Cranberries, among other berries, stand out for their unique property. It is able to soften the taste of boiled alcohol and eliminate the unpleasant odor of moonshine. This makes cranberries a welcome guest in a home distillery. Moreover, she retains the color in alcoholic drinks as lovely - ruby, like stars on Kremlin towers. All home distillates on this berry, no matter what they insisted on - vodka, alcohol or moonshine - have the unifying name “klyukovka”. They can be of different strength sweets. That is, according to the classical classification, be liquors, tinctures or liquors. In this article, the focus of our attention will be cranberries on vodka. The recipes for making drinks are very simple, even a beginner winemaker will cope with them. The main thing is that the ingredients are of high quality: the berries are ripe, juicy and not spoiled, and the alcohol is not “singed”.
Cranberries on vodka: a classic recipe
Whatever tincture we do, it all starts with berries. They need to be sorted out, remove rotten and green. Crumpled and even crushed berries are suitable for tincture, because we will crush cranberries anyway. Wash a liter jar thoroughly and wipe dry. Berries (250 grams) are washed and crushed. We shift the mashed berry into a jar. Pour there half a liter of vodka. Mix well and cork with a capron lid. We put the container in a warm and dark place and forget about it for two weeks. And then we filter through cheesecloth, folded in four layers. In principle, this is albeit sour, but ready-to-drink cranberry vodka. How to make a sweeter drink? We make a very small amount of syrup. Literally in a quarter glass of water, dissolve a soup spoon of sugar, boil. Then cool the syrup to room temperature and add to the stick. Tincture should stand in a warm place for another day. Then it should be poured through a cotton filter into bottles. After a month of exposure in the refrigerator or cellar, the taste of the drink will be amazing.
Therapeutic tincture
The recipe involves the use of galangal root. This ginger plant is often used in cooking, as it is very aromatic. But Kalgan root is sold in pharmacies, because it still has a lot of properties that are useful for the body. For tincture, we need to take more berries than in the previous recipe - 400 grams. You can knead them in a slurry. But so that the drink does not turn out muddy, you should pierce each berry with a needle. This process is laborious, but this can be avoided in subsequent multiple filtering. Add to the berries half a teaspoon of ground galangal root. Pour it with a faceted glass (220 ml) of vodka. Mix and close the jar. For two weeks we wait until cranberries are infused with vodka. The recipe then recommends adding syrup, cooked from one hundred grams of sugar in a small amount of water. After this, the drink should stand in a warm place for more than a week. And only then can the distillate be filtered and bottled. The drink clearly feels a pleasant woody smell of galangal, which goes well with the berry aroma.
Quick hook
In this cooking option, the drink is not so useful. After all, the berries will undergo heat treatment, because of which they will lose a number of their healing properties. But after three hours you will have a ready-made tincture of cranberries in vodka in a glass. The “Quick” recipe suggests pouring 300 grams of berries into a colander and scalding them with boiling water. After that, move the cranberries into a jar, sprinkle with sugar (150 g) and ceiling with a wooden pestle. Avoid contact of the juice of these berries with the metal. Pour a bottle (0.7 liters) of vodka. Insist for two hours under the lid. After that, squeeze the pulp through the gauze folded into several layers. Pour warm (45 ° C) boiled water into the filtered liquid and mix. When the drink has cooled, you can drink it. In tightly corked bottles, it is stored in the refrigerator for up to a year.
Ladies tincture
A drink prepared in this way has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the stomach, intestines and heart. This is if you consume it in reasonable doses. We need to get a glass of ripe ruby berries. If the cranberries are hard, they should be spread evenly on a sheet of white paper and put in a cool and dark place for three days. Berries will become transparent and pour juice. Rub the cranberries in a mashed potato with a wooden cracker. Cook thick syrup from a glass of water and the same amount of sugar. Cool it to room temperature and fill it in a jar of cranberries. Next we add a glass of vodka. We close the jar with a plastic lid and put it in a cool and dark place for one month. Sometimes we shake the container so that the mash does not concentrate on the bottom. After a month, filter the contents: first through gauze folded into several layers, and then through a cotton or paper filter.
Male version of tincture
In this drink, a great strength is achieved, since water is excluded from the list of ingredients. We use only berries and vodka. We pour cranberries over boiling water. From this, the berries soften, and some even burst. All the better! Knead them with a wooden crush. Pour cranberries with sugar at the rate of one to one. Mix everything well. Add vodka - the same amount as cranberries and sugar. Close the jar tightly and set it for twelve hours in a warm place. Then the vodka infused with cranberries is poured into a saucepan and heated. You have to be especially careful here. You should not heat the drink above 70 degrees, and even more so boil, because the alcohol will evaporate. We only need sugar crystals to completely dissolve.
Christmas liqueur
This alcoholic drink is less strong than tincture, and more sweet. However, he is insidious! Drinking liquor is easy, like compote. But the effect of it is the same as from a strong tincture. But in a cord all vitamins from cranberries are stored. After all, berries do not undergo heat treatment. The drink comes with a 30 percent alcohol content. Such a cranberry liquor on vodka normalizes blood pressure, has a good effect on the functioning of the stomach. We shove a glass of berries in a jar; we throw ten pieces of refined sugar on top. Pour vodka. She needs to take half a liter. Add more water - about a glass. We seal the jar with a plastic lid, shake it and put it in a warm place for two weeks. This is the minimum time for pouring berries. It is better if cranberries are infused for a month. After that, filter the drink until the turbidity disappears.
Cranberries on vodka: the recipe "Just a glass"
The name speaks for itself: all ingredients are added in equal amounts. But the cooking process is slightly different from the above recipes. First, cook the syrup from water and sugar. We boil it, removing the foam. Then cool the syrup to room temperature and pour it into a jar. Pour vodka. And then spread the crushed cranberries. Under a nylon cover, this mixture should languish for about a month. Next, the drink must undergo a thorough filtration to obtain a transparent tincture of cranberries on vodka. The recipe advises first to strain the mixture through double gauze, squeeze the cake, and then through a denser fabric. Then push cotton wool into the funnel and filter the drink again.
"Nesmeyanovka"
In fact, this is cranberry infused vodka. Her recipe is similar to the previous ones, however, the cooking time is shorter - only two weeks. We don’t use sugar or water here. Just crush half a kilogram of cranberries and pour half a liter of vodka in mashed potatoes. After that, close the jar tightly and set it to infuse at room temperature, but away from sunlight. When the hood is ready, filter it and pour it into bottles. Such a drink cannot be stored for a long time even in the refrigerator. Six months later, he begins to lose useful properties and pleasant taste. Those who like more sweet alcoholic drinks can add sugar syrup to the tincture. But such cranberries on vodka (the recipe also provides for such an option) should stand for another two weeks before the final filtration.