Homemade Blackberry Gin

Around November I spotted a recipe in the Waitrose food magazine for Blackberry gin and thought I would give it a go to hand out as Christmas presents. I tried a friends homemade damson vodka the previous year which was delicious and sounded really simple.

I purchased a huge Kilner jar which I sterilised by heating in the oven and filled with layers of 900g blackberries and 500g caster sugar popping a vanilla pod split lengthways in the middle. I then topped up with 70cl Gordon's gin, as it is going to be flavoured by the fruit a cheapish london dry gin is ideal something like Hendricks would be wasted in this mix. Once sealed I gave it a shake to help dissolve the sugar and popped it in the fridge. For the first week I gave it a gentle shake everyday and just once a week thereafter. It fermented for six weeks but can be up to eight.

After six weeks I strained the liquid through a sieve and decanted into bottles - I got approximately 1200ml of gin so I made little tags and gave them out as presents which included serving suggestions such as neat with ice, lots of lime and fever tonic or topped up with prosecco. It was delicious and seemed to be well liked enough for me to do it again next year.