Great Gin Recipe Discussion

[howard]

Hi everyone,
I have recently ordered a 120 litre still to make only gin & vodka.
I have seen on this forum some great recipes for gin and what botanicals to use but how do I know the quantity of each botanicals to use in a 120 litre still.
I am a newbie and would appreciate so advice from an experienced distiller.
Peter from Port Arthur in Tassie.

agree with nathan, that's big.
ok for making the neutral/vodka you will need (i assume it's a reflux still?)
but you probably need to experiment with a small still to play with different recipes and gin styles.
for the past 18 months,i am still mainly doing 2L runs in a glass still, playing with about 6/7 different recipes, tweaking them as i go along.
good advice to me, was to start with OEG and use this as a kind of starting point/benchmark.
then continue with more botanicals as you wish.
there are some charts with suggested juniper/litre, coriander/litre and other botanicals at x/10 and x/100 (x = juniper weight).
have you made neutral/vodka before?

[Carol]

Hi Koonya
Making gin is good fun.
I have a small setup - 25 litre boiler - 2" FSD reflux and pot still.
My method is to make a good quality neutral and add a gin extract ( see Zymurgy Bob's gin extract on this site).
I can play about with different botanicals and make gin of different strength ( flavour not ABV). So if I am making gin for friends i can make a strong gin flavour if I like or less so for those who like a weaker gin taste.

So I guess step one is to make a good quality neutral.
I use TPW ( tomato paste wash) but others prefer a cereal based wash.

Once you have that sorted you can think about the botanical side of things. Gin preferences are often a matter of personal taste so I guess the place to start is thinking about what sort of gin you like - and that might help you decide on a flavour profile.


Odins Easy Gin (OEG) is a good starting point.

Cheers
Carol

[hobbit60]

Hi all good aussie distiller peeps,

I have now made my first neutral and made my cuts. I ended up with 1.7 litres @ 62%. 850 mls went into the feints jar for Ron.

Anyway, my setup is a Chinese pot still with a thumper. I want to do my gin run this weekend. I have all of my botanicals already (the interwebs is wonderful, innit?). My question is -

Should I macerate the botanicals in the 62% neutral and then strain that and put said botanicals in the thumper? Would this produce a balanced gin flavour or would it be too strong? I intend to proof down to 35% for the run and charge the thumper with the low wines and possibly the botanicals.

Then I will proof down the resultant spirit to 40% for bottling, of course. Any advice from the combined wise heads from this group is welcome.

[howard]

Hi all good aussie distiller peeps,

I have now made my first neutral and made my cuts. I ended up with 1.7 litres @ 62%. 850 mls went into the feints jar for Ron.

Anyway, my setup is a Chinese pot still with a thumper. I want to do my gin run this weekend. I have all of my botanicals already (the interwebs is wonderful, innit?). My question is -

Should I macerate the botanicals in the 62% neutral and then strain that and put said botanicals in the thumper? Would this produce a balanced gin flavour or would it be too strong? I intend to proof down to 35% for the run and charge the thumper with the low wines and possibly the botanicals.

Then I will proof down the resultant spirit to 40% for bottling, of course. Any advice from the combined wise heads from this group is welcome.

i don't think you can make a gin that is too strong in flavour, because you can always 'water' it down with neutral.
i've personally not heard of anybody running a thumper for a 3rd gin distillation, tell me why?
low wines/gin/thumper?
you've already done all the hard work producing a good neutral, the rest is easy.
mascerate the botanicals in 40-80% neutral and just pot still it.(diluting to 40% of course)
the worst thing to do, is not stop the run before some of nasty flavours come through.
i just throw everything from the masceration, including botanicals & peel, into my 5L glass flask.

[hobbit60]

i don't think you can make a gin that is too strong in flavour, because you can always 'water' it down with neutral.
i've personally not heard of anybody running a thumper for a 3rd gin distillation, tell me why?
low wines/gin/thumper?
you've already done all the hard work producing a good neutral, the rest is easy.
mascerate the botanicals in 40-80% neutral and just pot still it.(diluting to 40% of course)
the worst thing to do, is not stop the run before some of nasty flavours come through.
i just throw everything from the masceration, including botanicals & peel, into my 5L glass flask.

