We had a bumper crop of apricots, nectarines & peaches this year and unfortunately even with plenty of kids & enthusiastic friends too much went on the bin. Has anyone got experience in making fruit liqueur or knows of any good internet sites?

It's not difficult. At all. Check the internet for "written instructions". Try to keep it simple. My first foray into the world of fermented liquids was tangerine wine. (I refused to do grapes.) It was the most beautiful stuff you have ever seen. Gorgeous peach/tangerine color. Absolutely crystal clear. Couldn't gag it down. It was horrible tasting!
 
 Read the directions; follow them closely; don't get 'creative' on the first try.
 
 And "CLEANLINESS is next to Godliness" when it comes to fermentation of ANYTHING you want to eat or drink.
 
 Paul

Kombi, keep it simple, pick, process, concentrate, sweeten to taste and add the amount of neutral grain spirits you want(that is vodka).
I would guess actually fermenting and distilling the product would get you a stay in the crossbars hotel, it sure would do so here.

While your suggestion of simply "mixing" is a good one, Don, one need not worry about John Law as long as you keep the total of beer and wine - FERMENTED products - to less than 50 gal per year. That's a federal law, which I'm quite certain holds everywhere in the US. Now if you want to DISTILL alcohol - which is an additional process AFTER fermentation in which you EXTRACT the alcohol from the fermented "wine" or "beer" - you gotta have license.
 
 I understand where you are coming from as kombi used the term "liqueur" which is NOT "wine" (made from fermented FRUIT) or "beer" (made from fermented GRAIN), but I assumed he was referring to "wine".

Paul

Likely what he wants is a fortified wine, but a real liqueur is a distilled product, such as slivovitz, peach brandy, apricot brandy, (my favorite to use in spicing up fruit cakes and fruit breads and muffins).
I have made wine, using wild grapes, the mustang is often available in considerable amounts, you must settle the juice at least 2, even better 3 times and siphon off to get rid of most of the oxalic acid, same applies to making a really good jelly from the mustang grape.
Buying real wine yeast will give you a better product.
Processed fruit juice will make a nice wine, but you really need a tool kit, air lock, siphon, hydrometer and a non reactive container.
I did make some using a ping pong ball on the jug neck as the air lock and  just waiting until there was no yeast activity to siphon it out.
Pore boys got pore ways, but they do work!

;<)

I've got some pear wine going at the moment, just a little...about five gallons.  One gallon of that has very little alcohol, two are just about right, and another is still very sweet with little alcohol yet (it was much cooler than the others).
 
Australia allows personal distillation if I have my facts straight.  They apparently respect some personal liberties that we dont over here.  
 
Without a still, you could infuse some grain alcohol or vodka with your stone fruit perhaps.  Strain through a coffee filter after letting set for a few months.

Amazing that they would allow any, most countries, the US included, are so desperate for the taxes that they get plumb nasty about it.
Few things are more dangerous than getting between pols and money!!!!!

I have done some looking, it appears that Kiwis can make moonshine legally, but not  Ozites.
Oh me!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pinched this off of the net re UK;

QuoteI took the trouble to look this up a while ago in 'Halsbury's  Laws of England' which is the legal encyclopaedia used by the  courts and lawyers in general. It is very authoritative. Basically, the  situation is this. You can't distill alcohol without a rectifier's licence  (Alcoholic Liquor Duties Act 1979 s18(1)).
 
If you do and are caught  you will be liable to pay the duty on the alcohol in the spirits you  make (currently £19.56 per litre) and to pay a fine of whichever is  the greater of £250 and 5% of the duty payable. (Finance Act 1994  s9(2)). Forget getting a license. There are rules about how large (or  rather how small)  the still can be which would render any home  device unlawful and in any case you'd have to pay the duty which  sort of defeats the object. As far as I can ascertain, you are not  committing a criminal offence by distilling alcohol. All the above are  civil matters. I assume that Customs and Excise would seize all your  product and your equipment too.
   
In short, you might say that the  consequences of a raid on a genuine hobby distiller making liquor  for him or herself would be embarrassing but not necessarily  disastrous. As for the likelihood of getting caught; well I have never  heard of a case in my lifetime (I'm 47). My own guess is that the  Customs an Excise are far too busy chasing drugs and liquor  smugglers and dealing with  VAT fraud to bother with a small  time....... Hang on,   there's someone at the door.

QuoteHang on, there's someone at the door.

I don't always 'get' British humor, but occasionally it is very funny.
 
 Paul

I am chuckling here too, Paul.
 
 My dad still has my great grandparents still. (Not in use of course!) They, along with a lot of others in northern WI, kept Al Capone and his buddies in Chicago and Milwaukee in the good stuff. They got innovative and put the coils in ice water to make the evaporated alcohol flow faster. I'm not sure how it all worked but that's the story I heard.