{"id":1568,"date":"2011-05-11T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T13:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/?p=1568"},"modified":"2011-05-11T06:00:05","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T13:00:05","slug":"plum-liqueur-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/11\/plum-liqueur-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"Plum Liqueur Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liqueur is simpler than wine because it’s not fermented, and though some will age well, most are ready to drink quickly. That’s why I wanted to make liqueur from my small plum harvest. Like all fresh fruit liqueurs, this one will need some time for extraction – pulling the sugar, color, and flavor from the fruit into the liquid. In a way, that extraction step is a bit like the primary fermentation step in making wine. Making liqueur starts to look very different from winemaking, however, when you think about alcohol, sugar, clearing, and aging. I’ll have more to say on that later, but first, here’s the recipe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Ingredients<\/b><\/caption>\n
Ingredient<\/th>\nAmount<\/th>\nUS Measure<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Plums<\/td>\n1 kg<\/td>\n2.2 lb<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Table Sugar<\/a><\/td>\n500 g<\/td>\n1.1 lb<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodka (80 proof)<\/td>\n2 L<\/td>\n2 L*<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fruit Protector<\/td>\n22 ml<\/td>\n1.5 Tablespoons<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

* Yes, “2 liters” is the US Measure of vodka. Don’t believe me? Go into any liquor store in the US and try to buy vodka by the quart. Go right now, I’ll still be here when you get back \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

I based this recipe on a recipe for Umeshu<\/a>, Japanese liquor made from unripe plums. It’s different enough from other liqueurs I’ve seen and different enough from Umeshu (made from unripe ume plums – which I understand are more like apricots than plums) to be interesting. It’s also easily scalable. How often do you have exactly<\/em> 1 kg of plums? When I made this recipe, my plums weighed in at 825 g, so I scaled everything by 0.825:<\/p>\n