Rye vodka with cranberry
A dry 40–42% rye vodka with the fresh, lightly tart taste of cranberry balancing the character of the rye. It is quick, unsweetened or barely sweetened, and made for drinking ice-cold or mixing. Fresh cranberries are in season from October to December. Treat the amounts as a starting point and tune them by taste.
- Vodka in
- 2 L
- Vodka out
- about 2.1 L
- Strength
- roughly 40–42% ABV
- Start to bottle
- about 3 weeks
Shopping list
Amounts scale with the batch size above. The method text uses the 2 L amounts.
Grocery store
Liquor store
Equipment
Method
Cranberries are firm and waxy, so they are frozen or halved first to let the vodka in. The color comes in days; the tartness takes about two weeks. Keep it dry: this is a vodka, not a liqueur.
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Day 0
Open up the cranberries
Freeze the cranberries overnight, which splits their skins, or halve them with a sharp knife.
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Day 1
Start the jar
Put the cranberries in the jar and cover them with both vodkas. Seal it, keep it dark and shake it every couple of days.
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Days 10–14
Taste, then strain
Strain when the cranberry is clear and tart but before it turns bitter from the skins. Press the berries only lightly, then filter through coffee filters.
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Same day
Round it out, if you like
Stir the sugar into a glass of the vodka until it dissolves, then add it back a little at a time. Most people will want only a little, or none.
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Then 1 week
Bottle and rest
Bottle it and rest it for a week. Keep it cool and dark, and drink it within a year while the color is bright.
Keep it safe
- Sort the cranberries and throw out any soft or moldy ones.
- Keep the jar sealed, dark and away from heat, and label it with the start date.
- It is as strong as regular vodka, so label the bottles and serve it in small glasses.
Tuning the next batch
- Too tart: add a little more sugar, dissolved first.
- Too bitter: strain a few days earlier next time, and press the berries less.
- Not enough cranberry: use 400 g of berries.
- Too strong: use all 80-proof rye vodka instead of the 100-proof.
To serve
Serve it ice-cold, straight from the freezer, or long with tonic and a strip of orange peel.