Steeping - Homedistillers SPD

[MrCat]

Found this on homedistiller and it produces a fantastic drink.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2199
Just tried it with Dried sweetened Cranberries (400g bags are on special offer at Julian Graves) and it's even better than the original version with strawberries.

[foRUM warrior]

original post on HD forums :-

1-2qts frozen strawberries

white granulated sugar

bottle of clear brandy or vodka

lemon juice
Put frozen strawberries in a large mason jar. Fill the jar. Fill the jar the rest of the way up to the top with 120-150proof clear brandy. Set jar on a window sill for about a week(shaking it a couple times a day). Strain out liquid into another jar or bottle. Add enough sugar to the strawberries to completely cover them. Let the jar sit on the window sill (giving it a shake now and then)until most of the sugar appears to be gone, and there is alot of syrup in the jar. Pour the syrup into a seperate jar and add more sugar to the strawberries. Repeat this step until there is no more juices being released from the berries. Add about 1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the alcohol, then add the strawberry syrup until the desired taste is reached, water to 80 proof and strain until no strawberry particles are seen. The lemon juice will help preserve the red color, and the flavor of the strawberries. Without the lemon juice, the finished product will have a chalky aftertaste (quite unpleasent). Any leftover syrup and/or berries is Excelent on ice cream and/or cheesecake.
VARIATION- use blueberries.
This is a good drink to put in a blender with ice. Tastes like a strawberry smoothie. A refreshing drink for a hot summer day after mowing the lawn (in moderation..lol) Also good on the rocks.
-Pothead-

it dose sound very interesting ......... i just wish i understood what his measurements were lol
the only bit i got (and had to look up) was 120-150proof = 60-80%abv lol

[MrCat]

I think the great thing is that you can be as vague or accurate as you like with the measurements.
For the strawberry version I used about 1.75 litres of 50% with the last batch of strawberries out of the garden which came to about 2/3 of the liquid level. Left it for 7 days (shaking a couple of times every day). Then strained the spirit through muslin into another jar. Added sugar to the strawberries, shaked, left it, shaked, left it and after a day poured the syrup off. I got about 3 batches of syrup before I added sugar and it didn't get dissolved. 2 taplespoons of lemon juice into the spirit, mixed the syrup into the spirit to taste. I think I used to much syrup as it's quite sweet.
For the cranberry version I used dried sweeteened cranberries and 2 litres of 50%. After a week of shaking I strained the spirit off through the muslin and it's good to drink now as it's smooth, there is a little of the sharp cranberry taste but also a bit of sweet. Adding sugar to the cranberries and then adding that to the spirit would make it too sweet so I'm not going to do that stage. But the cranberries have nicked .75 of a litre of my spririt so I'm going to make a small press to get my precious spirit back !!
Apparently Tescos have half price blueberries so I'll go and get some of those at lunch time
And some rasins to add to some rum...