If you get given too many sweets and you can't eat them all, then it's time to turn them all into something more adult.
In a Covid19 lockdown, I bought a lot of sweets and after a few months I couldnt eat anymore, so I decided to see what would happen if we brewed them up.
We didnt know if it was going to taste ok, or even if it would be drinkable, but after a few tweaks before bottling, this turned into an awesome fun alcopop!
Full of all the sweet flavours, sweet, zingy, and we even added some food colouring to make it even more funky.
Left in our box of sweets we refreshers, drumsicks, FruitPops, Love Hearts, Parma Violets, Sherbert Double Dips, Double Lollies and there could have been a few others too.
Here's what you'll need to make your version of our Swizzle Stick Alcopop.
Ingredients:
Box of sugar based sweets (not chocolate)
4.5 litres (8 Pints) Boiling Water
1 tsp Pectolase
1 tsp Yeast
Yeast Nutrient
Wine sweetener
Food Colouring
45g Sugar
Equipment:
Brewing Bucket
Demi-John with Air-Lock
Siphon
Steriliser
Hydrometer
Thermometer
Bottles for carbonated drinks.
Method
Unwrap and put all the sweets in the bucket.
Pour on the boiling water and stir until fully dissolved.
You may have some substance floating on the top. This is wax and can be removed easily once cooled.
Pop on the lid and leave to cool to 20°C.
Take a sample and test it with your hydrometer. Take the reading and keep this safe so we can use it later to work out how strong this is. The more sweets means more sugar which means more alcohol.
Add the pectolase, yeast nutrient and yeast and stir.
Ferment for 7 days in a warm place at 20°C.
Siphon from the bucket being carful not to disturb the sediment into a demijohn to finish fermenting possibly a couple of weeks.
Once it has finished fermenting, take a hydrometer reading to make sure it's around 1.000 or below.
Once complete, siphon the wine off the sediment into a clean bucket.
Take a sample and taste.
Add the wine sweetener a teaspoon at a time for the 4.5 litres. Stir and taste again.
Keep adding sweetener as above a little at a time until you reach the desired sweetness. Remember you cant take it away once you have added it, so add it a little at a time. I added 50ml of wine sweetener to 4.5 litres.
Add a few drops of your chosen colour of food colouring to make it look cool. Blue looks great!
Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
Now siphon into bottles. Make sure the bottles can hold a pressurised liquid as we are going to make this fizzy.
Seal the bottles and put them in your warm place at 20°C for 7-14 days.
Transfer somewhere cool and allow to clear completely. This may take 4-6 weeks.
Once totally clear, pop one in the fridge to chill.
Pop it open and pour gently in 1 continuous pour so as not to disturb the sediment at the bottom of the bottle.
Enjoy and remember to drink responsibly and let us know how yours turns out.
Cheers