I especially liked the idea of making cordials, many of which age over a few short months. One afternoon's work, a few months of patience, and I thought I would have a viable product to donate to group events, or trade for goods I want and need. Plus, once I started, I'd be able to trade with others for recipes and advice to further increase my knowledge.
Sample Berry Recipe
4 cups of any fresh or frozen berry
scraped and chopped peel of one lemon
cloves
3 cups vodka or 2 cups vodka & 1 cup brandy or 2 c. brandy & 1 cup vodka or 3 cups white wine
Lightly crush berries. Add to alcohol w/ lemon & cloves.
Steep 3 months in a tightly-sealed glass jar or bottle.
Strain out fruit and seasoning residue.
Sweeten to taste (using a sugar syrup composed of: 2 parts sugar/1 part water/boil till sugar dissolves).
Bottle in a tightly-sealed glass container. Age an additional 3 months.
This recipe provided by: Thea of Midvale West Kingdom Brewers' Guild (permission granted to reprint here).
Notes: additional flavoring can be added through the addition of pure extracts (vanilla, anise, mint, and others), pieces of cinnamon stick or other whole spices, drops of edible essential oils, etc. I have been told over and over again that experimentation is the key to mastery of cordial making. However, the base recipe should give you enough to start with.
Sample Concentrate Recipe an empty 2 quart bottle 2 cups sugar syrup (as above berry recipe) bottle of commercial concentrate add commercial concentrate and syrup to 2 quart bottle. Fill with alcohol of your choice. Shake and age. This recipe provided by: Thea of Midvale West Kingdom Brewers' Guild (permission granted to reprint here).Notes: You can also use regular bottled juice (make sure it is 100% juice). Just make sure (by tasting) that you have a good mix of sweetened juice to alcohol. Liquid extracts and oils can be added to adjust the flavor. If you keep everything liquid, you don't need to waste time steeping, you can just begin ageing right away.
Notes:
I sat down Thursday night and decided to mix up cordials. I had 1 bottle of white rum, and 2 of vodka, plus an assortment of spices (cinnamon sticks, cloves, various extracts), and I discovered that you can buy lemon and orange zest in the seasoning section of the supermarket (I always peeled zest the hard way), and some fresh and frozen fruit. I also had a limited number of glass jars I could use, having not considered that part of it until too late. Luckily, my son drinks apple juice by the gallon, and we had a couple bottles that hadn't gone out with the recycling. Plus, I had some never-used canning jars that were sitting around gathering dust. I thoroughly washed and bleached everything before using it. The canning jars I also tossed in the dishwasher.
The worst part was standing there going..."Hmmm...how much lemon zest from the jar is enough. Hmmm...how much extract should I use...hmmm...". Finally, I just decided to mix and see what happens. The worst that happens is that I ruin $30 worth of alcohol and fruit. Not that much of a waste :). The best is that I figure out what sort of proportions work best. I tried to stagger the amounts of extract to be smaller with each batch.
First recipe: Burst o'Berries Cinnamon Apple Cordial 3 cups "Big Valley" Burst o'Berries frozen fruit (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries) 1/2 tablespoon mixed orange and lemon zest 4 cloves 1 inch of cinnamon 1/4 cup King Kullen (supermarket brand) apple cider 2 cups white rum 2 cups vodka11/19/98 - Mixed in a glass gallon apple-juice bottle. Not full.
12/22/98 - I've been shaking/mixing once a week. The mixture is a lovely jeweled red color. The strawberries and raspberries are a very "washed out" looking white-pink in the bottle.
1/2/99 - Attempted to strain fruit and zest from mixture. I discovered that the holes in a collander are too large to catch zest particles, and a coffee filter is too fine to strain large amounts of liquid in a short amount of time. Lacking cheesecloth, I cut up a peice of dressweight linen, cleaned in it HOT water, and used that. Presto! All the junk was filtered out, although the liquid was slightly cloudy. Added sugar syrup. Discovered upon tasting that I had totally munged the recipe. The fruit flavors were not strong enough to compete with the extract/zest/spices flavors. I re-bottled anyway.
2/22/99 - Tasted results one last time. There was a VERY strong alcohol flavor, almost no fruit flavor, and an imbalance of the zest and spice flavors. Overall, it was just plain unpleasant. I dumped the results down the sink.
Second recipe: Cran-Apple Anise Cordial 2 lbs cored and unpeeled McIntosh apples 1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries 1 tsp lemon zest 1 tsp anise extract 8 cups vodka11/19/98 - While making this, I had the thought that the anise might mix well with gin, and to either go with half gin and half vodka OR, use all gin in another batch. The apples insist on "floating" and won't sink below the level of the liquor, so, they're turning all brown and mushy-looking. I'm not really sure what to "do" with it, or if that's a normal thing with apples specifically. The cranberries, and the other fruit in the other jars all look fine. Mixed in a glass gallon apple-juice bottle. Not full.
12/22/98 - I've been shaking/mixing once a week. I'm checking the apples for signs of serious spoiling, and there are none. They have the same "brown" look as a regular apple left out in the air. There's not much color to this mixture - I may want to use food coloring when I'm done (pale gold). I read in "Classic Liqueurs" that I should have bruised the cranberries to allow the berry juice to mix with the alcohol faster. I'll have to remember that for the next time.
1/2/99 - Attempted to strain fruit and zest from mixture. Had same trouble as mentioned above in the Burst O'Berries brew, and used more linen to strain. Added sugar syrup. Discovered upon tasting that I had totally munged this recipe as well. The fruit flavors were not strong enough to compete with the extract/zest/spices flavors. I re-bottled anyway.
2/22/99 - Tasted results one last time. There was a VERY strong alcohol flavor, almost no fruit flavor, and an imbalance of the zest and anise flavors. Overall, it was just plain unpleasant. I dumped the results down the sink.
Third recipe: Raspberry Almond Cordial 1 1/2 cups "Big Valley" frozen red raspberries 1/2 tsp almond extract 1/4 tsp orange zest 1 inch of cinnamon 2 cloves 1 1/2 cups white rum11/19/98 - Mixed in a small canning jar. Filled to top.
12/22/98 - I've been shaking/mixing once a week. This mixture is a lovely jewel-red color (very similar to the Burst O'Berries mixture). The fruits also look like almost all the color has been bleached out by the alcohol.
1/2/99 - Left in bottle unfiltered and still brewing.
2/22/99 - Discarded as unpalatable. Clove and extract flavor too strong, and no fruit taste. I dumped the results down the sink.
Fourth recipe: Blueberry Mint Cordial 1 1/2 cups blueberries 1/4 tsp mint extract 1/4 tsp lemon zest 1 1/2 cups white rum11/19/98 - Mixed in a small canning jar. Filled to top.
12/22/98 - I've been shaking/mixing once a week. The mixture is a lovely deep blue-purple color. Sort of a sapphire-purple. I read in "Classic Liqueurs" that I should have bruised the blueberries to allow the berry juice to mix with the alcohol faster.
1/2/99 - Left in bottle unfiltered and still brewing.
2/22/99 - Discarded as unpalatable. Mint flavor overwhelmed every other taste. I dumped the results down the sink.
Random Thoughts:
In the meantime, here are some links of interest.