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If you have a surplus of blackberries this is a very good recipe for using them in a brandy.  In addition it will give you an ice cream topping for adults that has quite a kick.  As an alternative to fresh blackberries you can substitute the frozen kind.

The basic recipe is:

1 pound of fresh blackberries that you have washed.

0.5 pound of superfine sugar.

35 ounces of brandy (1 liter)

You can buy the brandy at any package store.  The blackberries can be picked in the wild during late July and August.

Place the brandy in a large sterilized container that you can seal.  Stir the sugar into the brandy until it is completely dissolved.  Then add the berries to the brandy, and seal the container. 

After you have mixed all three ingredients in the same container give them a good shaking to thoroughly mix the ingredients together.

After the ingredients are all together and shaken store them in a cool dark place like a cupboard and give them a good shake every other day for a week.  After the first week give them a good shake once a month for the next two months. 

At the end of two months the brandy is ready to drink, but as it ages further it keeps getting better.  At least six months of aging improves the taste.  100 years is even better.

After the brandy has steeped for at least two months it is time to strain the brandy to remove the blackberries.  Place the brandy into a 1 liter bottle after it has been strained and allow it to age further.

You can use the blackberries that you have strained out of the brandy as an adult ice cream topping.  It is especially good on vanilla or blackrasperry ice cream.

Like most recipes of this sort it can be used with other fruits or herbs to make other delicious brandies.  You can make use of your imagination to develop your own line of designer brandies. 

Other alcoholic beverages can be made by using different sources of alcohol beside brandy.  Some of the other suggestions are white rum, grain alcohol, scotch and other whiskeys.  Try different combinations until you find one that you like. 

A lot of information can be derived from a book on medicinal herbs or spices.  This is how many of the great liqueurs of the world came about.