We went for a little walk the other day and thankfully I remembered to take bags.
We ended up with 2kg of nice blackberries.
With just the free run juice from the bottom of the bags when the berries crushed themselves I decided to make a little blackberry liqueur.
I just mixed the juice with equal parts vodka and added sugar until the liqueur seemed right. No heating needed. I’d suppose this was about 18% abv in the end and I put them in little bottles with a vacuum seal.
I thought I’d make a “classic” Bramble by the inimitable Gentleman, Dick Bradsell.
In his honour I used my own Gin and the liqueur I’d just made. I was going to use my own neutral for this but decided to just use the vodka I rarely use, and save my neutral for making more Gin.
60ml The Forge Dry Gin V2.2. *
22.5ml Lemon Juice, Strained
15ml 2:1 White Sugar Syrup
4 Drops 4:1 Saline Solution.
Shake over ice and strain into a frozen Riedel rocks glass with one large cube, and a crown of pebble ice.
Pour over Crème de Mûre to taste and to visual pleasure - probably about 15ml.
Garnish with lemon slice and a fresh blackberry.
Maybe it was just the placebo effect of making half the ingredients myself, but this was the best Bramble I’ve ever had.
* The Forge Dry Gin is inspired by the ingredients in Bombay Sapphire and Beefeater, with much more Juniper present.
The Forge Dry Gin V2.2
3L 40% ABV Neutral Spirit
60g Juniper Berries
30g Coriander Seed
6g Angelica Root
6g Liquorice Root
6g Toasted Almond Flakes
6g Orange Peel
6g Lemon Peel
3g Cassia Bark
3g Grains of Paradise
0.6g Orris Root
Crush all botanicals except citrus peel.
Add to still with spirit and heat to 50c.
Switch off heat and leave to infuse for one hour.
Distil until 1.3L of product obtained.
Switch to tails and reserve for future redistillation.
Rest overnight and dilute to 45% the next day.
This should yield 2L of finished Gin.