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Homemade Skittles vodka recipe

Making & DIY

This is a really easy recipe that will produce a delicious and colourful rainbow of homemade Skittles vodka.

homemade skittles vodka recipe

A rainbow of Skittles Vodka brewing!

You could make a batch as home-made gifts. Getting into a thrifty mindset, it is a great idea to make and prepare DIY Gifts all year round. Have a little stockpile of beautifully-made, special presents, ready to give loved ones, family and friends. Making your own gifts can save you a small fortune.

It’s easy to believe that the more you spend on a present, the more the recipient will feel loved. The truth is, the more thought and time you put into a present, the more the recipient will KNOW they are loved.

Why not put even more thought into the gift by personalising and decorating the labels for each bottle. You could write on the glass with a Sharpie, or decorate the bottles with 3D Embellishing paste – as in this previous article: 3D embellished glass jars

You will need

First off you will need clean, sterilised, small glass bottles with screw top or stoppered lids. You can shop around kitchen stores or supermarkets during the sales to find cheap, empty, glass bottles.

You can save even more money by recycling your empty small glass bottles. Supermarkets sell small wine bottles that you can re-use once you’ve enjoyed the contents.. or try using empty soy-sauce or vinegar bottles.

To recycle your own bottles, ensure you wash each bottle and lid thoroughly. When you have a good stash, sterilise in bulk, all the bottles and lids using sterilising solution. You can buy a pot of sterilising powder for under £2 which will make a few batches of sterilising solution – available from anywhere that sells home-brewing equipment, or here is one from Amazon – VWP Cleanser and sterilser – 100g

 

homemade skittles vodka ingredients make skittles vodka recipe homemade skittles vodka recipe

Skittles vodka recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 family-sized bags of Skittles
  • 1.5 litres of vodka (two 75cl bottles)
  • feel free to double up if you want to make a large batch for presents

Method

  1. Separate the Skittles into piles of each colour
  2. Place each colour in a clean mason jar or bottle
  3. Top up with vodka
  4. Screw the lids onto each bottle nice and tightly and give each bottle a really good shake
  5. You can now leave the bottles overnight (if you’re in a hurry), or for a day or so. Shake the bottles a few times a day, to help the Skittles to dissolve into the vodka
  6. After a couple of days the Skittles will have completely dissolved. You will have created a fruity rainbow of Skittles vodka
  7. Filter the vodka through a coffee filter or cheese cloth at this point, to remove the sugary sediment
  8. Pour the Skittles vodka into smaller gift-sized bottles
  9. Screw the lids tightly on the smaller gift-sized bottles and decorate away
Skittles vodka for party

Mini bottles of Skittles Vodka as gifts

As an alternative to separating the colours, you can add all the colours into one batch minus the green ones (which can make it taste sour) and make a separate green batch or just eat the leftover green skittles!

If you are running short of time and need to have it ready in an hour rather than soaking over night… simply shake the mixture vigorously every ten minutes and you will still create a very tasty skittles vodka.

What to do with your Skittles vodka

  • This Skittles vodka is best served chilled straight from the fridge, or over ice. It is delicious when you add lemonade or tonic water as it’s pretty strong if you drink it neat!
  • This Skittles vodka should be stored in a cool dark place and will keep for months.. but you know it won’t have a chance to last that long!
  • Get creative if you are making little bottles of Skittles vodka as gifts, maybe tie a ribbon around the neck. You could decorate the label with glitter or a Sharpie pen, use 3D embelishing paste on the glass, or perhaps tie a parcel label around the neck and write ‘Drink Me’ on it

 

Enjoy, drink responsibly and get used to being incredibly popular – as you start to give bottles of home-made alcohol as gifts!

