Strawberry Liqueur

Taking a night class has been torturous on my favorite past time, home brewing. To curb the cravings I dabbled in Liqueurs. All you need is a big enough jar, some cabinet space, and very small amount of time. It fit nicely in between work and class.

For my first liqueur I chose Strawberries. If it turned out well enough I would keep around to help brighten up the darker winter days. My main resource for browsing recipes is Gunther Anderson. However, for strawberries I found an article more in depth from Drunk Man's Guide.

The process is simple. Add Strawberries, 2 tablespoons of table sugar, and 100+ Proof Vodka together. After a week, collect the vodka and add 2 more tablespoons of sugar to the strawberries. Let it sit for another week. During this time the sugar extracts more liquid out of the strawberries. Add this to the vodka you collected earlier and do it again a final time.

Here's my liqueur after a week. In the below picture you can see a lot of color has come off the strawberries.

To collect the vodka I replaced the cap with some cheese cloth and poured it into another jar.
Here's a snap shot after week one. The glass to the left contains a sample with homemade lemonade, tasty stuff!

Week one was the tastiest. Very sweet and strawberry, no burn from the vodka. This changed as I extracted more vodka from the strawberries. By the end of the third week the liqueur was still enjoyable. It was a nice touch to lemonade but no longer something we wanted to drink by itself.

Also, the strawberries had turned grey. Drunk Man suggested keeping them around for toppings on ice cream and confections. I tossed them as they weren't appealing to any sense.

Weeks later, the liqueur had oxidized and is no longer drinkable. This was a bit surprising as no resource had mentioned it being a possibility.

In conclusion, this was a tasty experiment and worth doing. The oxidation was a disappointment. I think this is something I wil do for visitors, when I know I'll have enough people around to help me finish it.