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Equipment to
make Liquors
Standard
Equipment
One needs very
little equipment for making liquors, and most or all of this is
available in the average kitchen. For most recipes, one needs
only:
-
Measuring cup
(to measure the amount of liquids, depending on the recipe)
-
Knife and
cutting board (for recipes that have ingredients to be cut up)
-
One or more
glass containers for the liquor to mature in
-
A common
kitchen strainer (preferably small) to filter the matured liquor
before bottling.
-
Cloth or
cotton for filtering (see tip 2 at
Liquors:
Top Tips).
-
Final bottles
and stoppers
Most of this
will be found in any kitchen. So the following will consider the
less common items.
Glass
Container
The first item
is the glass container for the liquor to mature in. Most liquor
recipes require that the ingredients be stored in a glass
container and left for some weeks or months to mature. In
particular, recipes based on fruit require this time for the
flavour to become infused into the alcohol. Any clean air-tight
glass container of the appropriate size will do. We find that
there are two types which are most useful:
-
If you are
making a small amount of a liquor, a relatively small glass
container of 1 or 2 liters (1 or 2 quarts) is ideal. It so
happens that we eat a lot of pickles and our favourite pickles
come in 1.5 litre jars. So (after eating the pickles) we
thoroughly wash out the jar and lid and use that. I mention this
to illustrate that you don't need anything special and don't
need to spend money on glass containers. If you do home-made jam
or marmalade, these jars are also very good. The key
requirements are that the jar is clean, glass and has an
air-tight seal.
-
For larger
quantities of liquor (typically wine based) a larger container
of 10, 15 or 20 liters (10, 15 or 20 quarts) is more suitable.
One can usually get one of these for 15 or 20 euros (15 or 20
dollars or pounds) as a store selling wine-making equipment.
These can be purchased either with a small mouth or a large
mouth. I find that the ones with a wide mouth are more practical
for recipes that have coarse-cut ingredients (e.g. quarters of
an orange) as it is easier to add and remove ingredients and
also easier to clean afterwards(one can fit a hand with a dish
pad into the bottle).
When adding the
liquor to the glass container, one should try to ensure that
there is not a large volume of air, as this results in the
liquor being of inferior quality (due to oxidation). Therefore,
if your glass container is too large, either use a smaller
container or increase the quantity of ingredients. For example,
if the recipe has one litre of ingredients and you have a 1.5
litre glass, either multiply all the ingredients by 1.5 so that
it will fill the glass, or find a smaller glass.
Cotton Pads
After maturing
the liquor, most recipes require that it be filtered prior to
final bottling. As described in
Liquors: Top Tips,
cotton pads are best for this. They can be purchased in most
pharmacies (or chemists, as they are know in the UK), and in
many of the larger general stores.
Final Bottles
and Stoppers
After maturing
the liquor, one normally puts it into bottles for storage (or,
depending on the recipe, additional maturation). Any air-tight
glass bottle will do for this purpose. I personally prefer to
use half-bottles (375 ml bottles, know as half-bottles as they
are half the standard size for a wine bottle) and reusable cork
stoppers. Both can be found in most wine equipment stores. The
reason I prefer these include:
-
A
nicely-shaped half-bottle, especially if it has an attractive
label, makes a very nice present. As one should emphasize the
quality and effort of a home-made liquor, I believe that a
smaller bottle conveys this message better than a large one.
Also, it means that one can get about 3 presents out of a single liter of liquor.
-
Liquors are
normally drunk slowly and in small quantities. Thus, while one
may finish off a standard bottle of wine in an evening, it may
take weeks to finish off a bottle of liquor. Consequently, a
smaller bottle (half-bottle) is more suitable.
-
For much the
same reason, a re-useable cork is practical as one can simply
twist it out and when finished pouring the drinks push it back
in.
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