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waylyn wrote:rgarry

When you say fill with sugar do you leave the fruit in the jar and get as much as you can in the jar or lightly cover nad shake it down to the bottom if you understand what I mean, I would hate to have either too little or too much sugar, my way of thing was to remove the fruit roll it in some sugar and then replace back in the jar

I have previously asked the same question and can't seem to get an answer that I can understand either. Maybe I'm just thick but "cover the strawberries with sugar" just doesn't define it for me.

fill the jar with berries.then add sugar to fill voids between berries,now the jar it tightly packed with berries and sugar.the sugar takes on the juice from berries,making syrup.

I will try again. I dump out the Booz. Then I pour sugar into the jar that contains the fruit. I shake it so it settles. I then add more and shake it unti I have about 1 inch above the fruit. The sugar will dissolve from alcohol leached from berries and form the syrup. Once you guys try it you will realize that you are over thinking it. Trust me. Remember that it's panty dropping properties are scientically proved. If this doesn't help, I can add pictures next time I do it.

rgarry wrote:I pour out the alcohol and then pour sugar over it until all the fruit is covered. I shake it up everyday and when it form syrup, I pour it off and repeat

'Bout a cup of sugar per quart of berries works for me, doing it twice, will pull out anything worth getting from the berries. I add it all back to the alcohol and drink as is.. .
Muight be to sweet for some but I drink on sprite or 7-up, tastes like a kiddie cocktail. For grown-ups .

Thanks guys, I probably am overthinking it

P.S. Forrest I understand what you are saying, tho I think I get it now.

Thanks everybody, I think I have got it now.

Next time I see strawberries at the right price I will give it a go.

This stuffs worth it even if you have to buy the berries at the wrong price, mmmm !! I have some peaches, plums, and banannas soaking now. Seperate jars of course. I'm lookind forward to fruit season like i never have before.

Duude....correct me if I'm wrong, but the purpose of the sugar is to make a syrup to sweeten the likker AND to draw the excess alcohol/moisture/flavor out of the berrys. My berries seemed to swell initially, but shriveled up to lil thangs after the sugar sucked them dry. Granulated sugar is just dumped on top of the berrys after the spirit is drained off into another jar. In a quart jar, I started with a half a cup or so onto the berrys and then drained it a couple days later. I then added another half cup or so and then drained that. I tasted the berrys at this point and they still had a deliciously hot boozy flavor. I have about a cup of syrup that is sweet and not terribly boozy and half a quart jar or so of 150 proof likker that is red and ready to be sweetened and diluted to drinking strength.

I aired my likker with a paper towel on top of the jar for a couple days and the acetone smell went away. Yee haw. I finally made some quality stuff.

This might answer some questions, maybe not, who the hell knows. The 3 jars are strawberries soaking in alcohol,strawberries in sugar after i drained the syrup once, and the original alcohol filtered out with the first bit of syrup.

Would jiff lemon juice do or do I need fresh?

Whats jiff lemon juice? Just a brand? I use the shit that comes in the little yellow plastic lemon, not fresh squeezed.

That's the stuff, here in the Uk that's what it's called

Can you use canned fruit "ie" pears I have a lot of them that wernt as soft as the miss would have liked if so it would be a good use for them. thx as always Emab1

Give it a go & let us know how it works out. Don't imagine it would be to bad.

had a taste of commercial panty dropper yesterday and it was crap,

My batch has been ready since last weekend added a little lemon juice and eventually little by little all of the syrup, she was my taster and that's what we ended up with, not diluted yet it started as 40 abv don't know what it is any more I started with two 3ltr jars each with 1.5kg of strawberries and then filled with 40abv, after all the decanting and adding sugar I have ended up with a total of just over 3 litres of pant dropper the taste is fantastic almost pop like (soda) but I don't think you would drink too much at this strength I am not sure if I will dilute it or just leave it and she can add lemonade or something to it? tried that and she likes the taste also tried it neat and it's a pleasant drink very Moorish but I think it will creep on on you if you had any quantity as it does taste innocent (deceiving little devil )Going to start a new peach one as soon as I can get some descent fruit.

Though I think better fruit comes over with more goodness, I do pick out the least attractive for macerating . Seems to keep the fruit eaters in the family from an all out mutiny against their ole pap. And the likker still does a good job of pulling out the fruit notes (and color) .
just trying tuh keep the peace here.

What fruits have you tried and what would you say is the best in your opinion.

Well damn, after reading this thread I had to dig out the frozen strawberries and get started. It IS strawberry season AND there is a fest in mid April. Guess I'll have to go party at the fest and buy some more strawberries!!

Looking forward to sippin on this!

MGP

loved the strawberries, can't wait to try some peaches when they come into season in the UK

Wonder why mine tastes like metal any suggestions

Metal?
Did you make cuts on your likker?

Tell us what you did.

I first use any of my good as all of it is aging accept for adout a half a jar I use for sippin my pappi gave me a jar of his to use its a corn base un aged cut to about 60 abv aside from that following the recipe to a t maybe it willful away when I hit it with syrup

yall forgive my typing jam on the supposed smart phone durn auto spell feature

bigoleswigg wrote:yall forgive my typing jam on the supposed smart phone durn auto spell feature

Shut that shit off... Your phone has no clue what you really want to say and we'd rather read what you mean mis-spelled than bogus BS correctly spelled...

Rite on rad me to

The strawberries are in season here, so I just bought a flat of them (12 pints) for $20. Already got 2 quart jars STUFFED with strawberries and covered in 50%. Can't wait to see how this turns out!

Is there a general consensus about the best ABV to use? I've read through this entire thread and it looks like folks are just using whatever they've got on hand.

RidgebackDad

Does anybody try to strain the sugar syrup? Can it even be done? Seems like a coffee filter would immediately clog up? Without filtering the syrup it seems like the liquor is never going to be clear though. Any thoughts/help?

RumRaider wrote:Does anybody try to strain the sugar syrup? Can it even be done? Seems like a coffee filter would immediately clog up? Without filtering the syrup it seems like the liquor is never going to be clear though. Any thoughts/help?

Use muslin or another fine cloth to get rid of chunks. A jelly bag used for jam making might be good - set and forget overnight. You are right; a coffee filter is too fine.
With the material you should get a particle free syrup (eventully!) but it may well remain cloudy.
Once it is added to the booze and thoroughly stirred if you can leave it in a cool place for long enough you should get a sediment drop out and then you can rack it off carefully to get a clearer brighter finished product - personally i wouldn't bother though.

Thanks Frozen,
I'm gonna give it a shot.
RR