A sweet and fruity homemade Blackberry Liqueur (also known as Crème de Mûre) that is so easy to make yourself with very little hands on time. The perfect way to use up all the blackberries the season has to offer! This easy homemade Blackberry Liqueur only gets better with time – so make up a big batch now to have the perfect homemade Christmas gifts on hand come December.
Want more cocktails? Click here!
If you couldn’t tell from all the recipes on my blog by now, I absolutely love making cocktails and playing with different spirits and flavours. This means I need to keep my bar* as fully stocked as I can, so I don’t limit my creativity. At least that’s what I tell myself when I’m spending a fortune on spirits, bitters, and the like! So, if I can make some of the staples at home with minimal effort and cost, I am SO on it. This Crème de Mûre, or Blackberry Liqueur, is one of those!
*by bar, I mean a mess of many different bottles, poorly organised in a kitchen cupboard and a wine rack with bottles of gin instead of fine wines!
These Blackberry Brownies are a great way to bake with Blackberries
I’ve talked many times about how much I love blackberries and blackberry season in the UK – I pick so many wild blackberries in September that my freezer is busting with them. As well as baking delicious goodies with them, Homemade Blackberry Liqueur is one of my favourite ways to make good use of them! Just like jams, liqueur is a great way to preserve your season fruits to enjoy later in the year – and liqueur is a lot more fun that jam, so that’s what I go with.
As it is a crème liqueur, this Blackberry Liqueur is very sweet and is traditionally enjoyed as a digestif. But Blackberry Liqueur also lends itself extremely well to cocktails – it is the key ingredient in classics such as the Bramble, a gin based cocktail for which I’ll be sharing my own take on with you soon! The Blackberry Liqueur/Crème de Mure is a great sub for Crème de Cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) in a Kir Royale too.
Like with most things that have been around forever, there are many, many recipes on the web for Blackberry Liqueur/Crème de Mûre and each one has the “right” way to make it and they can vary quite significantly. Some will tell you it has to be made with brandy, some will say vodka or gin, some will say ever clear. And while I am sure those methods all yield delicious results, I prefer the red wine method – I find this way you get a much richer flavour, and a more enjoyable drinking experience. Plus, there’s less time to wait until it’s ready for drinking – I’m a very impatient lady! You’ll want to choose a good quality red wine to make this Blackberry Liqueur, one that you would enjoy drinking by itself and medium bodied works best. I use a nice Merlot.
As I have already mentioned, making this Blackberry Liqueur or, Crème de Mûre, is very easy, has very little hands on time, and is ready for drinking in a couple of days. The flavours intensify over time though, so it’s great to make now and enjoy at Christmas time – it makes for a great homemade Christmas gift too if you can bear to give it away! So, let’s make some super easy DIY Blackberry Liqueur/Crème de Mûre.
Homemade Blackberry Liqueur (Crème de Mûre)
Prep
Cook
Inactive
Total
Yield 35 Fl Oz
A sweet and fruity homemade Blackberry Liqueur (also known as Crème de Mûre) that is so easy to make yourself with very little hands on time. The perfect way to use up all the blackberries the season has to offer! This easy homemade Blackberry Liqueur only gets better with time – so make up a big batch now to have the perfect homemade Christmas gifts on hand come December.
Ingredients
- 5 cups (700g) blackberries, washed and de-stemmed
- 1 bottle of red wine, medium bodied (standard 750ml size bottle)
- 1.5 cups (300g) sugar
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vodka or gin
Instructions
- Put the blackberries in a large glass or ceramic bowl and pour over the red wine. Use a potato masher to mash the berries and release the berries.
- Cover with a clean towel and leave to macerate for 48 hours in a cool place* - give the berries a little mash every now and then if you remember!
- Strain through a wire mesh sieve to remove the berries, then strain again through cheese cloth to ensure all seeds etc are out.
- Pour into a large saucepan and add the sugar. Bring to a gentle simmer on a medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer for 8 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in the vodka or gin, and then leave to cool completely.
- Pour into clean, preferably sterilised, bottles.
- Store in cool, dark place. It can be enjoyed immediately, but will keep almost indefinitely if in sterilised bottles - if not, then about a year.
Notes
*I kept mine in our cloakroom as there are no windows to let in sunlight, there's a draft, and it's always cool. If you live in a hot climate and don't have a cool area of the house, then keep in the fridge.
