Ashley`s DIY gin extract concentrate
Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 2:10 amI seen a post on here where someone shared a make your own gin extract. On the thread I debunked why it just wouldn't work as an extract and promised to post my own gin extract which I use for creating all my gins. The extract posted on that thread even used water for the extraction and water is a terrible extraction medium compared to ethanol. Let's begin!
1lt neutral spirit 40%
200g juniper berries
100g coriander
5-10g orange peel
Crush the berries and coriander in a coffee grinder. Add these to a mason jar along with 1lt of neutral and 5 to 10g of orange peel. Remove most the pith unless you want a bitter orange heavy gin.
Leave the liquid to macerate for 5-7 days. Some people prefer a short 24 hour maceration but remember, we are trying to extract a huge amount of botanicals into a small amount of liquid. The long maceration time is most definitely required!
After 5 to 7 days add all the liquid and crushed botanicals from the jar into the still and start it up, then collect the first 75ml. Discard this. When the boiler starts dripping the first distillate will contain most of the oil from the botanicals and will be cloudy. This is called louching. If you do not discard this part of the distillate you will get a cloudy gin. It's not dangerous but it doesn't look particularly good!
Collect another 25ml and add a couple of drops of water. If the distillate stays clear and doesn't turn cloudy you are good to go. If it goes cloudy discard this 25ml as well.
Next collect 300ml of the distillate. This is your extract. Do NOT collect more.
This is enough extract to create 10 litres of juniper heavy gin like a London dry. And it can flavour upto 20 litres of normal gins that are not juniper heavy.
Add 30ml of this extract to 970ml of 40% neutral to create a litre of London dry gin or other juniper forward gins.
Add 15ml for creating normal gins that are not juniper heavy.
1lt neutral spirit 40%
200g juniper berries
100g coriander
5-10g orange peel
Crush the berries and coriander in a coffee grinder. Add these to a mason jar along with 1lt of neutral and 5 to 10g of orange peel. Remove most the pith unless you want a bitter orange heavy gin.
Leave the liquid to macerate for 5-7 days. Some people prefer a short 24 hour maceration but remember, we are trying to extract a huge amount of botanicals into a small amount of liquid. The long maceration time is most definitely required!
After 5 to 7 days add all the liquid and crushed botanicals from the jar into the still and start it up, then collect the first 75ml. Discard this. When the boiler starts dripping the first distillate will contain most of the oil from the botanicals and will be cloudy. This is called louching. If you do not discard this part of the distillate you will get a cloudy gin. It's not dangerous but it doesn't look particularly good!
Collect another 25ml and add a couple of drops of water. If the distillate stays clear and doesn't turn cloudy you are good to go. If it goes cloudy discard this 25ml as well.
Next collect 300ml of the distillate. This is your extract. Do NOT collect more.
This is enough extract to create 10 litres of juniper heavy gin like a London dry. And it can flavour upto 20 litres of normal gins that are not juniper heavy.
Add 30ml of this extract to 970ml of 40% neutral to create a litre of London dry gin or other juniper forward gins.
Add 15ml for creating normal gins that are not juniper heavy.