Recipes for liquors


According to dictionary.com, Liquor is defined as:

An alcoholic beverage made by distillation rather than by fermentation.

Actually, since fermentation is step one of the process, I find that definition a bit misleading. Here are several recipes for the most common types of liquor.

Vodka


Contrary to popular opinion most vodka is not made from potatos. The term "vodka" describes any spirit which is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. Vodka can be made from any number of ingredients, and the label on most commercial vodka states that it is made with "100% grain-neutral spirits" Common "base" ingredients are wheat, barley, rye, corn, or even potatoes.
  1. Wash and rinse the potatoes, then grate them
  2. Boil the potatoes in 3 quarts of water for 15 minutes
  3. Remove any foam that collects on the top Continue boiling until no more foam collects
  4. Strain the water into the fermenting vessel with the sugar and raisins
  5. Cool to room temperature and add the yeast
  6. Juice the fruit, and add it as well. Mix very well, and allow to ferment for a week stirring or shaking daily

Distill in the method allowed by law where you live. (Most places do not allow home distillation!) However the result of distillation is very good potato vodka. If you do not distill, then after fermentation siphon the liquid into a secondary airtight container (leaving the sediment), and let sit for a few months. The result of this is potato wine.

Rum

Rum is made from molasses, which is made from raw cane sugar. You could make rum as well by boiling some raw sugar cane and fermenting the whole mix, but you would need quite a bit of sugar cane.

  1. Boil the water and dissolve the molasses and sugar.
  2. Cool to room temperature
  3. Add yeast and optionally, the yeast nutrient
  4. Mix well and allow to ferment for 2 weeks
  5. Distill as allowed by law

If you want dark rum carmelize 1 cup molasses on the stove stirring continuously until it is very very dark (burnt) and vaguely liquid. Dissolve this mixture in one cup of water, and add this to the rum produced above.(approximately 50ml per 750ml)

Whiskey


  • 20 lbs corn
  • 5 gallons of water
  • 1 Tablespoon yeast

  1. Grind all the corn to a powder
  2. Add to 5 gallons of water and bring to ~154F mixing very well
  3. Steep at this temperature for at least 45 minutes
  4. Let cool to room temperature, and add yeast
  5. Mix well, and place in fermenting vessel for at least a week
  6. Distill as you like, but remember it is illegal in most of the world to do this at home!

Bourbon


Bourbon must be straight whiskey with corn comprising between 51% and 79% of the mash grains (the remander usually being barley and rye), and must be made in the U.S. to be labeled Bourbon in the United States. In other words, Bourbon is exactly the same as whiskey, instead use corn for 51% of the mash and barley and rye as secondary ingredients. Very little to no yeast is used. Instead save some of the mash from the previous batch to kickstart it. The naturally occuring yeast typically does the trick.

  1. Grind all the grain to a powder
  2. Add to 5 gallons of water and bring to ~154F mixing very well
  3. Steep at this temperature for at least 45 minutes
  4. Let cool to room temperature
  5. Mix well, and place in fermenting vessel for at least two weeks
  6. Distill as permitted by law
  7. Bourbon is typically filtered through charcoal and aged in white charred oak barrels for two years or more


These recipes are mostly my own creation. I built upon many I found either on the Internet, or from books found at your local library.

Liq"uor (?), n. [OE. licour, licur, OF. licur, F. liqueur, fr. L. liquor, fr. liquere to be liquid. See Liquid, and cf. Liqueur.]

1.

Any liquid substance, as water, milk, blood, sap, juice, or the like.

2.

Specifically, alcoholic or spirituous fluid, either distilled or fermented, as brandy, wine, whisky, beer, etc.

3. Pharm.

A solution of a medicinal substance in water; -- distinguished from tincture and aqua.

⇒ The U. S. Pharmacopoeia includes, in this class of preparations, all aqueous solutions without sugar, in which the substance acted on is wholly soluble in water, excluding those in which the dissolved matter is gaseous or very volatile, as in the aquae or waters.

U. S. Disp.

Labarraque's liquor Old Chem., a solution of an alkaline hypochlorite, as sodium hypochlorite, used in bleaching and as a disinfectant. -- Liquor of flints, ∨ Liquor silicum Old Chem., soluble glass; -- so called because formerly made from powdered flints. See Soluble glass, under Glass. -- Liquor of Libavius. Old Chem. See Fuming liquor of Libavius, under Fuming. -- Liquor sanguinis (), Physiol., the blood plasma. -- Liquor thief, a tube for taking samples of liquor from a cask through the bung hole. -- To be in liquor, to be intoxicated.

 

© Webster 1913.


Liq"uor, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Liquored (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Liquoring.]

1.

To supply with liquor.

[R.]

2.

To grease.

[Obs.]

Bacon.

Liquor fishermen's boots. Shak.

<-- liquored up. intoxicated by liquor -->

 

© Webster 1913.

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