See all those fun infused sprits they have in the liquor stores? They mostly use chemicals and LSD to flavour their hooch. Personally I like the way they taste, but I thought I'd give it a try on my own.

I made a kahlua a few years back, and tried to reduce the recipe to just a 355 ml (12 oz) bottle, the outcome was a sugary liquor headache that I had never experienced before, or would want to ever again. Lesson learned: Scale down recipes properly. 'Eyeballing it' doesn't work for such a small batch.

Anyways, after countless other variations of this and other concoctions I present, Cranberry Infused Vodka.

What you need:
A mess of Cranberries
1.14 Litres (38.5 oz) of Vodka
A big jug (mine was 5 litres [169 oz])
Sanitizer
Siphon hose
Gelatine Finings
Several smaller jugs or bottles to bottle it into
Something to mash cranberries with
A cloth
White Sugar
Cheesecloth
Colander
A large container

Step 1: Gather

Acquire vodka, large jug, sanitizer, and cranberries
I managed to find this sack of crans at work. I work an office job and I showed up one day and there was a crate of these little guys just sitting there (and no, my job is so far removed from fruit, it's not even funny). So either look under your desk at work, wish, or raid a farmers field for a bunch, however you can get them, you'll need about 5 cups (5.2 cups).

The vodka I grabbed is some cheapie from the store. This tasty bevy is going to be served with other ingredients, so there's no reason to bust out for the Belvedere, but if you did I'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed.

Sanitizer can be found at any wine supply store, or U-Brew place. This is the same sanitizer used for sterilizing wine bottles, carboys, primary fermenters, and the like. I grab most of my wine stuff from Wine Kitz (free plug!).

Step 2: Wash and Sanitize

Wash your berries well; you don't know where they've been! Also cranberries are harvested by flooding the fields where they're grown. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but here they divert water from a muddy river. Wash your berries accordingly.

After you have your cranberries clean, go ahead and sanitize your big jug. Pinch some of the sanitizer and toss it in the jug, then fill halfway with cold water, attach lid and shake it like a Polaroid.
Empty. Rinse. Set aside.

Step 3: Mash Those Babies

Start popping those guys! You can use a mortar and pestle, chopping board, baseball bat, or my method: Plastic cup, back of a wooden spoon.

This takes some time as you can't do too many at once this way, I would say I was hammering away for a good 20 minutes..

Step 4: Then I Got Bored.

So I decided to use the blender. I wouldn't recommend this option for all the berries, as they just turn into pulp and seed, which isn't what we're going for. But it works well for about half.

Worth mentioning here that you should process about 2 handfuls at a time in the blender.

Step 5: When in Doubt, Add More Vodka

Mash those berries, blend them, and stuff them in the jug. This is also a tedious part, I guess it depends on how big of an opening you have. Add vodka partway through, add almost all the vodka so you don't run out of room. Then keep adding more berries until your jug is 3/4 full.

Step 6: Simple Syrup

Make simple syrup with 1 1/2 cups of sugar and the same of water. Bring to a slow boil and let cool, then add it to the jug.

Step 7: Finish It Off

Add the remainder of the vodka, and top off the jug with busted cranberries until you have a full jug. Cap it off. Give it a shake, and forget about it in the closet for about a month.

(check out the awesome colour already, it'll look a deep red when we're done!)

Step 8: One Month Later

Break out the jug, along with the sanitizer, cheesecloth, a container to hold the liquid, and your trusty colander.

Sanitize your colander, and container. You want something that can hold more than the size of your jug.
Cut a small square of cheesecloth and place over opening of your jug, you want enough to cover the opening and enough to hold onto. Dump contents into large container through cheesecloth, so you keep all the bits inside the jug. Don't worry about smaller bits that make their way through, we'll catch them later.

Lay cheesecloth inside colander and dump out the remnants of the jug. Again this might be hard if your opening is small.

Step 9: Squeeze!

