Ascorbic Acid in Liqueur

[Oregon Spirit Distillers]

I am developing a berry based liqueur. The berry is similar to a raspberry. I intend to use ascorbic acid as a color preservative.

I am uncertain how much to use without having a negative flavor impact.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Packaged in dark glass of course.

Thank you,

Brad Irwin

[Denver Distiller]

Pretty tough to go overboard with ascorbic. IMHO, a little goes a long way, if you choose to use it. Mix it in your sugar if you choose to use it in a liqueur, and a little in your catch basin during pressing.

Mind your pH, which has a big effect on color, and keep the berries cold if you can, particularly during crushing. Avoid splashing, if that's not obvious.

You have the best berries in the world out there. Logan and Marionberries are pretty hardy when it comes to oxidation. Boysenberries, you have to keep an eye on....

Happy New Year!

[Ironworks Distillery]

We make several liqueurs here using the local berries; cranberry, blueberry are the main ones - both are selling very well. We also have blackberry and arctic kiwi liqueurs coming ready in the new year. We use no ascorbic acid at all, keeping the sugar to a bare minimum and thus far we have no colour issues whatsoever. We package in clear glass but suggest to our customers that once they open the bottle they keep the liqueurs away from light. Seems to work.

[Denver Distiller]

Thanks for chiming in from NS!

We get along just fine without ascorbic, too.... and also make cranberry liqueur. The key is stock rotation, and being able to identify batches on your bottles.

Cheers!