You might enjoy these related homemade alcohol recipes…

Make it: Homemade Toffee Vodka

Home Brew: Elderflower Champagne

Make it: Sloe Gin

A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases which helps me with the running cost of this site – thank you 🖤

 

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toffee vodka homemade recipe gift idea alcohol

How to make Homemade Toffee Vodka

Making & DIY, Thrifty

This is a really easy recipe that will produce delicious homemade toffee vodka.

toffee vodka homemade recipe gift idea alcohol

Decorated bottles of delicious toffee vodka

You could make a batch as home-made gifts. Getting into a thrifty mindset, it is a great idea to make and prepare DIY Gifts all year round. Have a little stockpile of beautifully-made, special presents, ready to give loved ones, family and friends. Making your own gifts can also save you a small fortune at Christmas.

It’s easy to believe that the more you spend on a present, the more the recipient will feel loved. The truth is, the more thought and time you put into a present, the more the recipient will KNOW they are loved.

Why not put even more thought into the gift by personalising and decorating the labels for each bottle. You could even decorate the bottles with 3D Embellishing paste – as in this previous article: 3D embellished glass jars

You will need

First off you will need clean, sterilised, small glass bottles with screw top or stoppered lids. You can shop around kitchen stores or supermarkets during the sales to find cheap, empty, glass bottles.

You can save even more money by recycling your empty small glass bottles. Supermarkets sell small wine bottles that you can re-use once you’ve enjoyed the contents.. or try using empty soy-sauce or vinegar bottles.

To recycle your own bottles, ensure you wash each bottle and lid thoroughly.  When you have a good stash, sterilise in bulk, all the bottles and lids using sterilising solution. You can buy a pot of sterilising powder for under £2 which will make a few batches of sterilising solution – available from anywhere that sells home-brewing equipment, or here is one from Amazon – VWP Cleanser and sterilser – 100g

 

toffee vodka recipe homemade gift idea alcohol

Making this Toffee vodka is easy and it is ready within days!

Toffee vodka recipe

Ingredients

  • 300g bag of toffee or butterscotch such as Werthers Original
  • 1.5 litres of vodka (two 75cl bottles)

Method

  1. Remove all wrappers and packaging from the toffee and smash it all up into tiny bits with a rolling-pin. If you have a coffee grinder or sturdy food processor, you can use these appliances to get the desired ‘smithereens’ result
  2. If you have two 75cl bottles of vodka, pour about a third of each bottle into a sterilised empty third bottle
  3. Divide the smashed up toffee into three piles and add a pile to each bottle using a funnel
  4. Screw the lids onto each bottle nice and tightly and give each bottle a really good shake
  5. You can now leave the bottles for about two days. Shake the bottles a few times a day, to help the toffee to dissolve into the vodka
  6. After a couple of days the toffee will have completely dissolved. You will have created a creamy and delicious toffee vodka
  7. You can keep the three big bottles as they are, or pour the toffee vodka into smaller gift-sized bottles. You can choose to filter the vodka through a coffee filter at this point if you wish, it can make the vodka taste a little smoother.
  8. Screw the lids tightly on the smaller gift-sized bottles and decorate away

What to do with your toffee vodka

  • This toffee vodka is best served chilled straight from the fridge, or over ice. If it’s too strong, you can add it to milk or coffee to drink it. It’s also delicious poured over ice cream!
  • This toffee vodka should be stored in a cool dark place and will keep for years.. but you know it won’t have a chance to last that long!
  • You can experiment with the amount and types of toffee that you use. Try mixing different types of toffee or butterscotch to make your own special flavour
  • Get creative if you are making little bottles of toffee vodka as gifts, maybe tie a ribbon around the neck. You could decorate the label with glitter, use 3D embelishing paste on the glass, or perhaps tie a parcel label around the neck and write ‘Drink Me’ on it

Enjoy, drink responsibly and get used to being incredibly popular – as you start to give bottles of home-made alcohol as gifts!

You might enjoy these related homemade alcohol recipes…

Home Brew: Elderflower Champagne

Make it: Sloe Gin

A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases which helps me with the running cost of this site – thank you 🖤

If you would like to receive Thrifty Sustainability updates by email when a new article is added, please subscribe here:


 

Elderflower Champagne recipe home brew sparkling wine delicous alcohol forage foraged forager foraging bushcraft wildfood cheap thrifty

Home Brew: Elderflower Champagne

Cheap Food / on a Budget, Making & DIY, Thrifty

Making Elderflower Champagne is a fantastic way of turning free, foraged ingredients and low-cost store cupboard ingredients, into a few large bottles of actual alcohol. If you are new to making home brew, Elderflower Champagne is a great place to start.

