Turning Dragon's Blood into a liquer

[wildhair]

I am about to start a batch of DB and I had the idea to turn 1/2 of it to a liquer. My idea was to make 2 batches - my wife likes it "as is", but I wanted more of a sipping liquer. Here's my wild-hair plan for MY batch - let me know your thoughts, pitfalls, alternatives, etc......

I use Vintner's Harvest SN9 yeast which can reach 18% . I start with a high sg and feed the must during fermentation to reach max alcohol.

Then after all the racking and settling - use juice concentrate & simple syrup to backsweeten and add flavor - give it that sweeter & thicker liquer taste & feel.

Top it off with some brandy or vodka to up the ABV %, then let it settle some more and eventually bottle.

 

[cmason1957]

I prefer my sipping liqueurs to be heavy, mouth-filling, mouth-coating drinks with a wonderful punch of flavor to help with that higher alcohol level. I am not sure you can make something with the Dragon's Blood recipe to fill that type of drink. That recipe is intended to be quick drinking at best.

 

[BernardSmith]

If you are looking to make a liqueur I would use the basis for a DB wine and simply add the mixed berries (or mixed berry juice) to some vodka allow to macerate about a month and then add as much sugar as you think this liqueur needs. Don't add sugar until after the maceration has ended: you need to bench test to determine the amount of sugar the liqueur will need.
Liqueurs need the amount of alcohol you get from distillation, rather than from fermentation, and that alcohol is enough to extract the flavors from the fruit. The added sugar will obviously add sweetness but it will also increase the viscosity (mouthfeel). I've been experimenting with liqueurs for a few weeks and find that I want close to the same volume of fruit juice as the spirit to get the right amount of flavor intensity that I like but your preferences may be different. This obviously cuts the proof by half. If I am adding fruit to the vodka I add enough vodka to cover the fruit.

 

[NorCal]

I make Limoncello each year, exactly how @BernardSmith described. I use Everclear to eliminate some of the vodka taste. Six weeks on the lemon peel (yellow only), full strength alcohol (60% abv), filtered and let set for 6 weeks more, water back, sweetened. Makes a wonderful Limoncello. It should be noted that in this batch, I wasn't getting the lemon flavor that I wanted and added the peel of 40 additional lemons to the batch (not shown).

 

[wildhair]

Thanks. So my best result would be from doing an infusion rather than fermentation. Which is OK - it's easier anyway. I recall doing that before with some black raspberries and with cherries.
Thanks for the input, appreciated.