Courses Drinks
Hi! Where did you get your sterile bottle pictured above?
Thanks!
Hi Stella, I got that bottle as a gift from my sister last Christmas, but I think it is from Amazon 🙂
Hi can i do this without the wine? Just gin if so what would i do differently
Hi Sarah, you can definitely make a blackberry liqueur without wine but unfortunately not this recipe. It will be quite a different recipe (with a different taste). I suggest having a search on google, there’s plenty of recipes for blackberry liqueur made with vodka/gin and sugar syrup.
Thanks!
This recipe sounds like just what I want for our blackberries. If I want the flavors to intensify, would I let all ingredients sit longer before straining, or let the final product sit longer before drinking?
Hi Jeff, you could let the ingredients steep an extra day – but if you leave the final product to sit for a month or so, the final taste will be much more complex! Just make sure you store it in an airtight bottle/container!
How long stay good if you store good.
Hi Cinthia, if you store it in a sterilised bottle and can it, it will last upwards of a year easily
Hello! so, you are canning yours to make them shelf-stable (as in, not having to keep in the fridge)? Like, as in water bath canning? If so, how long are you putting them in the water bath for, and how do you know your acidity is high enough for proper preservation?
Hi Heather
I don’t actually can mine as I don’t have the equipment or knowledge to do so. I sterilise the bottles so it keeps for a long time unopened, it then lasts a couple of months in the fridge after opening.
It absolutely can be canned to keep for much longer and I would follow your normal canning rules for that – I’m afraid I don’t have the knowledge to advise properly though
I loved this recipe, however, I know that cooking fruit yields a cooked fruit taste. I’m interest in seeing how not cooking might effect the flavour. I’d be happy just to stir the sugar until it dissolves. Do I need to simmer it? Does the cooking step serve to help preserve it?
Hi Cherry, thank you for your message and kind words!
Cooking the mixture will help the sugars dissolve and bring out the flavour – you could definitely try without the cooking step, although you may want to use a simple syrup in place of sugar as it may not dissolve well without cooking and you certainly don’t want a grainy texture! As for preserving it, simmering it definitely helps with preserving but it’s mainly the sugar and alcohol content that will do that job. However, I am no preserving expert so I couldn’t say for sure how important the role of heating the mixture is for that aspect!
Do let me know how you get on if you give that method a go!
Easy, and delicious! I poured into 2 sterilized bottles, a pint and a quart. 2 weeks later, the pint is fine, but the quart has “froth” and seems to be fermenting. How can I stop the fermentation?
Hi Judy,
So glad you liked the recipe!
Hmm as for the fermentation, it may be that something got in there when you were bottling it or pouring it to drink! I’m afraid I’m not an expert on preserving food but I’d recommend decanting it temporarily and re-sterilising the bottle. Hope that helps a little!
Thanks!
Michelle
I decanted, reheated, simmered again for 8 minute and resterilized and rebottled. It’s been a week and it seems fine. Thank you.
Hi. Do you think white wine with work for this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Gaby,
I’m afraid red wine is needed for creme de mure (however there are some recipes that don’t call for wine at all if you’re not able to use red wine – I know tannins can be a problem for a lot of people).
Creme de mure is great added to white wine though!
Enjoy!
Michelle
Thanks for the recipe. It’s really good. It was an absolute success so thank you. I made the bramble cocktail using the Sloe gin I made a few years ago and that has been a big hit with my husband. So off to make a second batch.
Hi Tracey!
I’m so glad you loved this recipe, it’s a favourite in my house too! A sloe gin bramble sounds amazing, I may have to sample that this weekend!
I filter thru cheese cloth- let set for a day. Then put a medium size strainer over a glass bowl, insert a coffee filter and pour one more time thru the filter. This makes for a much cleaner drink .
I do all of the above and before bottling I strain thru coffee filters .
Great idea!
I found a patch of wild blackberries and picked them until I could pick no longer. Brought them to my sister’s because that is who I cook with, most especially when trying a new recipe. We decided to try blackberry liqueur and I went online to find the perfect recipe. Yours was the first one I clicked on, where I was greeted with the picture of a bottle of your blackberry liqueur with a gift tag attached bearing my own name, Leah. Better yet, the name of the giver of the pictured bottle was Michelle, my own sister’s name, and your’s of course. Needless to say I did not search further, this is the recipe we will try. Now I am very curious to know if there is an actual Leah in your life Michelle, and what, if any relation she might be to you?
