Blackthorn gin, liqueur and wine: 3 recipes at home
About the drink
Ripe berries of thorns are great for making various alcoholic beverages. The most famous is the "Sloe gin", but in our area, liqueur and wine are more often prepared from thorns.
Tips before you start
If based on gin
This drink does not forgive sloppiness in choosing an alcoholic base. And it is important to use high-quality gin for its preparation. It may not be the most expensive, but it must be of high quality.
Wild blackthorn
Small thorny bush / low tree from the plum family. Blackthorn fruits are round in shape and resemble small black or dark blue plums. The flesh has a sweet and sour taste with a slight tartness, but after freezing the fruit becomes sweeter.
As for berries, it is advisable to use wild fruits, but if you don't have this option, you can also take cultivated varieties of blackthorn.
Experiment with it
Each batch of homemade grog alcohol can be unique, as there are no clear proportions to follow during the preparation process.
Some people use more berries and less sugar, spicy drinkers add cinnamon, cloves or nutmeg. And someone completely refuses to use a sweetener and then the drink turns out to be strong, with a real masculine character.
Recipe for crown of thorns gin
Ingredients
Wild thorn berries - 500 g
Gin (preferably 43%) - 1 liter
Crystalline sugar - 250 g
The method of preparation
Before you start preparing the drink, you need to wash and sort out the fruits of the blackthorn, getting rid of small debris and spoiled berries.
Now it is advisable to pierce each berry with a toothpick in several places. If you use wild fruits, we recommend freezing them a little, then they will become sweeter.
Put the prepared blackthorn in a glass jar, add crystal sugar and pour in the alcohol. Insist for about three months in a cool and dark place.
It is very important to shake the infusion daily for the first couple of weeks so that the sugar is completely dissolved.
After 3 months of infusion, the drink must be filtered and passed through a filter 3-4 times or more, if there is still a sediment after filtration. You can also pour the drink into a bottle, put it in a dark pantry, and after the sediment has completely settled, gently drain the gin.
Then we are waiting for many years of aging the drink. Ideally, this process is best extended over 6 years, but you can also start tasting after 12 months. But it should be remembered that in this case the drink will be slightly sharp.
Recipe for blackthorn liqueur
Ingredients
Gin - 4.5 liters
Blackthorn berries - 5 kg
Sugar - 2.5 kg
The method of preparation
Rinse the ripe blackthorn, let it dry well. Put in a large jar, sprinkle with sugar. Cover with gauze, keep in a sunny place for 40-45 days.
Pour in 500 ml of gin, leave for 4 months and drain well.
Mix with the remaining gin and let the mixture boil once.
Cool, pour into prepared dry bottles, carefully cork and put in a box.
Fill the bottles with dry sand, store in a cool, dry place for 6 months before use.
Wine from thorns
Ingredients
Blackthorn berries - 2.5 kg
Sugar - up to 250 g/kg
Water - 2.5 liters
Yeast - 1 tsp.
The method of preparation
Rinse frozen or ripe fruits, put them in a saucepan, pour boiling water and boil a little.
After the mass has cooled, pour everything into a bottle, add the yeast diluted in a small amount of water, which has come up, and part (about 1/3) of the previously prepared of sugar syrup.
Stir everything and close with a fermentation stopper.
After a week, add the remaining 2/3 of the sugar syrup to the bottle, stir, close the cork again and leave to ferment for a month.
At the end of fermentation (the fruit will sink to the bottom and the release of carbon dioxide in the bubbles will stop), pour the liquid into another bottle and leave it to ferment for another 1 week.
Then filter the wine, bottle and cork it.
Update: 06.02.2021
Category: Gin