A pleasant weekend bottling wine and making banana liqueur.

The weather was so gorgeous last weekend I felt almost human. I don’t know about you but I feel so much more energetic when the sun is out but its not too hot. I have been meaning to bottle some of my home made country wines for ages. As I prefer to do this out of doors I took the chance while the weather was nice. I can certainly think of worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon than bottling, and simultaneously drinking (!) some wine.

I had some bottles of lemon wine left and when I opened one it had become sparkling. It was a little sharp, probably because the last of the sugar had converted to alcohol so I added a few sweeteners. This turned it into a pleasant light sparkling drink.

I never stick to the rules and sometimes it catches me out. Berry suggests you should keep accurate records of what you have done, but I never can be bothered. Now normally I know what is in a demijohn, but although I knew one contained honeysuckle wine, I have no idea what on earth the other contained as I had forgotten to label it. In any case neither are ready to drink so I bottled them, labelling one set ‘indeterminate’. As some of my cider was starting to clear I syphoned that off into a new demijohn.

indeterminate, cider, honeysuckle and sparkling lemon wine

In a fit of enthusiasm I also carried on with my liqueur making binge and made some banana liqueur - heres the recipe .

Banana liqueur

7 medium ripe bananas

750 ml brandy

400g sugar.

250 ml water.

Peel and slice bananas thinly

Place the bananas in a clean glass container with a tight fitting lid. Add the brandy, close tightly and leave to stand for five weeks in a warm spot. Shake regularly.

Pour the mixture first through a clean, dry sieve and then through four layers of cheesecloth. Set aside. Mix the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed pan and stir until the sugar has melted. Bring to the boil and boil for 12 minutes. Remove the syrup from the stove and leave to cool. Add the flavoured brandy to the cold syrup. Pour into a clean dry sterilised bottle and store for at least a month before use.

Blackberry Whisky

Due to popular demand I am putting up the recipe for this. I didn’t make any this year due to the wedding but definately will next year. Leave for as long as possible before drinking (within reason!)…..it improves with age.

400 g ( 14 ozs) blackberries

200 g (7 ozs) sugar

426ml ( 15fluid ozs) whisky

15 ml ( 1 tbs ) glycerol

5ml ( 1 tsp) citric acid .

Put alternate layers of blackberries and sugar in a wide necked jar and add the glycerol, citric acid and whisky. Cover the jar and leave for two days. Gently shake twice daily for the next three weeks before straining through a fine muslin cloth, gently squeezing the fruit to extract as much juice as possible. Return to the jar and allow to clear. Decant into clean dry sterilised bottle/s and keep for 6 months before drinking.

From The art of making wine and liqueurs by Betty Sampson

Pear Liqueur

As promised.

pear liqueur

The strawberry liqueur I made a few days back is coming along fine ( right), so as I had a glut of pears I have made some pear as well. Its interesting that both the kilner jars hold approximately the same amount of liquid, it doesn’t look as though they do, does it? This is another recipe from Jean Dixons book.

2 cm piece of peeled ginger root.

500 g sugar

500 ml dry white wine

500 ml gin

500 g fresh table pears

5 whole cloves

Halve, seed and slice the pears

Place the pears, cloves, ginger and sugar in a heavy bottomed pot. Add the wine. Heat over a low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil.Remove the syrup from the stove and leave to cool.

Add the gin to the cold syrup. Pour the mixture into a clean glass or earthenware container, close tightly and leave to stand for a week in a warm spot . Shake every morning and evening.

Strain the mixture through two layers of cheesecloth, repeating if necessary.

Pour the liqueur into a dry sterilised bottle. Store for a month before use.

Strawberry liqueur

I am told Strawberry Liqueur is rather sweeter than the other fruit liqueurs, because strawberries are naturally a sweeter fruit. It is recommended  poured over pancakes, or over the sponge in a trifle, and if you take a galia melon, cut it in half, and fill the middles with strawberry liqueur and perhaps a little sugar, with a garnish of rose petals or mint leaves, I gather you have a very impressive pud for very little effort! I will try it with pancakes for sure!