Hi Leah,
That’s such an awesome coincidence, who knew blackberry Liqueur could be fate!
Leah is the name of my best friend, so I chose her name for the gift tag photo! Unfortunately she lives across the Atlantic from me so she didn’t actually get a bottle!
I hope that you and your Michelle enjoy the Liqueur!
Can I make this recipe with liquid stevia instead of sugar?
Thanks
Hi Chris,
I’m not sure as I’ve not tried, sugar is quite important for longevity of the liqueur so if you use Stevia it may not keep as long and I would recommend you store it in the fridge. If you give it a go i’d love to know how it came out!
Dare I use frozen blackberries?
Hi Suzanne,
I’ve not made it using frozen, but there’s no reason why frozen won’t work just as well! You may just need to defrost them first (but retain any liquid that seeps out while they defrost, there will be lots of good juices in there) or leave to macerate a little longer
Enjoy!
I currently have my cheesecloth hanging and liquids oozing. Can’t wait to try out the final product. Out of interest, do you use the winey blackberries for anything after they’ve been strained?
Yay hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
No I haven’t actually used them for anything – they’d probably make a great dessert sauce though!
I’m looking forward to making this! Have you tried this served in club soda? It sounds like it would taste great by itself. Thoughts?
Hi Lindsay! I haven’t tried it with soda water but that will definitely be delicious! Enjoy and let me know what you think!
This is incredibly delicious and easy- just wondering if strawberries or blueberries have been tried instead if blackberries?
Hi Ava,
Blueberries and Strawberries could definitely work, you may want to use a slightly lighter bodied red wine though or a wine that will compliment those flavours. I’d love to hear how it goes if you try it!
I’ve made my first bottle of Crème de Mûre. Tasty, but very sweet. I may cut back a bit on the sugar next time, and there’ll be a next time!
Question 1: simmering the wine & blackberry concoction evaporates the alcohol from the wine. I let it cool quite a bit before adding the vodka to conserve the alcohol. This liqueur is pretty low alcohol count, isn’t it?
Question 2: since the liqueur is sweet do you let it replace the simple syrup in cocktails?
Hi Jan, yes it’s definitely very sweet – not something I can personally drink much of by itself. Would love to hear how using less sugar works out for you though
To answer your questions – I’m not sure on the exact alcohol content of the final product, it’s hard to say how much of the alcohol actually evaporate when it is simmering, as you are simmering for only a short amount of time it should not lose that much alcohol. The alcohol content is probably around the 15% abv mark – but this is just an estimate
And yes, I would usually omit any simple syrup when using creme de mure in a cocktail as it adds plenty of sweetness!
Hello,
Is it important to cover with cloth vs the bowl’s lid? I live in a hot climate and plan to store the bowls in the fridge, it would be easier/safer for me to use the lid unless you are suggesting that it needs to breathe.
Hi Angela, if you have a lid that will be fine too – it doesn’t really need to breathe although I would open it to give it a little mash/stir every few hours if possible
Hi,
Thanks for the recipy. I am tying it right now.
I wanted to ask why you strain the blackberries before cooking them. Isn’t it better to extract the flawor to cook everything together and than strain it before storing it?
Thanks
Hi Davide, the macerating pulls all of the juice and flavour out naturally before cooking – the berries are just fibre at the cooking point. However, there’s absolutely no reason you can’t strain after cooking, you just might get a slightly thicker liqueur
Hi Michelle,
I am trying this recipe for the first time and I have 2 questions. Would it be okay to add a stick of cinnamon and some cloves to the liqueur and would it be okay to use raw sugar? I can’t wait to try it!
Hi Gladys- you can absolutely add cinnamon and cloves for a lovely autumn or christmas liqueur, just add them at the simmering stage (strain again after that). And raw sugar should work just fine. Hope you love it!
Hello, I followed the recipe and it turned out fantastic! Thank you so much. I am curious though, how did you come across the eight minutes simmer time. It seems like such a long time to simmer something that already had a lot of alcohol and sugar in it, if it’s purpose is for killing germs.
Hi Ruth – so glad to hear it. The simmer time is partly for sterilising, partly to dissolve sugar and give everything a chance to come together, and partly to thicken it a little. As long as you keep it on a low simmer, it will do the job without cooking off much alcohol too!
