Might not be beer but to good not to share,,,

[Mikes15]

I know, not beer,, but,,,,,

 

Made some Quince Gin the other day & DAM its good

 

So easy,

 

•750g quinces, scrubbed if they are the fluffy kind

•250g sugar

•1.5 litres gin

•Sterilised jar / Demijohn.

 

- Give the Quince a quick wash to clean them,

 

- Cut the quinces small enough to fit into your container removing the cores.

 

- Add the sugar to a little boiling water to dissolve, pour into the jar then add the gin.

 

- Give everything a mix together then leave to steep in a dark place for around two months.

 

- Give it a swirl / mix every few days or so.

 

- Strain the gin into sterilised bottle/s.

 

- DRINK

 

This stuff is bloody lovely, Lolly water of course but honestly very nice flavours & a good talking point.

 

 

A Mate has made the same but threw a cinnamon stick, some cloves an a few other bits & pieces in to the mix, that's "brewed" in a few days.

 

[davegerber]

It's very tasty! I advise everyone. Sugar making all savor. I saw another varient of mixing it here - http://www.casestudywriter.org/case-study-help . Not bad at all.

[Mikes15]

Also made a Blueberry Gin last year which was arguably better than the Quince Gin but also much easier to drink

 

So this years crop is in,

 

2ltrs of Quince Gin,

 

 

And thought since we cant get Sloe berry's here Id give Hawthorn Gin a bash, supposedly its similar to Sloe Gin but not as sweet & with a more bitter taste (which can be controlled by additional suger after the steeping is complete.

 

 

seems its a bit of a super food, mind you I hope not to much of the cyanide in the seeds seeps out,,,,

[Beerlust]

I'm hearin' ya Mike!

 

Fruit maceration (as it is known) is a terrific way to infuse fruit flavour into liquor etc., particularly white spirits, & lighter flavoured alcoholic beverages.

 

Belvedere Vodka do a range of commercially macerated vodkas. Working in the liquor industry, a few years back I was lucky enough to sample the range at a tasting event, & thought they were awesome TBQH!

Good stuff.

 

Cheers,

 

Lusty.

[Gag Halfrunt]

But where can I obtain a quince?

[ChristinaS1]

Hi Mike. Please let us know how the hawthorn gin turns out. I have a lot of hawthorn trees growing on my property. If you like it, I will try to make some too. Did you pick your own?

 

I gather that as long as you don't crush the seeds, cyanide isn't too much of a problem. I am going to try macerating chokecherries this summer too, which have the same issue.

 

It is just spring here in Canada; the snow just melted last week.

 

Cheers,

 

Christina.

[Mikes15]

I picked my own, didn't take long to get 250g, which is all ive used as only doing a 1ltr batch as a trial this year.

Think I almost missed the season, a lot of the berry's where drying up as leaves had started dropping a while ago.

Found a tip on the web that said to top & tail the berry's or you will get a fine sediment that is very hard to filter & wont settle out, didn't do the tops at they popped when I pulled the fruit off but did nip the dried up flower part of the tails, only took about 20mins to do the lot. I also froze the berry's over night, again as per the web.

I've done 250g berry's / 275g sugar (dissolved into a 600ml solution with boiled water) / 1ltr gin, bit higher on the sugar than suggested but Id prefer a thicker / sweeter port style rather than a sherry which its suggested it can be quite like.

Seems Cyanide is quite common in fruit / berry seeds.

[Mikes15]

Hawthorn gin's just about done id say, taken an amazing amount of colour leaving the berry's quite pale,

Ttaste wise it wouldn't want anymore sugar, but I wouldn't want much less either, I think you can tell its a relation of the Sloe but its not the same full on richness that has but is still very nice. Might leave it another week or so but I'd say the berry's don't have much left to give since they where so late in the season.

The quince is far more potent to taste still but last year I juiced the pieces & added that back into the gin before racking off which defiantly gives it more colour & fruit flavors.

[Mikes15]

On 5/1/2018 at 9:04 PM, ChristinaS1 said:

Hi Mike. Please let us know how the hawthorn gin turns out.

Cheers,

Christina.

Bottled the Hawthorn gin today, been having "Wee nip' every week or so as the locals here would call it,, feel it needed the full month at least, 2 weeks as suggested it was still quite raw, think next year Ill do 2 or 3 batches & keep one macerating for at least 2 months, maybe even 6.

Main reason for bottling is Im off to help a good brewing mate on his farm next week so want to share the love!

Beauty of this is absolutely no racking required, strained it through a double layer of chux & even if a few tiny bits got through its so dark you'd never know.

Nice colour change from the berrys,

This was almost the last out of the jar;

Tastes great, just sweet enough, not tart or sherry like at all, for a novice like me you'd be hard pressed not to know it wasn't sloe gin.

 

Edited June 7, 2018 by Mikes15

[ChristinaS1]

Wow, that looks great! Thanks for getting back to us with the results. You have convinced me to try it this fall.  I will follow your recipe.

Cheers Mike,

Christina.

[Mikes15]

This years batch of Hawthorn gin is down,

Got more berry's but need to wait until next months grocery allowance before I can stretch to another bottle of gin as Ive just put 1ltr of quince gin down as well as racking off my Blueberry, rosemary & lime vodka + the Blackboy peach, raisin, honey & cinnamon rum, gets a bit much buying a bottle of spirit every other week on top of beer & brewing bits!!

 

Edited June 3, 2019 by Mikes15