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Raspberry gin recipe

Photo of autumn rasberry fruiting - perfect for liqueurs

Autumn raspberries are a late fruiting variety with great flavour


This recipe can also be used for blackberry gin and vodka

Our autumn fruiting raspberries are late, but they’re finally here. Just a few of them. Succulent and tempting and the promise of more to follow. If you grow autumn fruiting raspberries you might like to have a go at making this delicious raspberry gin. The liqueur is delicate yet has a fresh raspberry bite that makes a change from the raunchiness of sloe gin. (This is a fresh review. I nipped out to the barn this evening to try some of our July 2006 vintage and it was superb. Fragrant and tasty). At it’s best, raspberry gin totally overshadows sloe gin. We had a tasting of a wide selection of our fruit gin at a dinner party, a few months ago. The clear winner was the raspberry gin.

You can make raspberry vodka using the same method detailed below for gin with similar ingredients, just a little more sugar. We’ve tried both and think that the gin wins hands down. Both are quite drinkable in three months so would be ready for Christmas. I love a dash of this in a fresh fruit salad.We had to buy the raspberries for our gin this summer but the end result will be well worth the outlay. In July we feasted off our early raspberries. We guzzled large bowls of them, sprinkled with castor sugar and had heated discussions as to how to use the rest of the fruit. Unfortunately, I had not secured the netting tightly enough and when I went out with my trug a couple of days later the canes were bare. Raspberries are my favourite fruit and raspberry gin is the biz. It always puts people in the best of moods. People have said the most complimentary things about us after a glass or three of our raspberry gin.


Tips and tricks for making fruit infused gin/vodka:

  • If you are using the original gin bottles and you find that you don’t have quite enough gin to fill each one to the neck, don’t worry. We often do the final fill up the next day when we have got more gin.
  • Make notes on a label of your fruit/gin/sugar ratio and stick it onto the bottle(s) so that you have a record, if you make a particularly good batch. The best labels are made from decorator’s masking tape as these can be peeled off and passed from bottle to bottle. We also note our responses at the grog matures. Yucky after sixth months can be to die for in a year (you will probably not remember without notes). Notes seem boring when you are making the grog. But they are so worthwhile when you start again the next year. It won’t be long before you will get a feel of what works well for your taste (and the notes will come into their own).
  • Make more than you need the first year. So you can compare different vintages. This liqueur does improve over time.
  • Some people drain the grog through muslin after a couple of months, to clarify the liqueur and bottle. We don’t bother as one old soak tipped that, once the gin is drunk, you can pour medium sherry on the fruit and start all over again! The latter is devilish and drinkable within three months.
  • Keep your fruit gin away from the light as this will maintain the colour. Unless the bottle is dark green or brown. If you are stuck with clear bottles, wrap them in brown paper to keep out the light.
  • Every couple of months take a tiny sip. At this time a add sugar if it tastes too sharp.
  • If you want to make your own labels check out the post for 26 October 2006 to see how we make our labels.

 

Raspberry gin recipe
Recipe Type: drinks
Author: Fiona Nevile
Prep time: 15 mins
Total time: 15 mins
Ingredients
  • Recipe for raspberry gin:
  • 300g of raspberries
  • 330g of white granulated sugar
  • 1.5 litres (or more) of medium quality gin
  • Steriiised 2 litre Le Parfait jar or 2 or 3 (70 cl) washed and sterilised gin bottles
Instructions
  1. Wash raspberries and discard any bruised fruit. Place rasberries in either a large 2 litre Kilner/Le Parfait jar or divide the raspberries between 2 or 3 (70 cl) saved gin bottles.
  2. Using a funnel, add the sugar (divide the amounts if using several bottles) and top up with gin to the rim.
  3. Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved and then store in a cool, dark place until you can resist it no longer (leave for at least three months, we usually let it mature for a year).
  4. If you are making blackberry gin remove the fruit after 3 months (pour through muslin) to stop the woody taste developing and mature for at least a year.

  Leave a reply

246 Comments

  1. Fiona Nevile

    Hi Sam,

    I don’t think that it would make any difference at all, frozen or unfrozen.

  2. hi,
    if i was to use frozen raspberries, do i need to defrost them first?

  3. Fiona Nevile

    Hi Pat,

    Yes it is fine to use frozen raspberries. Put the juice in as well. I’d love to hear how you get on, when the time comes.

  4. Hi

    Just been making sloe gin for the first time, yes an amateur, and spotted this recipe for Raspberry Gin/Vodka. I want to know if okay to use frozen raspberries ( picked loads in the summer) I know its okay for sloes and assume the same for other fruit.
    Thanks.

  5. Fiona Nevile

    Yes, Roland, you can use plums. If they are sweet plums cut down on the sugar if the are sour plums use the same amount of sugar as in the recipe above.

    I’d love to hear how it works out.

  6. Can you use plums instead of raspberry

  7. Fiona Nevile

    Hi Roland,

    In wine making you need to leave just a small space between the wine and the stopper at the top of the demi john. I would imagine that it would be the same for fruit gin. We use the gin bottles and keep a few spares in the barn. The glass in wine bottles tends to be thicker and these would be fine too, especially the ones with the screw top lids.

  8. Roland

    I have started to make raspberry gin ,Iam using a demi john but it is only half full is this ok or do I need to use a smaller jar and fill to the top.

  9. Fiona Nevile

    Thanks for your post Steve. We’re very envious of your large stoneware jar, we havn’t got anything as good at Cottage Smallholder. Looking forward to hearing your verdict when you sample the blackberry vodka. It sounds delicious!

  10. tractorfactorsteve

    i’m trying blackberry vodka this year. no recipe, just 3/4 filled a 4pt wide necked stoneware jar with blackberries and filled with a bottle of vodka and about 4ozs of white sugar. it remains to be sampled…

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