Homebrew Underground

Final Step – Blending and Bottling

Shown below is a shot of the blending ingredients (left to right starting in the back): 1 jar (2 batches) of clarified infused spirits, standard caramel syrup, standard sugar syrup, Smirnoff No. 57 100 Proof Vodka, vanilla extract and measuring cup.

Boil down the standard sugar syrup to 90% of its original voume to thicken it. Start with 10 oz, then boil for about 5 minutes then check it.

Pour the boiled down sugar syrup into a measuring cup You should have 9 oz when done. Then add 5 oz of caramel syrup. Allow to cool completely. Tip: pour the mixture into a Mason jar and put it in a sink or basin filled with ice water. This will cool it down within about 20 minutes.

Allow the mixture of syrups to completely cool down. This will be your blending stock. I use Smirnoff No. 57 for blending because it is very smooth.

Finally, blend it with the infused spirits and the proportionate amount of Smirnoff No. 57 100 proof Vodka according to the recipe, then add the vanilla extract. In the shot below the finished liqueur was made with 2 batches of the recipe. In other words, I started with 10 cups of vodka (in two Mason jars). I combined the two batches into one jar after the second infusion.

Shown below is a shot of the finished, bottled Tropical Coffee Liqueur.