Pine Shoot Liqueur
Today, using the pine syrup we prepared previously, we will create a delicious and healthy pine liqueur!
What will you need? Firstly, our container with pine shoots soaked in sugar. Secondly - spirit. Thirdly - a bit of good, soft water (for diluting the spirit). In addition to these three ingredients, we also need a bottle for the syrup, which we will pour from the shoots. Let's get started!
For every kilogram of sugar used for the syrup, we now need about 1 liter of 60% alcohol, which we will obtain by diluting the purest 96% spirit with water. The water should have as low mineral content as possible - the upper limit is 200mg/l, but the less, the better. Water with higher mineral content can cause the alcohol to become cloudy - sediment precipitates, causing the liquid to become opaque. The mineral content of water is always indicated on the label.
To obtain 1 liter of 60% alcohol, let's use the calculations discussed at this link. It turns out that we need 625ml of 96% spirit and 375ml of water. In reality, we won't get a full liter, but a few milliliters less - due to a phenomenon called contraction. Remember to use the purest, at least 96% spirit - in this liqueur, using lower quality spirit will strongly affect the taste. You can obtain 96% spirit on any rectification column from our offer.
Pour the sugar syrup into a separate bottle. Every kilogram of sugar gives us 0.6 liters of liquid, but because some will remain on the shoots, we will pour about 0.5 liters from each kilogram.
Part of this syrup is worth transferring to a smaller bottle and using it as a cough syrup (yes - homemade Pini!), and the rest is put in the fridge. After a few hours, pollen will collect on the top of the bottle; there is no need to remove it.
Pour the remaining shoots in the container with alcohol - again, for every kilogram of sugar, which is 0.5 liters of poured syrup, pour 1 liter of 60% alcohol over the shoots. The alcohol doesn't have to cover everything; we will mix it with the container. A wide pot or plastic fermenter or barrel comes in handy here.
After 3 days, pour off the alcohol from the shoots (a strainer will be useful):
Combine the obtained liquid with our syrup:
And that's it! Bottle it up!
After a few days, sediment from pollen will accumulate at the bottom of the bottle. You can pour off the liqueur, but you will ensure its full properties by leaving it and shaking the bottle before serving our specialty :)