementing.
I think some fruit can not be used, right now, apples dont give much of flavour.

rangaz · Post by **rangaz** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 3:32 am

I'll second that on apples. I tried several methods of flavour extraction including steam infusion, syrup method and steeping. All failed to some extent and in the end I just used apple juice

stoker · Post by **stoker** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 8:53 am

tater, do you have experience with it?

Post by **Tater** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 10:09 am

Fresh pressed apple juice seems a good way to go when doing apples for added flavor.Had some other day a friend had made .Ice cold apple juice still enough pulp to have the cider taste.Apple brandy added 100 proof in = amounts .Think it was 3 different kind of apples he had made cider from.

stoker · Post by **stoker** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 10:23 pm

ok, that sounds good.
and the thing about adding alcohol to the syrup jar?

Post by **Tater** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 4:14 pm

Reckin wich ever suits ya.Ive made it both ways.I prefer using alcohoal.

violentblue · Post by **violentblue** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:14 am

I'm a little confused,

your wash was blueberry/sugar, distilled and more blueberries added after?
Thinking of doing this myself, but considering the labor intensive nature of blueberry picking thought it might be better to start with a neutral spirit then following your recipe from that point.

is there a flavor component from the blueberry wash that is a significant addition to the final product?

Post by **Tater** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:30 am

i think taste is better using same fruit in wash as making liqueur with and I like a uncut molasses run if not using same fruit.to use as base.

violentblue · Post by **violentblue** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:23 pm

got some on now, I gotta cut the strength of the distillate down though, its striping the blue right off the berry

TryMe · Post by **TryMe** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:56 pm

During the ferment stage of the process what keeps the berries and mash from molding?

Old_Blue · Post by **Old_Blue** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 9:47 pm

Same thing that keeps grapes from molding when making wine or mash from molding when making beer.

Alcohol content and CO2 blanket.