If there's one thing that instantly brings to mind warm sunshine, carefree holidays, the gentle rustle of wind and water – it's raspberries! Ripe, sweet, and melt-in-your-mouth, these fruits abundantly cover bushes in many gardens. So why not gather them at the end of summer and make a delicious, healthy liqueur from them? It only takes a few minutes to evoke the August sun in the middle of the darkest winter.
Raspberry Liqueur - Summer bottled in a decanter
Sunny summer is synonymous with abundant fruit harvests. Homemade strawberry jams, apple preserves, pear sauces, or liqueurs – like raspberry liqueur – are a way to bottle up hot days in a jar or decanter. When the world is once again consumed by dark, cold days, they will remind us of past – and soon-to-come – holiday bliss!
From your own produce or bought at a local market, you can make plenty of such delicious treats. But how do you make raspberry liqueur so it isn't bitter and the fruit fully releases its flavor? How much sugar should you add to raspberry liqueur and what proportions should you maintain?
Basics of preparing raspberry liqueur
Every alcohol of this type – including raspberry liqueur made with spirit – is made in a fairly similar and very simple way. To make the basic recipe, you need juicy, fresh, and clean fruit, sugar, high-proof alcohol, a large jar, and a good deal of patience.
How do you make raspberry liqueur with spirit? The recipe is extremely simple. Place sorted and cleaned fruit into a disinfected glass container, add sugar, and immediately pour in 70% alcohol. The best proportions are 1 kg raspberries: 0.5 kg sugar : 0.5 l alcohol, or – depending on your supplies – a multiple thereof. The situation is similar when answering the question: how to make raspberry liqueur with moonshine. And how to make raspberry liqueur with vodka? The quantity of individual ingredients then changes to 1 kg raspberries : 1 liter vodka : 400 g sugar or a multiple thereof.
The prepared mixture – regardless of the alcohol used, the amount of sugar, and fruit – should sit in a sealed container for a minimum of 6 weeks. You just need to shake the jar every few days to mix the contents. To obtain a clear raspberry liqueur, after a minimum of 40 days, it is worth filtering it several times, for example, using funnels specially designed for this purpose. The more time passes until the contents are poured into decanters, the more intense the pink color of the liquid will be.
Common mistakes when making raspberry liqueur
Many people starting their adventure with homemade liqueurs wonder why raspberry liqueur is bitter. This is a very common situation that is easy to remedy. In the case of these – and many other fruits – the bitterness comes from the seeds. While it's easy to remove them from apples, it's more difficult with the berry treasures of summer.
To avoid this effect, you should maximize the maceration time, i.e., leaving only raspberries with sugar in the jar before adding alcohol. For other homemade liqueurs, it is recommended that before pouring in spirit or vodka, the fruit should be covered with sugar and release juices for up to two weeks. However, for raspberry liqueur, the maximum time is 24... hours! Liqueur prepared in this way should not be bitter.