partiesPromo

iolLogo

John Muir Award

Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge

How To Make Blackberry Vodka Recipe

As our regular readers will know there has been a bit of a boozy theme running through the Badger Bushcraft Blog over the last weeks with recipes that use brandy and whisky, in the this Wild Food blog article we will look at the easiest of fruit flavoured spirit recipes that being blackberry vodka liqueur.

Picking blackberries brings back some treasured and evocative memories of my childhood spending hours trying to fill an old ice cream tub and exploring the fields and footpaths near my parent's home in Weald near Sevenoaks in Kent. Once the tub was full I would return home and my mother would make apple and blackberry pie that we would eat with double cream whilst sitting out in the garden.

Locally to based between Maidstone and Ashford the blackberries are both in season and also in vogue with most of the well known "berrying patches" stripped bare both by the village inhabitants and the foxes and wild birds. Finding a crop big enough to fill a modest Pyrex bowl was somewhat of a mission this weekend and our favourite spot was stripped all but for a few blackberries that were hard to reach.

Fortunately there are plenty of unripe fruits that will mature in the coming days with the predicted fine weather, let's hope the weather forecast for our area of Kent is correct! With this in mind gathering a few more as needed will be a simple task when out walking Inca in the early and somewhat misty mornings.

Blackberry vodka liqueur recipe is the quickest and simplest wild fruit spirits to make all you will need are:-

  • Vodka
  • Blackberries
  • Sugar

blackberry_vodka_1

My recipe is exceptionally simple and based around a 70cl bottle of vodka. First off remove one third of the vodka and store for later use.

Now add to the bottle 100g of caster sugar, I have found that caster sugar dissolves far quicker than granulated sugar, but use what you have to hand.

Now fill the bottle with the washed and dried fresh hedgerow blackberries. As you can see from the picture I need a few handfuls more to fill the bottle. The beauty of using blackberries is that the majority will fit into the neck of a normal spirits bottle and need no other preparation other than washing and drying.

blackberry_vodka_2

Once all the ingredients are in the bottle replace the cap tightly, give it a good shake and place it in the cool dark cupboard occasionally shaking to agitate the fruit and any sugar that has not dissolved. After several weeks give it a little taste and add more sugar to sweeten and add viscosity if required.

blackberry_vodka_3

Once you are pleased with the flavour and sweetness of your blackberry vodka, I tend to leave mine for 10 or so weeks which ties in perfectly with the festive season, strain through muslin or jelly bag and decant the filtered brew back into a clean bottle. The remaining boozy berries make an excellent topping to vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Other fruit based spirit recipes are featured on our Badger Bushcraft Blog and can be found here:-

Damson Brandy Liqueur

Damson Whisky

How To Make Blackberry Brandy Christmas Liqueur Recipe

 

Comments

 
#17 Kathy Hinton 2015-09-03 11:23
Hi, this sounds fantastic! I've got a nice little stash of blackberries in the freezer, so will be making at least one bottle of this later today.

Have you ever tried using gooseberries in this way? My Mum always gives me lots and I don't always have time to bake with them.

Many thanks.
 
 
#16 Amy 2015-09-02 12:11
This is great, I found another good recipe here to make your own blackberry liqueur...http://www.tastecocktails.com/how-to-mak e-your-own-blackberry-liqueur/ There are so many blackberrries about at the moment!
 
 
#15 Lucy white 2015-08-13 21:55
Hi err what do I do if I've put too much sugar in. Can I water it down with more vodka?
 
 
#14 Lisa in NZ 2014-06-03 10:27
Hi. I'm in NZ, and of course, our seasons are reversed to the UK. I picked my wild blackberries in February and followed your great instructions for making Blackberry Vodka then. After 12 weeks of steeping, it was time to taste! The verdict was 'yummy, but not with a very distinctive blackberry flavour'. I wonder if I should have put more blackberries in - too late now - or is it? If I could transfer to another kilner jar, I could replenish with some of the blackberries still in my freezer. What do you think? Best regards.
 
