Home-made Birmingham Blueberry Gin Recipe

Home-made Birmingham Blueberry Gin Recipe

Post
Subscribe

Posted 2013-09-15 by Alison in Birmingham follow
Gin can be a little flavourless to many palates, so it's a great idea to infuse a little fruity flavour to it.

Using blueberries, here is a traditional vintage recipe from a quaint old English village called Finstall in the heart of the UK, near Birmingham, passed on to me by Granny B.



It's not sweet, so will be ideal for those of you who like a slightly bitter edge to their drink with a hint of blueberry. It is also good to use as a base in a cocktail and mix with other fruit juices.

To start with you'll need these ingredients for every 1 litre of gin you make:

Two cups worth of blueberries (equal to 500ml) - this a "cup" in terms of a standard measuring cup.
Half a cup of granulated sugar (125ml)
1 litre of cheap gin - this can be a supermarket own brand or similar. Don't go spending a lot on buying good quality gin as you will be infusing your own flavour with it to improve it.

Granny B's Helpful Hint: Remember, if you are making 2 litres, double the ingredients, for 3 litres triple it etc.

To start with, it's worth getting a demijohn, which is a very large glass container with a wide opening and a cork in the top. It means you can fit all the fruit and alcohol in it and you can also keep an eye on when the sugar is disintegrating and see clearly the change in colour of the liquid.

Granny B's Helpful Hint: If you don't have a demijohn, you can use a large bottle. You need something that has a tight lid or cork in the top.



A day or two before you start, wash and measure out the blueberries you need, then use a clean pin to prick a hole in each of them before freezing them. This will help the blueberries infuse slowly in the gin.



On the day, measure out the sugar and gin and take the blueberries out of the freezer. Put the frozen blueberries into the container first, then pour the sugar on top of them.

Granny B's Helpful Hint: It makes it easier to pour the sugar in by rolling up a piece of paper into a cone shape and pouring it through the paper into the bottle, so it doesn't get stuck around the damp bottle-opening or sides.



After the sugar and blueberries are in the bottle, pour in the gin, put the cork in or lid on and shake well.

Leave the bottle somewhere in plain sight so you don't forget about it as you need to give the mixture a shake every day for the first three weeks.

After that, give the bottle a shake once to a couple of times a week for the next seven weeks. During this period you will notice the sugar disappear and the colour start to change to a purple/red colour.

Granny B's Helpful Hint: It will be 10 weeks in total, so if you are preparing this for Christmas, a present or another special occasion, you can count back 10 weeks on a calendar from your desired date.



When the 10 weeks is up. Get some muslin, often called "butter muslin" in cookery shops.

Place a piece of muslin in a colander with small holes, enough to cover it and go around the edges, and place a jug below the colander that will fit however many litres of gin you have made.

Pour the mixture through the muslin, which will catch the blueberries and other debris. The "purer" fluid will go through into the jug.

When the blueberries fill the colander, empty them and the muslin out and use a clean piece of muslin in the colander to do the next batch of mixture till all of it has been decanted.



You can now pour the decanted gin into small bottles to give as gifts, or a larger bottle for storage, or even in an old-fashioned glass decanter.

Whatever you keep it in, it's finally ready to savour, so have a little sip - you've earned it.



#food_wine
#fun_things_to_do
#how_to
#recipes
%wneverywhere
89204 - 2023-06-11 08:04:38

Tags

Music
Free
Arts_culture
Film_tv_reviews
Outdoor
Random
Nightlife
Family_friendly
Festivals
Community
Food_drink
Fundraisers
Educational
Holiday
Markets
Copyright 2022 OatLabs ABN 18113479226