Homebrew Me

Okay, I realize that some (or perhaps all) of you will read that a couple times and think milk liquor sounds disgusting.  It does not have to be!  The recipe (found on the website  The Kitchn ) looked interesting so I thought I would attempt to make this. When finished the liquor has a sweet taste to it and has an almost dandelion yellow hue to it.  The short version of this recipe is as follows: 2 cups of vodka 2 cups of brown sugar 2 cups of 2% milk (whatever your type of milk is most likely fine, I had this in my fridge) 0.5 lemon (peel included) Mix all of the ingredients into a container and let sit in a cool and dark place, shaking it once a day for ten days.  After a few days the milk will start to curdle and separate from the mixture with the help of the citrus.  After ten days the product will be ready for straining. I used cheese cloth this time around (when I made the banana rum earlier this year I found that coffee filters are a huge ...

I am not sure where all of you live but in Wisconsin the Earth is turning and fall is on its way, and that means it is apple pie season!  If you have never had apple pie before then you have been missing out.  Here is the recipe that I use when I make this wonderful drink. This recipe will yield approximately 20-22 liters of apple pie (depending on evaporation and all that good physics stuff).  You can split this up into however many servings you desire. Required materials: Four gallons of apple cider (the real stuff, which requires refrigeration) Two gallons of apple juice Three and a half liters of 190 proof alcohol (Everclear was great when they made 190) Eight cups of brown sugar Twelve cinnamon sticks Apples (Type/quantity of your choosing) Honey Step 1: Combine the apple cider, apple juice, brown sugar and heat until mixture boils on medium heat (If you are like me and own extremely small pots you may have to do this in batches)...

Welcome back to another wonderful Thursday!  This week I attempt to make banana rum for science (Okay...because I wanted to).  I found this recipe on  Serious Eats , recipe was straightforward and easy to perform.  I only strayed from the recipe in the initial infusion of banana flavor with one extra day of infusing  (I blame school for that one!)  I will let you click the link for the recipe seeing as it is their invention and I just want more people to see it. Workstation Now to the reflections section!  I found the recipe easy to prepare and make, I substituted regular white sugar into the recipe.  I did however have some minor issues with the straining section of the process.  The bananas were partially dissolved in the rum so I strained it many many times.  I substituted coffee filters for the cheese cloth as I already had some.  I ended up using three large plastic cups, two funnels, and a mesh strainer to remove all ...

I was looking at my alcohol selection last month and I realized it would be much cheaper if I could make my own liquor like coffee liquor and such.  I decided to give it a go and with a little trip to the local grocery store I had all of the ingredients I required.  The recipe advised that I let the finished product sit for a month but I feel a month of infusing was long enough.  For my first attempt I am satisfied, next time however I am going to tweak the recipe a bit and see if I can balance the flavors more.   Here is the recipe if anyone is interested in a little experiment. 2 cups water 4 cups sugar 1/4 cup instant coffee 2 cups of vodka 1 vanilla bean Coffee filters (to strain the grounds out of the final product) Boil the water and sugar, when boiling add the coffee and remove from heat.  When cooled add the vodka and the vanilla bean store this in a half-gallon bottle.  Age until you are satisfied with the flavor.  I had an empty...