Give the gift of homemade booze: 23 easy recipes for DIY liqueur (2024)

FAQs

What is the easiest home made alcohol to make? ›

Hard Apple Cider is definitely the easiest way to go. There is a recipe on HomeBrewTalk that is very popular as it's extremely easy to make. Essentially you get red wine yeast and mix it with 5 Gallons of store bought apple juice and 2 pounds of dextrose. You need a carboy and an airlock, but that's it.

Bottling and Packaging Your Homemade Beverage Goodies

Once you make a big batch of infused alcohol, it's time to bottle it for gifts. One way to get bottles is to save any bottles you use throughout the year and re-use them for gifts. Just be sure to clean them well, even boil them to be sure you get any reside out.

In English, moonshine is also known as mountain dew, choop, hooch (abbreviation of hoochinoo, name of a specific liquor, from Tlingit), homebrew, mulekick, shine, sneaky pete, white dog, white lightning, white/corn liquor, white/corn whiskey, pass around, firewater, and bootleg.

While individuals of legal drinking age may produce wine or beer at home for personal or family use, Federal law strictly prohibits individuals from producing distilled spirits at home (see 26 United States Code (U.S.C.) 5042(a)(2) and 5053(e)).

Gin & Tonic or Vodka & Soda: For many, this is a good starter drink. Order a well spirit (whiskey, rum, gin, vodka, etc) with club soda or tonic water. The formula is basically liquor and a fizzy drink.

Most homemade liqueurs start with vodka. This spirit is an ideal base for liqueurs because it's colorless and flavorless, making it the perfect blank canvas. Start by creating some of the most popular liqueur flavors, like coffee, amaretto, and Irish cream — they all rely on vodka for their kick.

Ethanol and water are the main components of most alcoholic beverages, although in some very sweet liqueurs the sugar content can be higher than the ethanol content. Ethanol (CAS Reg. No. 64–17–5) is present in alcoholic beverages as a consequence of the fermentation of carbohydrates with yeast.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) prohibits sending alcoholic beverages through the mail, but you can ship alcohol via couriers, such as FedEx or UPS if you're a licensed alcohol shipper.

How do you wrap alcohol as a gift? ›

Tape the edge of the wrapping paper to the bottle and carefully roll the bottle until it's fully covered. Secure the other end with a piece of tape (for a clean finish, pleat the end and use double-sided tape). Fold the paper at the bottom towards the center of the bottle and secure with tape.

Rum, bourbon, and brandy often compliment the flavor of spices and are popular spirits for flavor infusing. (Think spiced rum.) Don't feel limited to just hard liquor either. You can also infuse beverages like wine, sake, or soju with spices and herbs, although they may require longer infusion times.

Cyser: less common but still easy

2 pounds of honey, a gallon of apple juice, and a wine yeast are all you need to make a good cider — though a yeast nutrient can also be added to improve fermentation. If a yeast nutrient is used, spread it throughout the fermentation instead of adding it all in at the start.

Bottle your liqueurs in clean, decorative bottles and label with a date. The liqueurs will have the best flavor after a few months of sitting on the shelf (aging). They will begin to lose their bright color and some flavor after one year but they will not “go bad” because the alcohol is the preservative.

Moonshine: Homemade alcohol. Hooch: Another term for moonshine. Firewater. Vino: Wine.

Hard cider, mead, or even fruit wine, are all very easy to do.

Methanol is the primary alcohol that is the simplest aliphatic alcohol, comprising a methyl and an alcohol group.

Methanol, also known as Methyl Alcohol, is the simplest alcohol, with the formula CH 3 OH where a Methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group.

Making alcohol is easy. Take a sugary liquid, add sugar-eating yeast, and wait. Sanitation is the most important part of any fermentation process. You want to make sure everything that touches your liquid pre- and post-ferment has been fully sterilized with a no-rinse sanitizer.