Blueberry Liqueur Question

[deo85]

Hi,

We are making a blueberry liqueur and are having a difficult time capturing the full flavor of the blueberry. We know we have to add some citric acid but were wondering if anyone had any advice that may help. Any insight would be appreciated, thanks!

[FrEwing]

I've made Blueberry and have not gotten a good result. The fruit is too weak in flavor to stand up to the spirit. Hope you have some success. Also of all my flavors, it was the least preferred. I love Blueberry jam and muffins and thought this would be just the cat's PJs. Very disappointing.

Dick Garofalo

[Nellie]

I made a blueberry infusion with dried wild blueberries. It came out rather well.

I think using the dried fruit intensified the flavour

[MarkR]

Hi,

We are making a blueberry liqueur and are having a difficult time capturing the full flavor of the blueberry. We know we have to add some citric acid but were wondering if anyone had any advice that may help. Any insight would be appreciated, thanks!

We tried making some plum flavored spirits, and after a failed attempt followed some professional advice and included the pulp of the plums in the distillation pot, we took the pits out as they cause real problems if heated in a still. The final result was quite good, distilled to about 145proof. Not sure if that helps with berry's.

[J'ESP]

First, I would I would approach this a a blending problem. Start with the highest proof rectified spirit available. Use water only to get final proof & blueberries in every possible form. Juice, dried, fresh-frozen, wine, syrup. Try each ingredient separately & blend to get what you want. Distill the berries with water & see what comes thru? All the flavor is there, it's up to you to figure out how to capture it without destroying it.

Big Alcohol would include extract preparations from someone like McCormicks or Virginia Dare. A very small amount is all you'd need to hit the missing flavor notes. Not exactly authentic though.

edit: add citric last (or malic or tartaric) to pH 4-4.2 any more sour might compete/mask the suble blueberry. ABV? 20-40% How sweet is it? Too little ~10% & the alcohol will burn, too much ~30% & it'll be cloying. Like IHOP syrup. To simply ask for help with "Blueberry Liqueur" isn't enough to really be able to help you. If you want formulation suggestions, we need to know your formula.