Grab the edges of your cheesecloth, give it a couple of twists and squeeze the heck out of it, squeeze it until your hand hurts, then maybe a take a break. Whew. Then go back and squeeze it again for good measure. How should have something like the next picture.

Strain and toss the leftovers, unless you can think of something to make with them, but they are bitter and a mess of pulp.

Clean and sanitize your empty jug, and add the strained liquid back in.
DO NOT TOP OFF WTH WATER!

Step 10: Add Finings

Gelatine finings are added to beer and wine to ensure clarity. Without getting into detail, many alcoholic beverages created are going to be cloudy, adding gelatine and bentonite to wine, beer, coolers, and yes, even liquors can help create a clear and appealing product. I have had some success with clear wine using none whatsoever, so it's a personal choice.
I've had some cloudy wine before and it tastes fine, most of it is mental, so because I am giving this away to people, they probably more likely to drink it if it looks like something they can get in a store. Feel free to discuss this (somewhat) controversial point below, I'd be interested to hear other peoples thoughts.

The stuff I used I grab from Wine Kitz, but any wine supplier will carry this stuff. While you're there why not ask them for what they would recommend for your specific project. The homemade hooch community s pretty friendly.

Add prescribed amount, in my case 1/2 a teaspoon and 1/2 cup of water, bring to a fast boil, and remove immediately. Let cool, add to jug. Forget about it for a few days, up to a week.

DO NOT TOP OFF WITH WATER.

Step 11: Hey It Worked!

Yup, as you can see from this picture we can see a definite improvement from the picture from Step 9. The gelatine is grabbing the particles that make it cloudy and settling them to the bottom! Since there are still some particles, this needs to be left for a few more days.

Step 12: Syphon and Bottle

Sanitize your bottles, siphon hose, and hour hands. Syphoning is a fun and messy skill to learn. If you have never syphoned before I recommend trying it with water first. Trust me. Possibly in your bath tub too.

For those new to this, Wiki provides us with:
"A siphon (also spelled syphon) is a continuous tube that allows liquid to drain from a reservoir through an intermediate point that is higher than the reservoir, the up-slope flow being driven only by hydrostatic pressure without any need for pumping. It is necessary that the final end of the tube be lower than the liquid surface in the reservoir."

Hold the hose horizontal, dunk one end into your mixture and suck suck suck to fill the tube with the liquid, the dump the end in your mouth into the new receptacle. Sounds easy, but takes some skill to get comfortable with and hold the pressure.
A good point to mention here is that there is sediment in your jug, a lot. And it's clumpy, gross, and tastes horrible. You're going to need a plastic elevator for your siphon hose, or just hold it about 3 inchesÃÂ from the bottom.

With practice you'll find the finer points of siphoning, like blocking up on side of your jug to create a larger area for you to siphon from without grabbing excess sediment.
When you get about 3 inchesÃÂ from the bottom simply lift the hose out of the jug above the liquid line to break the siphon. Leave the sludge, dump it down the drain. Wipe your bottles clean, and admire your handiwork. You're done!

Step 13: Aftermath

What you had before was 40% vodka, and now you have something closer to 30-35% liquor. This can be drunk on its own, but I recommend using it in place of vodka in your next martini, or as shown below, with Ginger Ale, Sprite, and a hit of lemon.

Step 14: What I Would Change Next Time / Final Thoughts

Well the opening of the jug was small, which made it easy to seal, but tough to get the cranberries in and out, so take that into consideration.
My mashing device wasn't the best, but not bad considering I couldn't think of anything else, and MacGyver was playing in the background, so I thought I'd just go for it.
Syphoning. I'm used to siphoning 23 Litres of wine around, so it's easy to hold the hose at the right depth, but since this jug was small I found it hard to get it just right, maybe a smaller diameter hose would have been easier. But I'm not complaining.

I challenge you to make your own, and make some mistakes on the way, it's the only way you can get better! Try it with lemons, Earl Grey tea, oranges. Really the combinations are endless. Try it with Gin also for a different twist. Let me know what yours turns out like!

Have fun!

Time duration: 1 month.