Elderflower champagne recipe home brew for foragers foraging forager foraged

Elderflowers in bloom

This drink is so cheap and easy to make. The result is a delicious, elegant drink that you can take to a picnic or BBQ and share with friends, or just enjoy at home on a summer’s evening when you fancy something refreshing.

Foraging for Elderflower is pretty simple and the flowers are easy to spot. They have a creamy white colour with a very distinctive smell. They appear in large, flat heads in early summer, usually at the end of May and beginning of June. Elderflower heads should be picked as they are just coming into flower. You can read more about Elderflower varieties on Wikipedia here: Elderflower

Elderflower Champagne Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 6 large heads of Elderflower (gently shake the heads to remove any insects but do not wash them as you will need all the blossom to ferment your brew!)
  • 4 ½ Litres of water
  • 2 sliced lemons
  • 450g granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar

Make it:

Elderflower champagne recipe home brew lemons sugar bowl brewing

Leave to steep in water for up to 36 hours

  1. Add the 6 heads of Elderflower, and the sliced lemons to the 4 ½ litres of water in a large bowl. You can split between a couple of bowls if you like. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel to keep insects away and Leave the mixture to steep for 24-36 hours
  2. Strain your mixture through a sieve into another bowl – you can now discard the Elderflower and lemon slices
  3. Add the 450g of sugar and the 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar and give it a good stir
  4. Pour into clean plastic bottles with screw top lids – close the lid but not tightly. As the mixture ferments the pressure will build in the bottles and you will need to release the pressure every couple of days. Releasing the pressure
    Elderflower champagne recipe home brew sparkling wine delicous home brew brewing foraged foraging forage forager elderflowers

    Serve chilled and enjoy!

    avoids an exploding bottle and an Elderflower-flavoured kitchen

  5. Keep releasing the pressure every couple of days for 4-5 weeks. If you like you can do the occasional taste test during this time, as the longer you leave it, the drier (and stronger) the drink gets
  6. After the above fermentation time of about 5 weeks, firmly close each bottle and store in a cool dark place, until you are ready to drink!
  7. This drink will keep for months in the cupboard… but it doesn’t usually get a chance to! Tastes best if it has been chilled in the fridge for a couple of hours

 

Enjoy home brewing!

You might also enjoy this earlier post with a home brew Sloe Gin recipe: Make it: Sloe Gin

A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases which helps me with the running cost of this site – thank you 🖤

If you would like to receive Thrifty Sustainability updates by email when a new article is added, please subscribe here:


 

how to make sloe gin sloes blackthorn home brew diy gifts alcohol bottle present home made sloe gin

Make it: Sloe Gin

Making & DIY, Thrifty

Making Sloe Gin is one of the most rewarding pastimes in September/October.

how to make sloe gin sloes blackthorn home brew diy gifts alcohol bottle present home made sloe gin

Freshly picked sloes

Scroll down for a delicious sloe gin recipe. If you are lucky, and there is an early crop of Sloes, you will have time to make lots of little gift-sized bottles of home-made sloe gin, to give away to friends and family at Christmas… Won’t you be popular this year!

Giving home-made DIY gifts is a great way for you to save money and over the years the savings will add up. Your friends and family will appreciate something that has been made for them by you, everyone who receives something will feel special, and worth your time and effort, and that is a gift in itself.

Of course there is always the option of getting your Grinch on and keeping the lot for yourself.. no one would blame you, as Sloe Gin is purply-red, bottled bliss. One sip spreads a lovely warming glow through your chest, which makes it the perfect accompaniment to cosy winter nights snuggled up on the sofa.

sloe berries berry how to make sloe gin sloes blackthorn home brew diy gifts alcohol bottle present home made sloe gin liqour

Sloe berries – fruit of the Blackthorn

Where to find Sloes

Sloes are the berries of the blackthorn bush, sloes grow in hedgerows all over the UK as a shrub or small tree.

