Last New Year’s Eve, I brought this gin and homemade brandied cherries to make French 75s. They were a huge hit, and are on my list for all holiday BYOB parties.

Thanks for such a fun idea!

tried it it was a dud true waste of time and money I will just buy cherry herring.

I tried the new grand marnier cherry product . Not worth the price of admission, not at all.

I found an incredible pear apple distiller near albany ny. expensive yes, incredible pear liquer, oh my oh dear….I only let a few people have a taste cuz it is as expensive as good single malt. Your mouth tastes like pears after it goes down woof!

He make “perrie” then stills it then parks it on pears for a year. Finest fruit brandy I have ever had, nt that I have had that many, but this is kick butt!

if there is ntrest I will post the name/address.

If you are anywhere near albany it is worth the extra mile. And the apple pies are great as well.

Finished the filtering yesterday. Ran it through the Britain about 10 times. It is not the slightest bit cloudy, but I sure would call it a lot more than “tinted”. Darker than Cuervo Gold. About the same color as Jameson, Bushmills, Balvenie or Two Gingers.

It tastes lovely. Used Smirnoff for the 100 (only 100 I could find), and Six for the 80.

When I read “crystal clear” and “a little tint”, I was expecting something not nearly this dark. So even though I will drink it, I am disappointed with the results (my girlfriend will NOT allow this in a martini).

Try mixing one part of your cherry liqueur with two parts Simply Lemonade or Simply Limeade and serve over ice. Amazing!!!!

the cherries seemed toretain more alcohol then the liquid. I used it to make sangria’s and on a happy note of you added say two shots to a glass of ice and poured in seltzer you had a nice cherry soda. Perhaps I will try blue berries next!

ciao

cheers for receipe thou!

I have a junipoer in my back yard (i think).

ciao

christie

I am curious if anyone has bought unripe juniper berries commercially, or has foraged them around Northern California. My first couple batches have come out wimpier on the juniper flavor than I’d like. I’m trying first crushing the dried ripe berries and maybe eventually simmering them in a little water to extract more flavor before mixing with the vodka, but if those don’t work I guess I need to hunt for the unripe version to get extra pinene and other woodsy compounds in the finished batch.

BTW- I’ve found the gin pages at homedistiller.org very useful as a jumping-off point for experimentation. There’s a section there on what ratios are good ideas for your flavoring components so you don’t go overboard on, say,the citrus. Also http://www.liquorpress.com/2011/02/16/juniper-examined-the-gin-secret/ is nice if you know a little chemistry (all these compounds appear to have higher boiling points than water, so you won’t boil them off if you simmer the berries a bit). Though I can’t vouch for any fun chemical reactions that might result from heating, changing them into other stuff!

I do appologise but I thought perhaps that this site was not manned at all anymore. I inherited a site from a gent who died, he did it about 3 -6 months before he died. He told me it would not allow newbies , but it would go on forever.

When I see long patched of queries w/o answers I oft think of him.

I am glad to see you just are whipped for time, this was a great article and is among the ones that inspired me to make a batch of cherry. This first “adult drink” I ever had that I liked was Cherry Herring. It was glorious. I could just buy it now I can actually afford it, but making ones own is more interesting. I cook from scratch and used to make my own beer. I confess I am a slacker I used syrups not dried grains. It was at least as good as Deutch Brau, but it is time always time that screws things up.

So the cherry Liq is easy (so far) and even this gin looks easy.

A good knock off or Grand Marnier is what I would love to get. It is my second favorite liquer.

If you have any info on Juniper berries it would be fabulous, if you figure out how to make GM it would be great, (not contreau). Where is your bar?

ciao

christie

Although I’d love to have time to respond to everyone’s question or comments, the sad truth is that I just don’t. In between running a bar, schlepping drinks five nights a week, and trying to maintain an actual life, my schedule is pretty full.

So all I can suggest is this: try my recipe and my detailed instructions above. If you want to try something different, please be my guest – the odds are good that I haven’t tried every possible permutation of this recipe, up to and not limited to fresh juniper berries from your tree wherever you happen to live.

But if you do go out on your own and try something new with this recipe, I encourage you to post your results here so that others can share in your success.

Cheers.

I do not believe that Jeff M reads this anymore as he nor anyone else has responded to posts (sad).

I would love to know if my juniper out in my yard is usable for such purposes.

Since no one else seems to care enough to respond I suggest you use at least the same amount of fresh then taste and if it is too strong weaken it with more vodka.

I put up a batch of cherry liquer b4 Xmas I uses 160 proof vodka ( NY state allows a max of 160 proof other states allow 180 :-( )

Next batch will also be at 16o then after that 180 (everclear). The reason being I want finished product at 80 proof and to do that with sugar and more water the higher the spirit level the easier it is when diluting the final product. Should be done after april 30th.

MMM MMM MM good MMM MMM Good morning VOdka is Mmmm MMM GOOD!

ok ok that was uncalled for, but is anyone reading this?

TTFN

Anyone know how to adjust the recipe for fresh juniper berries? Are there different kinds of juniper? It sure smells like gin straight off the plant.

1) I read the treatise on how to charcoal filter spirits and kangaroo filters are reasonable, but not the best way. I noticed they make them wider now and that helps. And one must pour th ebooze through 4 times to make unflavored booze drinkable. Once you infuse the booze, passing it through more then once could quite literally clean away the flavors you just added. So a material filtering followed by a carbon filter (1 time) I would think would be helpful. Then again the Brita and the Kangaroo are both really small. Ideally you want a pipe that is 3 feel tall and 1 1/2 inches in diameter. If you make your own colum you need to boil the charcoal and rinse 5-10 times and keep it wet up to the second you pour in the spirit.Then you pass the spirit through and never let air get in it. In theory you should get a much better quality then a brita or gray kangaroo. Charcoal type is very very important, fish tank stuff is not good.

Also you can reuse the stuff if you boil it and dry it in an oven (dicey proposition if you don’t boil wash it a few times first, you risk a fireball and severe harm)

Grey Kangaroo will give you cheap refills if you send in old ones. I suspect they pop’m open wash’m and recycle the coal, Bravo to them, that makes good sense.

The process they use to make AC is nasty and that is why you need to wash out, boil, wash out a new batch of AC before using it. Wetting it before use is to AC what warming up is to you, it prepares the receptor sites to get working. If you don’t (assuming no dust) you must do a few extra times.

Juniper berries,

can any one tell me if the trees that grow all over LI (eastern cedar?) are what one needs for gin and pot roast?

I did not realise that the berrries take a year to grow. And the nicve ripe ones are behind the weird looking front ones. I am going outside now to check out my tree.

thanks
f anyone is reading and responds

chris

I must ask what is a marrow? sounds interesting.

Also

can anyone answer a repeated question, are the Juniper Berries we find on Trees used around houses the same junipers that we need to make gin, or really nice pot roast?

I have a bigun in my yard and they grow all over Long Island so any help here is appreciated.

http://thealchemistblog.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/how-to-turn-cheap-vodka-into-classy-gin-using-a-water-filter-or-i-promise-not-to-get-you-arrested-this-time/

Enjoy, and thanks so much–we love it!

Genevieve

chris