What am I making?

[Gordon_Freeman]

Cheers everyone,

I have been making a delicious alcoholic beverage for the past few years. Whenever I share it with family and friends it garners praise and I constantly get asked questions like “did you brew this yourself?” The problem is, I don’t really know how to answer these questions. I certainly am not brewing, fermenting, or distilling. The best I can say is “I cook it… sort of”.

Could you help me understand the correct terminology for what I am doing?

I start by heating in a large pot a few gallons of different "juices" with my own mixture of “botanicals” for a few hours, stirring occasionally, careful never to boil the mixture. Then I remove the mixture from heat and cool it to about 120, whereupon I mix in spirits and filter any sediment. At this point I usually bottle and refrigerate my concoction, however I have also force carbonated it for a sparkling variant.

What am I making?

 

[porterpounder]

Sounds like it's in the Limoncello family. Or prison booze minus the fermentation.

 

[flars]

Could you be making Schnapps?

 

[unionrdr]

Sounds like what we used to call "Kool-aid".

 

[BlackGoat]

prison wine?

 

[CBXBob]

To me it sounds like a fortified fruit juice cocktail, and depending on your "botanicals" could be illegal in most states

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

^ A sparkling, botanically-infused fruit juice cocktail...

 

[Gordon_Freeman]

Limoncello, interesting!
I wonder if my concoction could be considered a Liqueur/Schnapps.
My "botanicals" are various spices (and they are all legal, lol.)
I don't add any of my own sugar but there is plenty already in the fruit juice.
The only difference I see between what I make and Liqueur (according to the Wikipedia entry) might be one of semantics, i.e. instead of adding flavor to a distilled spirit, I am adding distilled spirits to a flavor (i.e. juice).

ABV usually turns out between 10-20%

 

[geouy0523]

In the old days we used to call that punch.