The autumn fruits appear blue at first then they have a slightly cloudy sheen, then turn shiny black. Ready to pick in September/October.

It is best to pick sloes after the first frost, but if you can’t wait that long and there has been an early crop of sloes, simply pop them in the freezer for a few hours before you make your gin.

Just a little warning, don’t try to eat the sloes when you pick them, the fruits are very sharp and tart and not at all tasty. Best to make gin out of them.

 

 

How to make Sloe Gin

Ingredients:

  • Sloes
  • Sugar (granulated white sugar or caster sugar is best)
  • Gin (shop around to find supermarket cheapest deals or own brand)

Before you start you will need a large, sterilised bottle, jar or demijohn – something that can be sealed (even if you seal it with clingfilm). You could even use the bottles that the gin came in.

how to make sloe gin sloes blackthorn home brew diy gifts alcohol bottle present home made sloe gin liqour

Sloe berries – ready to be washed and pricked!

Preparing the Sloes

Once you have picked your Sloes, wash them to remove any dirt, then place in a bowl. Now comes the fun part… prick small holes in each Sloe. You can do this by daintily taking each sloe and piercing its skin with a sewing needle… or you can get a fork and stab up a bowl of them in a hit and miss, let’s get this done stylee. Either way will work. The idea is that by piercing the skin, the juices will be able to flow into the gin and make a much richer tasting and more beautifully coloured drink.

Making the Gin

  1. Fill a third of your jar, bottle or demijohn with your freshly-pricked sloes
  2. Add sugar, it will fill the gaps between the sloes, up to about the level of the top of the sloes
  3. Pour in Gin to cover the sloes and sugar, up to the top of your bottle, glass or demijohn – If you like, you can add complimentary flavours at this point, such as a cinnamon stick or a few drops of almond or vanilla essence
  4. Seal the jar, bottle or demijohn and give your brew a few swishes to shake the mixture and start the process
  5. Place your Sloe gin in a dark, cool cupboard and give it a few swishes every day for two or three weeks and then you can leave it to stand. The mixture will continue to deepen in colour and flavour and you can leave it for three or four months
  6. After the process is complete your mixture will be a beautiful, rich, purply-red colour. Pour this liquid through a sieve (or a square of muslin) into a measuring jug, and from the jug pour into sterilised screw-cap bottles and seal up, they are now ready to give as gifts. Or… pour the sloe gin into a glass and have some immediately… yum yum!

Once sealed in screw-cap bottles the slow gin will keep for years.. but good luck with that, most will be gone by the new year!

Make use of the leftovers

If you don’t want to waste the gin and sugar soaked sloes that are left over at the end of the process… try eating a couple.. or pour vodka or sherry over them, this time don’t add any sugar, seal up the bottle and swish the mix occasionally over a couple of weeks to make a cheeky sloe vodka or sloe sherry –

how to make sloe gin sloes home brew diy gifts alcohol bottle present home made sloe gin

You can give small bottles of sloe gin as gifts

it won’t have as rich a colour as your first batch of sloe gin, but it’s a great way of adding value to a cheap bottle of vodka or sherry.

Experiment & get creative

You can experiment with the amount of sugar you use each year and with different types of alcohol if you are not a gin fan, there is no set rule when making sloe gin and there are plenty of different recipes out there if you fancy doing a little research.

Get creative if you are making little bottles of sloe gin as gifts, maybe tie a ribbon around the neck or decorate the label with glitter, or perhaps tie a parcel label around the neck and write ‘Drink Me’ on it.

Enjoy, drink responsibly and get used to being incredibly popular – this will tend to happen if you give bottles of home-made alcohol as gifts!
 
A few self-sufficient, thrifty or off-the-grid selections, including Solar Panel Chargers. Toys and tools that I’m saving up for!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases which helps me with the running cost of this site – thank you 🖤

 
If you would like to receive Thrifty Sustainability updates by email when a new article is added, please subscribe here: