You know I love to make diy homemade liqueurs, I've made several ones so far (going to share them with you next time I make new batches of those) but there is one that I really can't wait to have, and that's because of the gin bramble.
Gin bramble is basically a gin sour with the addition of blackberry liqueur, commonly known in the cocktail world as creme de mure (a French product).
source because I forgot to take a picture of my tree 🤦♂
Since I have a beautiful blackberry tree at home I decided to make it myself.
Making homemade liqueurs isn't exactly a joke. Some are very easy and immediate. Others require more elaborate processes. Especially when trying to recreate the taste of products commonly found on the market.
This is a liqueur that I have never tried yet and I'm not that expert, so I relied on YouTube and found a video tutorial by The Educated Barfly, a point of reference for cocktail making on YouTube.
I will explain the process in a very simple way- For details I refer you to the video. What surprised me about this recipe is that it is red wine based! All the liqueurs I have made so far were made by infusing the product directly into alcohol or base spirit (vodka, gin or rum) and subsequently adding sugar. So having a wine-based liqueur is new to me and made me very curious about the end result.
I picked a kilogram of blackberries from my tree and immersed them in 750 ml of medium bodied red wine (in my case Merlot).
I pressed the blackberries with a ladle (and with my hands 🤭) and let everything rest in a cool place with a lid for 48 hours, stirring occasionally.
This causes the red wine to oxidize and the blackberries to macerate, so you will notice a strong fermented fruit odor developing, which is completely normal.
After two days I passed the liquid into a pan, filtering it with food cloth to retain the solid. I heated the liquid stopping before boiling and added 300 g of sugar. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved and remove from the heat.
I let it cool and added 250ml of gin. In the video it says to pour 175 ml. I did it but, upon tasting, I found it a bit weak and I decided to increase the quantity of gin to reach an alcohol content closer to what liqueurs on the market usually have.
After mixing well, I poured the liqueur into a bottle and that was it.
Wine-based products should usually be stored in the fridge once opened, to slow down the oxidation process which compromises the aroma of the wine. This is not the case, as our wine has already been oxidized in the beginning by macerating the blackberries and that is what we want. Therefore this liqueur is ready immediately and can be stored at room temperature, as long as it's kept in a cool and sheltered place.
how Italians hold a glass
As I said, I don't know the original of crème de mure flavor so I don't know how close this recipe is to the original. But I trust The Educated Barfly 👍🏻
It certainly leaves me curious to try the variant with blackberries infused directly in alcohol and taste the difference 😊
The gin bramble
The recipe for gin bramble is very simple, after all it is a simple gin sour with the addition of creme de mure.
In a shaker tin add:
1,5 oz (45 ml) Gin
0,75 oz (22 ml) fresh lemon juice
0,33 oz (10 ml) simple syrup
Add ice and shake for about ten seconds.
Strain into a glass with crushed ice inside.
Pour 0.5 oz (15 ml) of crème de mure on top.
Garnish with some blackberries and a lemon peel or slice.
What can I say? I found it simply perfect. I generally find all sours very good and in this case adding a simple ingredient often takes the sour to the next level, enriching and completing the cocktail. Some may find sour cocktails a little too... sour 😅 the solution is to add a liqueur (especially fruity) which brings a series of other aromas and a sugary part which counterbalances the lemon and makes the cocktail easier to drink ... Even too much! Perfect for summer 👍🏻
Thanks for your attention. Let me know if you ever tried some cocktail like this and what you think about it 😁