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Home-made Blackberry Gin
This method for home-made Blackberry Gin is incredibly easy and results in a beautiful ruby-coloured, sweet liqueur. It has a delicious, rich, sweet-sour flavour.
I have only recently started making Blackberry Gin. Having had some initial success withElderflower GinandRhubarb Gin(which is great forco*cktails!) last year, I started to think about other seasonal fruits that I could use to produce delicious home-made gin! I have always been a keen blackberry picker but, in the past, have used them for jam and also cakes, puddings and desserts such asBlackberry Muffins, Blackberry Crumble and Blackberry Fool. However, it occurred to me that they might taste pretty good as a flavouring for gin.
Late August and early September is blackberry season in the Cotswolds. On my daily dog walks, I see the brambles growing rapidly during early summer. By mid-summer, their flowers are turning to fruit. In late summer, within a week or so, they suddenly seem to be covered in hundreds of juicy blackberries. You can, of course, buy blackberries all year round in supermarkets these days. However, there is nothing like picking your own. Even people who would never forage for any other kind of wild produce have memories of going blackberrying. Where I live, it is a pretty popular thing to do. On my relatively short drive to work last week, I saw no less than three groups of people, equipped with plastic containers and thick gloves, picking the blackberries that grow along the roadside.
In the past few years, there has been an increase in the popularity of flavoured gins, including Blackberry Gin, produced by niche producers and selling for a premium in supermarkets. I think home-made and traditional is best in terms of both flavour and price, so why not try making your own? It is really easy!
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What you need to know about making Blackberry Gin
- First off, it is incredibly easy. Even to describe it as a recipe is a bit of an exaggeration! You simply need to combine the blackberries, sugar and gin and leave for the delicious fruity flavour to infuse the liquid.
- However, you do need to think ahead. You cannot just rustle up a batch of Blackberry Gin to drink tomorrow as it needs around a month for the infusion of flavour to happen.
- I think of this as a seasonal recipe and make it in August and September when there are plentiful wild blackberries growing near my house. I make a lot of infused gins around that time of year using season produce such as damsons, plums and also late rhubarb. Their sweet, fruitiness makes them ideal as drinks over the Christmas and New Year period.
- However, if you want to make this recipe using bought blackberries – either fresh or frozen – it will still work. It will just be a bit more expensive to make as the main flavouring ingredient is not free! Also, I find that shop-bought blackberries tend to be sweeter than wild blackberries so you won’t get such a tangy sweet-sour flavour.
- I use a basic, “own-brand” gin from the supermarket to make this recipe. It is not worth using anything fancy. You can also use vodka as an alternative.
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How to drink Blackberry Gin
The result of this recipe is a sweet, alcoholic liqueur-style drink. I like it best served on its own in a small glass (or maybe several small glasses!). You can drink it as an aperitif before a meal or, my preference, as a liqueur at the end of a meal. It is also a good to drink as an accompaniment to a dessert course, as alternative to a dessert wine. This is particularly true if the dessert includes blackberries or other complementary flavours such as apple.
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Other home-made fruit gins
If you enjoy this Blackberry Gin, you may also be interested in my other easy recipes for Rhubarb Gin, Plum Gin, Damson Gin and Elderflower Gin.
Blackberry Gin recipe
Blackberry Gin
★★★★★5 from 3 reviews
- Author: Tastebotanical
- Prep Time: 15
- Total Time: 15
- Yield: 200 ml 1x
- Category: Gin
- Cuisine: English
Description
Making your own Blackberry Gin is so easy and the end result is a delicious reminder of blackberry season that you can enjoy all year around!
Ingredients
Scale
- 200 g (7 oz) blackberries
- 100 g (3.5 oz) caster or super-fine sugar
- 200 ml (quarter of a pint) gin
Instructions
- Wash the blackberries thoroughly.
- Mix the blackberries thoroughly with the sugar in a large bowl.
- Spoon the blackberries and sugar into a sterilised jar. Leave for 24 hours to allow the blackberries to macerate in the sugar and release their juices.
- Add the gin to the jar of blackberries and sugar. Shake thoroughly to ensure it is mixed.
- Leave in a cool, dry, dark place for four weeks.
- At the end of that time, the gin is ready to drink! Strain the gin into sterilised bottles through a muslin cloth held in a funnel and it will keep for approximately six months.
Notes
You can sterilise your jar by washing it in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.
Although it only takes 15 minutes preparation time, you will need to allow 24 hours for the blackberries to macerate in the sugar and, once you have added the gin, it will take a further four weeks to allow the flavour to develop.
You can scale this recipe up or down according to how many blackberries you feel like picking. Add half as much weight in sugar as your weight of blackberries. The amount of gin in ml should be equivalent to the weight in grams of your blackberries.
Keywords: blackberries, blackberry, gin, home-made gin, blackberry recipe
