Nothing in particular - just chatting :)

[MrCat]

Had a good evening tonight.
Tough day at work.. Spent all morning sorting a report out for one of my users, delivered it a week before the \'deadline\'. Gave him the info to hear \"Oh, I sorted that out yesterday\". Then it was hot in the office, very busy etc etc. With an hour to go I was hacked off and had a banging headache..
Cycling home and I was not happy, trying to swing my mind back into a positive frame of mind. Telling myself how nice the weather is etc, that I should just be enjoying what was a fantastic ride home. Then spotted another cyclist in the distance. About a mile later I caught him Had a good chat and all the hard work I\'d done in catching him had given me a big smile on my face.
Got home and next doors 3 year old son came to help me put my bike away - chased the dog around the garden with the neighbours son laughing at me
Had a very nice pint of 7% home brew cider and sorted out my Steeped Strawberry, Steeped Cranberry and Steeped Blueberry. Had to test them out of course just to make sure they were ok The strawberry worked best - I got a lot of syrup from the strawberries so it has a nice texture/mouth feel, the blueberry is the next best but I didn\'t get as much syrup to mix back in so it seems a little thin in comparison. The cranberry is just like rocket fuel. I used dried cranberries and got precious little syrup back from them so it\'s just red, slightly bitter 80 (uk) proof! If you are steeping fruit I\'d suggest you freeze them first as afterwards they seem to release more flavour.
Followed that with a very small shot of double distilled 60% - a drink to be taken seriously but very very pleasant
So all in all a nice evening after a crappy day

[marc83]

Sounds like a great way to finish off the day.
Im currently taking a few days off before starting my new job on monday,so got a bit of distilling done and picked up a bunch of essences this morning.Have a good 15L of unflavoured spirit to sort out.
Your steeped strawberry is something i am wanting to try out,Hopefully will get that on this weekend,hard to find strwberrys here at the mo,but im sure i will.

How did you do your strawberrys?

[MrCat]

I found the steeping recipe on Homedistillers and posted a thread up here

http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/forum/topic.php?id=341
The Homedistillers thread is worth a read though as sometimes the guys over there are really funny (in a good way):)

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2199
I think the key is to freeze the fruit first as the formation of ice in the fruit should help the fruit break down so in the sugar stage of the steeping they will make more syrup. The strawberries (that had been frozen) produced about 500ml of syrup where as the blueberries (that hadn't been frozen) basically produced nothing so I had to give it them nudge by adding some more neutral. The blueberries also took about a week longer to colour the spirit.
The strawberrys I used were from our garden but I'll probably go and have a look in the freezer section of a supermarket to see if I can get some more. I
Everyone that has tried the strawberry spirit has wanted more which is a good sign - and it could easily earn its SPD tag

[Ronbo]

Hi Guys, I tried the strawberry recipe for the first time last month and it is the best yet, but next time I won\'t use quite so much sugar, or thin it down a bit, as it was a bit too sweet.

I am looking out my window at the wood-pigeons stealing all my elderberries that I can\'t reach -- GRR!

Ronbo.

[MrCat]

I wonder if a glass of this counts towards your five a day
I kept the strawberry syrup seperate until the strawbs had given up all the syrup they were going to and mixed it with the spirit to taste. I ended up with about 300 ml of syrup left over and it is awesome on ice cream

[marc83]

great,thanks MrCat,going to have a go at this today,i am also going to put on a couple of washes if time allows,Contemplating putting 3x25L birdwatchers on together.

As from monday i will have bugger all time to do anything.sundays will have to be divided up between stillin\',important stuff,oh and the wife,haha.

[MrCat]

I\'m sat here with a glass of Blueberry PD - the taste is nice but it\'s got a real spirit kick to it A few of these and I\'ll be asleep!

[marc83]

Ok i could only manage raspberries,so i got one started this arvo,lookin good so far.