Sometime in early Fall of 2008 I was at a party at our friend Roy’s house. Roy has a nice bar set-up in the garage and that tends to be the hang-out spot for the men-folk during shindigs. So I’m at this party, Sean and I are behind the bar making drinks, and Roy tells us that he bought some pumpkin liqueur for his wife. His wife loves pumpkin and he tasked us with making a drink for her. Well, I’m guessing that a majority of you good cocktail drinking folks out there know what kind of pumpkin liqueur can be found at your basic liquor store. Yep, nothing good. I tried making a few drinks, but everything came out tasting fake. Just weirdly fake flavors due to the liqueur.
At the end of the night, Roy laid down a challenge. To come with with pumpkin cocktails that his wife would enjoy. That challenge got me to thinking about making my own, homemade pumpkin liqueur. Better yet, I could make a big ole batch and give away as Christmas gifts.
I began my research in how to go about making pumpkin liqueur. As the fates would have it, during the October “Made From Scratch” Mixology Monday, Craig Hermann of Tiki Drinks & Indigo Firmaments wrote about his own homemade pumpkin liqueur! Just how fortuitous is that?!?! So after a few false starts and a purchase of bottles from Specialty Bottle, I was ready to start my pumpkin liqueur. The recipe below is for a single batch that gives you about half a gallon of liqueur.
Spiced Pumpkin Liqueur
2 Cups of Pumpkin, cubed and roasted
.5 Cup of Ginger, sliced
.5 Cup Allspice Berries, crushed
.25 Cup Cloves, crushed
1 Nutmeg, Ground
4 Sticks Cinnamon, broken
1 Tbls Cinnamon, ground
1 Tbls Mace, ground
2 Pods Vanilla, scraped
750ml Lemonhart 151
8 cups sugar for syrup
First, peel, cube and roast your pumpkin.
Then divide your pumpkin and spices into two equal piles.
Put your first half of the pumpkin and spices in a container and pour your bottle of Lemonhart 151 over to infuse. You will infuse this for at least a week. I recommend stirring or shaking this once a day every day. At the end of your infusion time (for me it was a week exactly) strain the solids and filter the infused 151.
Take the second half of pumpkin and spices and place in a pot with the 8 cups of sugar. Add 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Just when the mixture comes to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. After the simmering is complete, transfer everything in the pot to another container and let infuse for at least a week. I infused my syrup for exactly a week. After your infusion time, strain out the solids and filter the best you can. A word of warning though – this stuff is thick and sticky. I used cheesecloth and coffee filters and it took about 4 hours to filter it all. Time consuming, but well worth it.
Finally, take your infused rum and infused syrup and mix the two together. Bottle and use. The resulting liqueur is very sweet and packs a nice rummy punch from the Lemonhart. The spices are also very in your face. In my recent champagne post, I included the following recipe which used the pumpkin liqueur to great effect.
A Sweet Ending
2oz Amber rum
1oz Spiced Pumpkin Liqueur
Dry/Brut Champagne/Cava
-Shake the rum and liqueur with ice and strain into a chilled champagne flute. Top of dry/brut sparking wine of your choice.
There you have it – Spiced Pumpkin Liqueur. Many thanks to Craig for posting his recipe! Oh and did Roy’s wife enjoy the gift of pumpkin liqueur. I’m happy to report that she had two helpings during New Year’s Eve and reported that she thought it was wonderful. I’d call that a win!
Have you made your own liqueurs? Have a good pumpkin recipe? If so, share your experiences and recipes in the comments section!
Cheers!
I got to have a taste courtesy of SeanMike at The Gibson last week. It was delicious. Well done Marshall!
Thanks Matt, I’m glad you liked it. I plan on bringing another bottle to a tasting even after the Inauguration ballyhoo calms down.
I’m glad you got some use out of it – I ‘m thinking that next this fall I’ll try using a variety of winter squash to see if I can get a better pumpkin note out of it.
Certainly did Craig, thanks again! Honestly, I ran out of pumpkin for a full 4 cups and used part of a butternut squash. I think it definitely helped the flavor. The roasted pumpkin by itself was a little flat. Oh, and I finally added you to our blog roll! Cheers!
