How do you consume your blackberries?

[old tree man]

Some of the fancy stuff from £25 per bottle i have seen it for £45, daylight robbery when you can make a gallon of your own for £18.

[ina]

What - do you distill your own gin? Really?

No - I meant the price for cheap gin that you would use to make sloe gin or so.

[old tree man]

Sorry Ina that's my bad grammar, its really cheap spirits i can buy locally
mind you i would love to have a go if it was legal !!!! but you can make rice wine and grain fermented whisky, i don't know how good it is i might have a go

[Green Aura]

ina, even the folks that make the craft gins don't distil the alcohol. They buy spirit in, steam the botanicals it, and then either re-distil it or add sugar as a liqueur. (Guess who's just been on a gin tour ).

Russ, my Dad used to have a recipe called Poor Man's Brandy, which was a wine made from potatoes and I think it had a grain (rice or barley) in it too. Something like this, maybe.

http://www.wine-making-guides.com/potato_wine.html

Not distilled obviously but I seem to remember it was quite potent.

[old tree man]

Thanks for the link it looks a really good recipe, i'm going to try that this week you can never have enough in reserve

[old tree man]

That link is great Maggie i got a great recipe for Saki i'm going to try

[ina]

ina, even the folks that make the craft gins don't distil the alcohol.

Yeah, I know. But having to buy in the spirit at a minimum of £14 per bottle makes this a very expensive hobby.

[old tree man]

That's true Ina but i tend to make the spirit infusions around now for Christmas time as a treat and some prezzies for family, we make hampers for family made up from all home made products that we have done over the year.

[ina]

I'm "lucky" in a way that I have to make/buy hardly any presents. Few family get calendars (easy to post), even fewer friends mostly get books. Most would rather ignore Christmas (and all that present stress) anyway. So if I make that kind of infusion, I basically "have to" drink it all myself.
But tomorrow I'm getting a kilo of blueberries from work... Yeah, they breed blueberries (and other fruit), so at least we get that relatively cheap!

[old tree man]

I must say I struggle I have the urge to drink it all

[ina]

I must say I struggle I have the urge to drink it all

That would be my struggle, too!