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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.

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246 Comments

  1. Hope you are well.
    This is my favourite recipe. Just made a batch for gifts for this Christmas. I’ll also pour a bottle of sherry on top of the raspberries And leave for six months

  2. Ian Pope

    This is my fourth year of making raspberry gin following this recipe, need I say more. Our family and friends all look forward to receiving their Xmas treats. We grow more raspberries than we can eat so it’s a good way of using them up. I use them from frozen. My wife is partial to the left over alcoholic raspberries with ice cream.

  3. I’ve just found a bottle of raspberry vodka I made last September, 2018, and it’s delicious! As my Autumn raspberries are now mostly in the freezer I shall pick the remaining ones and top them up with some store-bought fruit. Roll on next Autumn!

    • Fiona Nevile

      Once I found a ten year old bottle of lemon gin lurking in the larder. Served it to my best advertising client as an after dinner treat. Woke up the next morning to find him folded into a kitchen chair claiming that he would never, ever drink again. Met him two days later for a beer!

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