Home Distiller

This summer I made some bottles of strawberry and raspberry PD. The raspberry had this beautiful vibrant dark ruby red colour. It looked amazing. And the strawberry PD was intensely red and beautiful. I had not looked at them now for a few months and when I took them out of the dark cupboard to check before christmas sets in, the colours are all faded and washed out.

My beautiful ruby red raspberry is a washed out red, tending towards orange. And the bright red of the strawberries has faded to something far less appetizing trending towards brownish red.

I am afraid my current batch of stuff is a lost cause. But for the future... Is there anything I could do? Add some preservative? What?
If this is what my beautiful limoncello has in wait, then I'll just have to drink it right away. If my limoncello lose it's colour I'll be really down.

Happens to them all. They're is nothing wrong with them.

Lemon juice is suppose to help that.

Yes quite normal.

Small batches more often.
It is a quick and simple process.

Geoff

Funny, you get used to all the artificial colorings in our foods, until you see what it REALLY looks like. Granny used to jar red and green pears (food dye) for Christmas, other than that the natural colors faded out. You get used to it.

rubelstrudel wrote:This summer I made some bottles of strawberry and raspberry....the colours are all faded and washed out.

If it tastes good, close your eyes and drink it.
Or plan B. Add a drop or two of food coloring

Did you put some citric acid into the mix

a pinch in about 500 ml 40 % spirit

You could try recoloring the raspberry with a short steep of some frozen berries, just enough to put some color back in. Overnight might be enough.

I did add citric acid, both for getting enough acidity for taste and preservation. Very disappointed that it didn't help keep that gorgeous color.

I always keep my limoncello in the freezer and have never had any color loss. Maybe SPD would be the same.

I have years old bramble liqueurs, (except raspberry), that have never lost their deep red colors. The oldies that liked to drink them have long passed on and some of their bottles have been returned to my liquor cabinet, but few of our family and friends want to drink that style of high sugar liquor any more, so those bottles might be here for a few more years yet

Ah, I wanted to keep my limoncello in the freezer. But my limoncello is 30% ABV and my freezer in -28C, so that would turn into lemon popcicles. I'll chuck it in the fridge for keeping instead.

NZChris wrote:You could try recoloring the raspberry with a short steep of some frozen berries, just enough to put some color back in. Overnight might be enough.

The strawberry got an infusing of more strawberry syrup that had kept its colour. Looking good now. But the raspberry probably need something wholly artificial... Hehe.

I've made some raspberry gin that is a stunning color, but I've been warned that it will go brown in time, so I'm not planning on having any left after Christmas. It got the color from an overnight steep.

Maybe try a pinch of ascorbic acid (vitamin c) in the future.

ydoih8u wrote:Maybe try a pinch of ascorbic acid (vitamin c) in the future.

You'd think the juice of a lemon per liter would take care of that.

Ah, missed that you used lemon in there. Yeah that should more than cover it lol.