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Top Tips for
Making Liquors
Top Tip 1: Not
difficult
Our first tip is that making liquors is not difficult (see
home-made
liquors). If you can make
Lemonade, you can make liquors. However, here are some suggestions to
make it even easier:
Top Tip 2:
Filtering
When your liquor
is ready to be bottled, you will first need to filter it. Most
older recipe books advise use of a cloth or a dishtowel. Some of
the newer ones advise use of coffee filters or other such items.
In our
experience, all such advise is bad. Ignore it. The easiest
method by far is to take a standard kitchen drainer and line it
with cotton pads. Simply poor the liquid to be filtered into the
lined drainer and you will be done in minutes.
If you are
filtering a large volume of liquid, the cotton pads may become
clogged and the liquid no longer drain through. Stop pouring,
allow the remaining liquid to drain, gently press on the cotton
pads to release any liquid remaining, through the pads away and
put into another layer of cotton pads. Then continue filtering
the liquid.
Having make many
liquors, this is really our number 1 tip. The most
time-consuming part of making most liquors is filtering and this
approach can shorter the task from over an hour to a matter of
minutes. We used all the traditional approaches for years,
experimenting until we found this approach. Items such as
dishcloths and coffee filters quickly become blocked and then
drain extremely slowly. Cotton pads combine a coarse weave with
a thick structure, so they are as effective as cloth (or coffee
filters) at filtering, without easily becoming blocked. Also,
one can simply throw the cotton away after (it isn't expensive
and you don't need much) rather than being left with a pile of
fruit-stained dirty cloths.
Top Tip 3:
Sterile
Liquors should
be produced and stored in bottles which are sterile, with an
air-tight seal. There are a number of ways to make the bottles
sterile, including:
- Boil:
Put the bottle and bottle top in a pot of water. Ensure that the
bottle is filled with water so that it is submerged rather than
floating. Bring to a boil and leave it boiling for several
minutes.
- Bake: Put the
bottle and bottle top in the over and bake it for several
minutes. I personally don't like this method for two reasons.
One is that there is a greater risk of the bottle breaking due
to thermal shock, the other is that many bottle top lids have a
plastic coating, which will melt in the oven. However, some
people prefer this method as it is faster than boiling for large
number of bottles.
In my personal
experience, while it is important for the bottle and bottle top
to be clean, I find that the alcohol kills almost all bacteria
so being sterile is not that essential to making liquors.
Top Tip 4:
Air-tight lid
Liquors should
be kept in a bottle with a air-tight lid. Otherwise, air can
move in and out of the bottle, reacting with the liquor as it
does so (the main reaction is known as oxidization). In a short
time, this will destroy the taste of the liquor and eventually
make it completely undrinkable. It will also allow the alcohol
to evaporate, which not only affects the taste, but also allows
bacteria and fungus to enter as the main protective ingredient
of a liquor is the alcohol.
A number of
recipes require that the liquor be stored in a glass container
for a number of weeks or months before bottling. Both this
container, and the bottles in which the liquor is eventually
put, must have an air-tight seal.
An air-tight lid
is critical. If the lid does not fit well, it is certain that
the liquor will go off, wasting your time and ingredients.
More Top Tips:
More tips will
be added as time
permits. However, the above are in our opinion the most
important.
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