Thanks for the recipe, I made if for Halloween this year and it was a big hit with everyone.
My one week infusion period just finished. Tough the liqueur is still filtering, i tried a little bit of it and it was very nice. I actually used less spices (some of them were too hard to find here in brazil, and expensive) and instead of the 151 i used cachaça.
Just wondering, what did you guys do with the pumpkin and spices? Maybe that could go somewhere.
when it is filtered i will experiment two new mixes with this. And post the result here in the comments.
Thiago, that’s awesome! I’m looking forward to your results. As for the pumpkin and spices, I chucked them into the trash bin after the infusions were finished. I’ve heard some bad stories of consuming fruit after it has been used for infusing, so I’d be wary of eating it.
Cheers!
Marshall, i tried the first mix i was thinking of.
Actually it was the first original drink i experimented, ( i am new to mixology),
I was trying to do something based on a confit with punpkin, orange, and coconut.
If you are interested in trying to improve it, i could drop you an email, with the pcitures, quantites etc.
Tell me what you think.
PS: I followed your advice and threw the fruits away.
Goodday from Downunder!
I have heard that you can make a spirit by cutting the top off a pumpkin, scooping it out, filling it with brown sugar, putting the top back on and leaving it for a couple of weeks – has anyone tried it? What was the resultant brew like? I hear it packs a hell of a punch!
I’ve got to be honest – that wouldn’t make a spirit (which needs to be distilled) but at best, might ferment – and I can’t imagine it being good at all.
But hey, people have made wackier things!
Ready for bottling this Thursday! Should it be stored in refrigerator?
Please advise – thank you! Smells wonderful can’t wait to try it!!
I’m a newbie to infusions. Does this have the shelf-life of ordinary rum, or would it need to be consumed relatively quickly? On that note, does rum last more or less indefinitely, or should it really be consumed in a certain time period (even if that time period is in years)?
*is relatively new to all this*
Brenda, Amelia,
My deepest apologies for not seeing your comments earlier! I hope the liqueur turned out well for the both of you.
The liqueur does not need to be refrigerated, the alcohol content and sugar should have enough anti-bacterial power to withstand spoiling. I had a bottle from the original post stashed away that I pulled out 2 years later and it was still just as good. It will separate over time so don’t be alarmed. Just shake and you’re ready to go.
Amelia, rum should last pretty much indefinitely. There are some folks who swear that the flavor of spirits will eventually change and degrade over time due to oxidation. Personally, my belief is while this may be true to some extent, the flavor change is so minimal that you really can’t tell a difference even after years. I have some rare bottles of whiskey that are at least 4 years old that I only take a nip of on special occasions and they taste just as great today as they did when I bought them.
Again, my sincerest apologies for such a late response.
Cheers!
Even though I am just finding this site a bit late as I am marinating my pumpkin in vodka at this moment.
I am very excited to improvise a bit with your recommendations for the infused syrup. I can’t just discard all that pumpkin, so I love that idea. And maybe I will be able to use the pumpkin after it has been simmered and strained to make pumpkin rum balls. This tiny pumpkin is living a life of purpose and great fun.
Thanks for the great post. I will know where to begin my mixologist journey next time.
Cheers
Can I used canned pumpkin and how much would I need? Do you have a recipe for pumpkin pie shine? THANKS
The amounts of clove and allspice seems like a lot? Cloves are very pungent and they arent even sold in 1/4 cup increments. Any thoughts.
I have thought about that actually. While it does seem like a lot, this recipe produces a lot of final product and that product is pretty potent with the spices. Like most recipes, you can always lower the amount of these ingredients to your own taste. Next time I make this, I’ll probably make adjustments. While I liked the end result of this recipe, I did find it a bit too sweet. And I’m not opposed to adjusting the spices either. Great observation!
Hi Becky! I wouldn’t use canned pumpkin because it would be too hard to strain out. You want to infuse the pumpkin flavor rather than creating a runny pie filling.
No recipe for pumpkin pie shine but if you do come across one, I hope you’ll share! Cheers!