Not exactly beer-related, but

Still within the realm of stuff you fine folks can help with, hopefully.

I'm an amateur liqueur-maker, and am gearing up to make another batch. The problem is, this batch is going to be quite a bit larger and the glass jars I use to contain the ingredients while they steep and age are not going to be able to hold the amount I plan to make. Normally I'd just buy more jars, but due to some unforseen expenses, I can barely afford the ingredients to make the liqueurs as is.

Long story short, I wonder if any of ya'll can tell me if there would be any issue with using leftover plastic gallon jugs in my latest attempt. The're identical to milk jugs, but have only held distilled water. What I need to know is:

How permeable are they, in terms of oxygen? O2 is the main enemy of liqueur, so the less that gets through the better.

What is the risk of the plastic causing off-flavors in the finished product? Nothing will be fermenting, but there will be quite a bit of hi-test alcohol present the entire way through. There's no risk of the plastic degrading in any way and contaminating the product, is there?

Of course, I realize that this is a bit out of the scope of the forum, but any help is greatly appreciated. If this thread breaks any rules or needs to be moved, I completely understand and apologize in advance.

Thanks!!!

 

I think you are in the wrong forum. Try googling moonshine, bootlegging or distilling alcohol and you should find tons of information or at least someone from the ATF willing to help out. Some amateur liquor makers go on to become amateur federal inmates. This normally doesn't happen with home brewing.

 

This is your butt if you homebrew: o

This is your butt if you distill: O

Any questions?

 

I appreciate the concern, but I'm not distilling. Liqueur making is completely different from liquor making. Liqueur-making involves steeping various fruits and/or herbs in distilled spirits (usually grain alcohol, vodka, or brandy) along with a sweetener such as sugar or honey and then straining, filtering, and aging it. In other words, I'm making flavored booze from pre-distilled booze.

So while I'm obviously not into quite the same thing as ya'll are, I'm hoping to gain at least some insight into what I'm wondering about. Thanks.

 

Are you making liqueurs or distilling? Liqueurs could be legal.

 

Forget it. Sorry I can't really help.

 

Ohhh Ok. So the little bottle of flavors and extract I see at my LHBS that you add to everclear and what not is how someone would make liqueurs at home? I always wondered what they were for.

 

I would think any bottle with the little '2 hdpe' logo would be fine.

 

Yeah, you can do it like that, but it's kinda like cheating. There are some types of liqueurs that require extracts, but they're not really...authentic, for lack of a better word. Classically, liqueurs (and cordials) were made by the method I just described.

As would I, but I've never tried it and right now I don't have the fund to fix a major botch, so I figured I'd ask and see what the general concensus was. Gracias.

 

Maybe buy some apple juice/cider and use the glass jug. I have a few to give you if you want to stop over

Liquors do come in plastic bottles though.

 

If I were anywhere near Michigan, I'd be happy to! That's not a bad idea though, thanks.

Yeah, they do come in plastic bottles sometimes, but the stuff you buy from the liquor store and the type you make at home are somewhat different animals. Commercially produced liqueurs are produced using slightly different processes, and sometimes contain stabilizers that homemade varieties don't.

 

This seems like a cool idea. I have never thought about it before. Seems you could get quite creative. What types of liqueurs have you made?

 

Ischiavo - It's not as involved as brewing, but I like it. I love beer, but I simply don't drink it often enough to justify spending the money on the necessary equipment to brew my own. (yet)

With liqueur-making, all I need are the ingredients themselves, a vessel suitable for steeping/aging the concoction, and some relatively low-tech filtering equipment - coffee filters and cheesecloth. Oh and bottles, of course.

There are hundreds of different recipes, but so far I've made lime, mango, and apple liqueurs. They've all turned out pretty well, though the lime needed quite a bit of tweaking in order to get it so that it was drinkable. All of the recipes I've used I got from this site. I'd be happy to answer any question I'm able to, but if you're interested, definitely check out the site as well. The guy knows his stuff and helped me quite a bit when I was first starting out.

 

This reminded me I've been meaning to make a bottle of limoncello (lemon zest, vodka, and simple syrup).

 

Thanks for the link. I really don't need more hobbies but this is very interesting.

 

The water jugs are somewhat O2 permeable, so they might be ok for short periods, but not long term aging. I'm really not sure about them leaching stuff, but with the solvent character of the alcohol it's a valid concern. The apple juice idea is a good one, I buy gal glass jugs full of juice cheaper than the LHBS sells empty ones for. Try checking craigslist for empty glass jugs or wine bottles, I see them given away for free periodically around here. You might also get lucky at a recycling center.

My brewing partner and I have dabbled with a few liqueurs. The bacon vodka is great for bloody marys, and we've made a few versions of limoncello using lemons from our own trees. The best one we've made IMO is a mesquite pod whiskey.

 

If there are any bars near you, consider approaching them and ask that they save a few glass bottles plus their tops, which you'd pick up at their convenience. Too much risk w/plastic given the low cost glass options and solvent effects of concentrated ethanol.

 

I'm making Jalepeno vodka now for Bloody marys. Never heard of bacon vodka.