Red rowan liqueur – 4 recipes for vodka, alcohol and cognac

Rowan liquor is one of the most interesting “women’s” drinks, which combines an enchanting bouquet of various tastes: acidity, sweetness, bitterness, astringency. This is a really unusual, very fragrant, moderately noble booze, which is sure to please alcoholic aesthetes and lovers of original taste sensations.

Rowan is one of the few berries that are still available in the wild in the middle lane (fortunately, December is not at all wintery now). We already have an article on rowan tincture on our website. This year, rowanberry (albeit according to a slightly different recipe) has become my “exclusive” – the best drink prepared for the whole season, and in its production I made red rowan liqueur at home – it turned out by itself, from the surplus from the tincture.

In general, I describe the best, as for my taste, method of preparing mountain ash together with a recipe for mountain ash liquor, which gave an excellent result – 2 independent, different, differently tasty drinks. Well, as usual, I bring a couple more classic liquor recipes.

Recipe for rowan liqueur and tincture 2 in 1

In fact, I took up such a laborious method because I wanted to make rowan wine. But, due to circumstances (it got colder, and there was no heating yet), the wine didn’t work out for me, so I had to decide something in a hurry with the raw materials. The result was an excellent rowanberry – almost the best tincture of all that I have ever tasted, and, in addition, a very, very good liquor.

So, I had – a small bucket of mountain ash (10 liters), alcohol and sugar. Collect berries at least after the first frost – then they will become less bitter in taste. Sort the rowan, separate from the brushes, wash and dry. After that, it must be passed through a meat grinder (it is better to choose a large grate). Squeeze the juice through several layers of gauze or a loose cloth. Yes, this is a troublesome business, a lot of fuss, but believe me – it’s worth it! For comparison, I made a bottle of ordinary mountain ash on a whole berry – a drink that does not fit the one that insisted on cake.

After separation, I got about a liter of cake and only 600 ml of juice, mountain ash is a dry berry. Now we prepare drinks separately.

Tincture preparation technology

We fill the jar with cake up to a third, fill it with a 50-degree sorting to the top. We insist in a warm dark place for 2 weeks, shaking daily. After that, drain through gauze, squeeze the rest of the ground berries thoroughly, filter the drink through a cotton filter.

I got about 4 bottles of this tincture. One will be needed for liquor.

For the rest of the drink, we prepare caramel syrup and standard sugar syrup (read how to make them in this article). Add caramel (it took me about 150-200 ml) and sweeten to taste (here it is important not to overdo it, the syrup should be introduced gradually and tasted). After that, the rowanberry should rest in a dark place for another 2 weeks, better – a month, even better – six months. Checked – the aroma noticeably improves with each week of aging.

The tincture turns out to be amazingly fragrant, with a bright tone of almonds, a neat nutty accompaniment and a subtle caramel note. Color – cognac, reddish, very beautiful. And none of the tasters guessed at all what he was drinking – the options were from apricot pit to homemade cognac. But they all smacked their lips 🙂

Technology for making liquor

I added water and sugar to the rowan juice according to the table from the rowan wine recipe (based on strong wine – about 360 ml of water and 360 grams of sugar). I decided to ferment with wild yeast – there were no frosts yet. To be sure, he splashed a glass of fermenting pink grape wine into it, put it under the shutter. The must fermented, but on the third day the fermentation stopped. It was possible, of course, to add CKD there, but this year wine experiments were enough for me, so I went the other way – I put all my mixture in the freezer for a couple of days to eliminate bitterness (as an option – you can boil it).

After that, the fermented juice simply stood in the refrigerator until the tincture was prepared. During this time, a precipitate fell out in it – the liquid must be decanted with a tube. Combine both drinks, mix thoroughly, sweeten if necessary. The liquor turns out to be cloudy, but with further exposure, its cloudiness gradually disappears. You can additionally filter it through a dense filter or lighten it with one of the “wine” methods.

Recipes for homemade rowan liqueurs

After my experiment, I searched for similar recipes on the net and came across some interesting ways to make red ashberry liqueur at home, which should give good results. In any case, I advise you to make rowanberry exclusively on cake, and use the juice in any of the above ways.

Simple rowan vodka liqueur

In this recipe, everything is simple, except for extracting the juice – if you do not have an electric meat grinder, this business will be very difficult, pardon the involuntary pun, to crank. To facilitate the process, the berries can be scalded with boiling water (if you are not going to make a tincture on them). You can also add lemon zest (from a quarter of a lemon, no more) and cinnamon (1-2 cm sticks) to the recipe.

1. We extract juice in any available way.
2. Boil the syrup from all the sugar and water, lemon zest and cinnamon (if you use them) – about 10 minutes, skimming off the foam.
3. We combine the cooled syrup with juice, add vodka, cork, shake and send to a dark, warm place for a month.
4. After settling, the liquid must be filtered and that’s it – it is ready for use.

Homemade liqueur “Rowan Red”

This drink is even easier to prepare than the previous one, since the juice from the berry is drawn out with the help of sugar. In fact, this is a sweet rowan liqueur on vodka, but with some nuances.

The washed and sorted berry needs to be kneaded a little and put in a jar or bottle with a wide neck, put it all in a warm place and shake well several times a day. The liquor will stand for up to 2 weeks, until all the sugar turns into syrup. After this has happened, the liquid must be drained through gauze, and the softened berries should be squeezed out to the best of their ability. It is necessary to measure the volume of the resulting syrup and combine it with vodka or sorting 40% in equal proportions. Move the drink to a dark cool place for 1,5-2 months, then filter and taste.

Rowan liqueur on cognac with cherry leaves

You will find one version of rowan brandy tincture in the article mentioned at the beginning. And according to this recipe, you will get a much lighter, sweeter and more unobtrusive drink. I will disappoint those who are nostalgic for another revelation of the 90s – “Rowan on Cognac”. How much rowan was in that drink, and how much cognac – I can’t say, most likely, neither one nor the other was there at all. But there was more than enough chemistry – the sugary taste stood in the mouth all day after a stormy tasting. Our red rowan liqueur is easy to prepare at home, but it turns out to be much more refined and natural, and its strength is less than 20 °.

To prepare, boil the rowan and cherry leaves in boiling water for a quarter of an hour, with constant stirring. After that, turn off the fire and let the brew cool to a warm state. You need to cool slowly, best of all – under the lid.

Now the resulting broth must be filtered, the berries are slightly squeezed. We introduce alcohol, sugar and citric acid into it (some add a little more pink pepper and star anise). We mix everything until sugar dissolves and set aside in a warm, cool place until ripening – at least 1,5 months. After that, the tincture needs to be filtered, tasted for sugar and, if everything suits you, use it!