For steeping in alcohol, any strong inexpensive alcohol will do. Vodka is the most flavor neutral (or a local equivalent? avkavit?). Though it's cheap, I don't recommend everclear, that's pretty rough on the palate! If you want to impart flavor from the alcohol too, you can use brandy, rum, whisky, whatever... dried apricots in brandy, for instance! Yum! Also raisins or other dried fruit; once I did dried asian pears in amaretto, which was delicious. I got some cranberry-infused liquor for Xmas. We did a jar with all the ginger root peels from making pickled ginger; it was great, and we were able to keep topping off with vodka for quite a while before the peels ran out of flavor.