redcurrant gin

Sorry if this has been asked before, do you need to crush currants or just pop them in with the sugar, and prick like you do for sloes. Also does anyone know the price of gin these days Aldi used to be the cheapest but does price go on units or volume or what ever the government did a few months back. Excuse my ignorance, thanks

Thank you New Shoot. Will freeze them now, rather than crush them tomorrow. Yes i have loads more to pick will try the white rum as well. Can i be a pest and ask you the ratio of sugar to currants. I was going on 300gr fruit 150gr caster sugar 75cl gin. Thanks

Got all my home brew kit out of storage from years back, so glad i dont have to buy from scratch at todays prices. Only need yeasts and so on. Will do the Redcurrant Gin also wine to use them. Price of spirits are £4-£5 dearer in Wales than England

Found the recipe, took a while to find the notes. It's Mary Berry's one, we left out the vanilla extract.
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a535279/merry-berry-liqueur/

Gin should be the same process and you can easily taste and add more sugar if you want sweeter or a splash more gin if it's too sweet. We read up a lot and everything says use cheap alcohol because your changing it's flavour and unless your sense of taste is amazing you won't be able to tell if you used premium or cheap.

We've made a few as gifts since lockdown because we were bored and had extra frozen fruit that didn't need to become jam and the amount of excitement from the people who will be recipients is unerring.

Could you substitute vodka for gin?

Looks at The Two thirsty Gardeners book. Yes.

The spirit you choose as a base for liqueurs and infusions will provide three main functions in the finished drink: 1. It will impart its own flavour. 2. It will extract flavour from the other ingredients. 3. It will make you drunk. The most commonly used base alcohol is vodka, on account of its having a more neutral taste than the other readily available spirits, but for all our recipes you can interchange the suggested spirit with another of your choice – gin, whisky, rum, brandy or even that dodgy-looking bottle of distilled spirit your neighbours brought you back from a skiing trip. The stronger the alcohol content, the better the job it will do at extracting the natural flavours from the other ingredients. Most spirits available to buy fall around the 40% volume mark – if you can get your hands on something stronger, you’ll probably want to dilute the finished liqueur to make it more drinkable.

link to their website.
https://twothirstygardeners.co.uk/

I made gooseberry gin last year and very nice it is too, but have used vodka this year.  My gooseberries are a sweet variety called Xenia and I want more of the pure fruit flavour to come through.  It is infusing at present, so I can't do a comparison just yet.

We sell something called Soiree Brand X at work, which is a brandy flavoured mix of spirits and wine.  It is about half the strength of a full blown spirit, but is £6 for 70cl in England.  I've used it for quince and plums with excellent results.  It tastes the part, but is less potent of course.  I wouldn't put any fruit in that was too juicy, without adding some more spirits to the mix.  I was thinking of trying peach or apricot if I spot some well priced fruit 

I made gooseberry gin last year and very nice it is too, but have used vodka this year.  My gooseberries are a sweet variety called Xenia and I want more of the pure fruit flavour to come through.

We are absolutely making this later this year once I have enough berries in the freezer. And some rum or brandy.