Project Gutenburg never ceases to amaze me with it skill at ensuring that classic materials are made easily accessable by the public. In a time when profits are more important then philanthropy and Pirates are once again the scourge of "The Man", they continue to upload 1,000's of books weekly.
When browsing, I noticed that several of their books have gone audio. Great news for the visually impared, young or busy (and lazy) sorts that can't take the time to whip out the ol' PDA for a few hours to read.
Now you can hear Nietzsche in German as it was intended ... or just in English if you'd rather know what the hell is going on.

Technology and geeks with OCD are an awesome combination!

My Strawberries have become completely drained of colour after about a week to 10 days. According to several sites, this is average.
The had about the consistancy, colour and texture of raw squid.
I did encounter a minor issue of not being able to open the jars due to the contraction of the lids from being sterilzed (screwed on while hot), but a quick trip to the home store to pick up what can best be described as a 'jar wrench', quickly solved that problem.
Passing the fruit through a simple wire filter produced a very deep red fluid and strained out all the seeds and debris. The fruit had lost so much flavour from the process to the liquor, that pressing was not really required (and judging by the actual taste of the fruit, probably not a good idea; these are not good for garnishes any more).
A quick intermediate sample showed that the strawberry tequila is actually better then I remembered, possibly due to the longer maceration time. I'm not sure if it's quite as sweet as I would prefer, but I sent it off to shelf anyways. I'll resample later and see how it's doing!
The rum and vodka mix actually tasted a little acrid and bitter, which is unfortunate as it was the highest rated fruit liqueur recipe on the site I snagged the idea from. I'm thinking of adding a smidge more suger in a week or so and see if that helps any.
My super sweet final contender with the low chances (Vodka, Creme de Cacao), actually tastes tests as one of the best liqueurs. Definately too sweet for most traditional liquor drinkers, but a (soon to be) instant favourite for the cocktail/"girl-drink" fans.
Surprisingly, the solution did produce more then half a litre of liquid for all three variations, one almost up to 4/5 of a litre. I suspect the extra juicy strawberries may be responsible.

In another vaguely related incident, I did manage to track down a single 3L jug that would be appropriate for a larger production. While reflecting on where exactly a little old lady might aquire discount baking supplies a trip to Goodwill sprang to mind. The trip managed to produce a $3/3L glass jar that looks exactly as I pictured it. After having done the 1L for the initial samples, I'm not entirely sure I need to use much more then a single large jug at any given time for a particularly tasty and sucessful experiment. Thankfully I may have finally completed my search for bits with an initial start up expense of $3 (not including the alcohols used already found in my home and the cost of the pasta sauce I consumed to obtain the mason jars).
All and all, a reasonable investment.

Doing some rather extensive comparisons and some rather hasty math, I've broken the contents of most fruit macerated liqueur recipies down to a rough ratio of 2:2:1.

2 parts spirits
2 parts fruit
1 part sugar.

Now the ratio of fruit to sugar depends largely on the strength and type of flavour of the fruit used and of course, the desired final strength of flavour in the final product.
I'm curious to see if the more citrus flavours would benefit from the 3:2:1 ratios of the 'Sours' style of cocktail, but enough speculation and on to business!

To begin with, my jars have been thoroughly cleaned and sterilized with boiling water. Interferrence with the process is not important as there is no fermentation, nor is contamination, as the alcohol will deal with that little bit of nastery. The name of this game is flavour of course and any stray bits of what-have-you may throw off the taste. Thankfully we don't need to be as fastidious as brewers, distillers and canners.
My base for this batch is fresh (although imported) strawberries, each recipe contains 2 cups per jar. Quartered.
The choice is an obvious one. They're readily attainable, easy to prepare, well flavoured in almost all forms and, in the event of catastrophic failure of this experiment, will provide alcohol enriched sundae toppings and colourful garnishes for other cocktails.
As a fringe benefit, the strawberries are said to blanche when they're done steeping. An attribute not shared by most other popular ingredients.

The first is an attempt to remake a rather tasty blend I had in Mexico.
Tequila Fresa or Strawberry Tequila.
I shocked more then one Mexican by asking for straight strawberry tequila with my quesadila con quesos and sampled everything from a light maceration to vivid red strawberry flavouring dumped in a beer glass with the last of a bottle of some cheap Tequila Blanco.
Even if this one fails to meet the grade, I'm sure it will be tasty in spite of myself.