 
#13 Howie Taylor 2013-09-29 21:32
Hi guys,
I have just come across your site looking for blackberry vodka receipe. I've just moved to the New Forest in Hampshire with my wife and have spend today picking blackberries, apples from our orchard and feeding the roaming semi-wild picks of the forest. Getting used to coming into close contact with badgers, deer and the plentiful fungi. Foragers paradise in British woodlands. Love the site and will keep an eye out for anything interesting.
 
 
#12 Phil Brown 2013-09-27 07:01
Hi Gles,

Frozen black berries will be fine!

Have you seen our amazing "How To Make Blackberry Brandy Christmas Liqueur Recipe" http://www.badgerbushcraft.com/wild-food/how-to-make-blackberry-brandy-christmas-liqueur-recipe.htm

Best regards,

Phil and Co.
 
 
#11 Gles 2013-09-24 22:50
hi, can i use frozen ones? I froze mine until I found a recipe worthy of my bleeding digits! never thought of blackberry vodka! oh I do hope you say yes! if not, them I'm off out tomorrow to get the ones that eluded me, I will find you, I will hunt you down, and I will drink you Christmas day!
 
 
#10 Jo 2013-09-08 21:55
Hi Phil

I love this recipe its so simple. I've given it a go & fingers crossed it will turn out ok. I've also blogged about it and linked your blog in http://clingingtoarock.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/alcoholic-berries/

Jo
 
 
#9 Phil Brown 2013-09-05 08:21
Hi Geraint,

You could leave it out or add a little and then add more to taste. I'm not a big fan of too much sugar but a little sweetness makes this a lot nicer.

Best regards,

Phil
 
 
#8 Geraint Jones 2013-09-05 07:14
Hi Phil,

Is the sugar essential or could younleave it out?

Best,

Geraint.
 
 
#7 Phil Brown 2013-09-05 07:02
Hi Kim,

It really is worth the wait as the flavours develop wonderfully!

"Good thing comes to those that wait".

Do let us know how you get on!

Best regards,

Phil & Co.
 
 
#6 kim 2013-09-05 00:54
This sounds awesome and I have to try it. How in the world do you wait the 10 weeks??
 
 
#5 Phil Brown 2013-08-31 20:21
It was used to start the Land Rover! :)
 
 
#4 alex Douglas-Kane 2013-08-31 18:30
did I miss something? What happened to the 1/3rd of vodka you took out at the beginning? :)
 
 
#3 Adam Sumner 2012-02-22 20:06
This is great thanks a lot!
 
 
#2 Phil Brown 2011-09-29 07:17
Hi Karen,

This year the trees and bushes are laden with fruit, I can’t recall a better year for harvesting fruit from the wild!

The best of the blackberries were available about two weeks ago and we have also harvested or will be harvesting very shortly common whitebeam (Sorbus aria), rowan (Sorbus aucuparia), dog rose (Rosa canina), hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), sloe (Prunus spinosa), plums (Prunus domestica ssp. Domestica), bullace (Prunus domestica ssp. Insititia) and I have even found a patch of wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) that I hope to gather before avian and mammalian friends get there!

Enjoy the gifts of Mother Nature during autumn (fall) in Connecticut.

Best regards,

Phil.
 
 
#1 Karen Monger 2011-09-29 03:03
Are your berries just now ripening? Here in the Northeastern US (Connecticut) our ripened in July. Our berry selection is very small currently: autumn olives, spicebush, hawthornes, and some aronia.

Karen

the3foragers.blogspot.com
 

Please register to post comments

Contact Badger Bushcraft

T:01233 756447

M:07768 201177

E:info@badgerbushcraft.com

belmont-logo

Bespoke Bushcraft Courses

bespoke-courses-on

Let us design a programme to your needs, including bushcraft, survival skills, primitive technology, nature education, backwoods cooking or any other related subject.

"Thanks again for an excellent weekend. Uniformly great feedback from everyone. We all learnt loads and had great fun including our children today."

Julian Morgan, 44th Swansea Scout Group
Bushcraft Skills Training Weekend 2009

Bushcraft For Schools

Bushcraft for Schools

Bushcraft and Nature Based Learning events aimed at fulfilling key criteria of the National Curriculum.