Ok, thank you for the reply 🙂
Hi there
I considering giving this a try as overwhelmed with blackberries!!!!
Just wondered if using brown sugar would be ok, possibly better or unadvisable please?
Thanks very much
Regards
Robert
Hi Robert – that sounds like my kind of problem!!
I’ve not tried it with brown sugar, but it should work okay. The other flavours may be too strong to really notice much of a difference, but if anything it would have a richer. caramel taste which can’t be a bad thing!
I’m worried that heating the mixture will leave it virtually alcohol free. Would it be possible to simmer with just half the wine and add the rest of the wine later?
Hi Marlene,
A gentle simmer won’t remove all the alcohol, it will in fact remove very little – you’d have to boil it at a high heat for quite a while to remove all the alcohol. It’s not possible to add wine in two parts as all the wine needs to macerate with the berries.
If you’re still worried however, you can simmer for a shorter period of time – just make sure all the sugar is dissolved completely
It’s amazing you’ve replied to every comment! Thank you.
I’m only going to simmer a small amount of the wine berry mixture with my sugar, Might throw in a vanilla bean or a squeeze of lime or both.
Have you tried any other alcohol? Brandy, rum, whiskey?
A little vanilla sounds great!
I haven’t tried with any other alcohol myself, but it would work great with a brown spirit base sure!
Hi I’m in the process of making this now and realise I’ve added the gin to the pan with the sugar and now simmering instead of adding when cooked, will it be okay?
Hi June, that will be okay. The main difference will be yours may have a slightly lower ABV %, but it won’t be by much!
I did it and after a few days I see is splitting in two colors, like at the bottom and at the top, is this normal? like, I strained it 3 times since I didn’t want any particles in it, but now, since I close the lid in the sterilized jar, I’m letting it sit for about a month to try how develops the flavor, but I’m seeing is like splitting in two, might be the waiting? maybe shake it from time to time?
Thanks for the recepie
Hi Barbara
Apologies for the delay in replying to you!
It’s not entirely unusual for it to split a little, this is normally due to a small amount of solids remaining after straining – can be hard to get rid of 100% of them without a professional filtration system! It shouldn’t affect the flavour or mouth feel – just give it a good shake before serving and you’ll be good to go!
Hi I have only available black raspberries near me, so I was wondering if I can boil them for a few minutes before adding the wine?
I am afraid they are not clean enough after washing them with water. Let me know what are your thoughts about this. I really really want to try this recipe.
Hi Gemma,
So sorry for my delayed reply, I didn’t see this come through.
Black raspberries should work fine, will be a different flavour of course but I imagine it will taste great!
I wouldn’t boil them, you will lose most of the juice and flavour if you do that. Washing them with cold water will be more than enough even just for eating, but the alcohol and then cooking later will also help kill off any bacteria!
Can you make this with frozen blackberries?
Absolutely! No need to thaw them either, as don’t want to lose any of the juice as they defrost
Can this be made with other fruits, such as blueberries?
Just curious can I leave the blackberries to steap for longer than 48 hours?
Hi Jamie,
There’s no reason you can’t leave them for little longer, although after a certain time leaving them longer will add no real benefit.
But as long as they’re kept covered, in a cool place, and covered in the liquid then it’s fine to leave them longer!
Just completely read this wrong and poured all the ingredients in a bowl and started mashing, Will it be ok to leave for 2 days, then strain then simmer slowly possibly add a bit more gin then? Or have I ruined it?
Don’t worry – that will be totally okay!
Just give it a gentle simmer after the 48 hours, to help with sterilisation and make sure the sugar is all dissolved. You can add a little more gin at the end, only a little though or it might overwhelm the flavour – add a drop and give it a taste.
Hi Michelle, I have some bottles of blackberry wine. Do you think I could use those in place of the red wine? Or would the recipe need to be altered a bit?
Hi Caleb – I’ve not tried blackberry wine (sounds delicious though!) but I’d imagine it’s quite sweet. In theory you can make it with the blackberry wine but you would definitely want to cut down the sugar considerably!
Thanks for the advice Michelle, I cut the sugar down to half a cup and it was still a bit on the sweet side. However since I planned to use it in mixed drinks I think it’s perfect. Thanks again
Glad to hear it still came out well!