To prepare, 1 cup of strawberries, layered with 1/2 cup of sugar, followed by the second cup of strawberries.
Pour in 1 3/4c of Tequila (mine is a white based on personal preference and convenient presence in my liquor cabinet; the odd measure is to make sure it all fits comfortably).
Gently add another 1/2 cup of sugar and allow it to filter down around the strawberries and settle/syrop somewhat.
Finally top off jar with tequila and seal tightly.

The second is a rum, vodka mix using the same general process as above with approx. 1c rum and 1c vodka in place of tequila.

The third and final, is one I have only some hope for. Using tailings from the liquor cabinet, I have concocted a Chocolate Strawberry variety. 1/2 cup Creme de Cacao (white), 1 1/2 cups Vodka and slightly less then half a cup of sugar (Creme de Cacao is sweet on it's own). Chocolate martinis have always gone over well at my house, so there is some chance of success from this diabetic libation.

Within an hour of the initial packing, there was significant colouration of the clear liquors and about half of the sugar that had initially settled had been absorbed. A very rapid and satisfying form of feedback.

After about a few days of osmosis I have inverted the jars to encourage the sugar to continue to blend and will repeat for around 4 weeks or so, depending on flavour and colour. That's right, you can open the jar without fear of ruining the end product. At the end of all of which the fluid will be strained off ... with the fruit potentially pressed (again based on taste), then rejarred and packed off to age peacefully in the basement somewhere.

Unfortunately for now, all I can do is poke at the jars and wait ...

Well, I've exposed my naked, ill prepared self to the raw power of cold infusion and survived to tell the tale. Despite being int he middle of tearing apart and rebuilding my bathroom, or perhaps because of it, I've decided to begin flavouring my own liqueurs to suit my obscure and fickle tastes. (The bathroom is also what's been taking me away from both photography and posting on the site, btw).
If you're wondering, maceration is apparently the term for the cold infusion process (infusing something, like a tea, is done using a warmed/heated solvent). If nothing else I`ve expanded my vocabulary some.
Inspired largely by Talbot and his relentless quest for the perfect homebrew, and the unusual flavours of beer he has produced (still tastes like beer unfortunately and they don`t suit my palate, although some have been very close to drinkable even by this picky whiskey drinker) and partially from my desire to make something more then your average cocktail, I`ve been madly scouring and consuming all information on the web about how to go about producing these tasty tinctures.
The process itself actually seems reasonably simple. Take an alcohol and some fruit, stick them in a jar and wait anywhere from 10 days to a few months, strain, stick into another jar and let age until you`re ready to consume. Preferably months on that last part, not minutes.
Variations on the number of times each step is performed and what ratios of each ingredient are more abundant then seagulls at McDonald's, leaving lot's of room to play and fiddle.
The process is time intensive perhaps but not exactly rocket science.


My largest problem has been locating decanters that are:

A) large enough, somewhere around 3L or 4L and,
B) water tight when inverted

Why invertable? According to some sites I've seen, fruit can become bruised during mixing and subsequently produce a more bitter flavour. A slow turn/inverting method will gently mix the flavourings, sugar and alcohol without damage. Other sites however, say 'mix vigorously for the first several days'. A bit of a discrepancy to be sure, but experimentation will tell.
Ultimately I was unsuccessful in obtaining such a vessel, dispite trips to hardware, kitchen and U-Brew stores. Apparently with the decline of home canning as a viable alternative to legitimate entertainment, these sorts of things are now special order in most places.
Frustrated, I contented myself with a valid second option. 1L Mason jars (they even say 'Mason' on the side of them!).
While not perfect, they have 3 immediate advantages over they're elusive and larger brethren.
They're easy to find, cheap and allow you to make a veritable pant-load of varieties, very cheaply at the same time, requiring little space and no special equipment.
Cheap is almost an understatement. You can get a dozen of these bastards for $10, including lids.
Even less if you're not terribly particular about having "Mason" or fruit printed on the side.
The particular variety I'm using had the added advantage of being the former home of some rather tasty pasta sauce I once enjoyed.
Slightly more expensive of course, but came with dinner.

On Wednesday, I'll run through the process I've gone through and the recipies I've used on my initial 3 attempted flavours. If anyone has suggestions or comments from their own trials, I'm all ears.