Ah! Brilliant! Exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks Howard.

I wasn't very clear about the "low wines", was I? What I meant was the 62% neutral watered down to 35% for redistillation. Still learning..........
I'll just macerate as you suggest and run it without the thumper after dilution. Easy once you know how. ;-)

[howard]

i don't think you can make a gin that is too strong in flavour, because you can always 'water' it down with neutral.
i've personally not heard of anybody running a thumper for a 3rd gin distillation, tell me why?
low wines/gin/thumper?
you've already done all the hard work producing a good neutral, the rest is easy.
mascerate the botanicals in 40-80% neutral and just pot still it.(diluting to 40% of course)
the worst thing to do, is not stop the run before some of nasty flavours come through.
i just throw everything from the masceration, including botanicals & peel, into my 5L glass flask.

Ah! Brilliant! Exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks Howard.

I wasn't very clear about the "low wines", was I? What I meant was the 62% neutral watered down to 35% for redistillation. Still learning..........
I'll just macerate as you suggest and run it without the thumper after dilution. Easy once you know how. ;-)

as for the length of the run..........
it depends on the botanicals, but there can be some astringent or grassy flavours come through near the end of a run.
a good marker is to aim for collecting as per odins method of 400ml per litre.
so a 4L run, i will collect 1600ml (4 x 400ml) in one jar, then usually collect in 4 x 25-50ml samples.
then mix as required the next day.

[hobbit60]

as for the length of the run..........
it depends on the botanicals, but there can be some astringent or grassy flavours come through near the end of a run.
a good marker is to aim for collecting as per odins method of 400ml per litre.
so a 4L run, i will collect 1600ml (4 x 400ml) in one jar, then usually collect in 4 x 25-50ml samples.
then mix as required the next day.

What great advice. I KNEW that this forum would be a life saver.

I'll have about 3.1 litres in the boiler @ 35%. So that should give me about 3x400ml and another 4 x 25ml samples. I'll take the samples from the end of the run - yes? I note your comment about the astringent flavours at the end. I must admit, the chemistry of this fascinates me.

Thanks so much. Producing ca. 3 btls of gin will make my wife very happy. I was quite brutal with my cuts, so I am expecting it to be quite drinkable, barring disasters.

[howard]

as for the length of the run..........
it depends on the botanicals, but there can be some astringent or grassy flavours come through near the end of a run.
a good marker is to aim for collecting as per odins method of 400ml per litre.
so a 4L run, i will collect 1600ml (4 x 400ml) in one jar, then usually collect in 4 x 25-50ml samples.
then mix as required the next day.

What great advice. I KNEW that this forum would be a life saver.

I'll have about 3.1 litres in the boiler @ 35%. So that should give me about 3x400ml and another 4 x 25ml samples. I'll take the samples from the end of the run - yes? I note your comment about the astringent flavours at the end. I must admit, the chemistry of this fascinates me.

Thanks so much. Producing ca. 3 btls of gin will make my wife very happy. I was quite brutal with my cuts, so I am expecting it to be quite drinkable, barring disasters.

i think some astringent flavours come from cassia, among others.
note that gin does not taste great straight from the still either (mine doesn't anyway :smile: )
it takes about 5 weeks to 'mature', but there's a big difference after just 3 weeks.

[hobbit60]

it depends on the botanicals, but there can be some astringent or grassy flavours come through near the end of a run.

i think some astringent flavours come from cassia, among others.
note that gin does not taste great straight from the still either (mine doesn't anyway :smile: )
it takes about 5 weeks to 'mature', but there's a big difference after just 3 weeks.

I ended up collecting in 300 ml cuts. I discarded the tails - you're right - not nice flavours at the end. I ended up with 2.75 700ml bottles @ 40%.
It louched quite a bit when I proofed it down to 40%, but that doesn't bother us at all. It's all about the flavour, and I gotta say - what a great result! And that's after a day! I can't wait to see what it is like in a few weeks.

I now have thorough WAF for this hobby. Her words - "That's awesome! Already better than most gins we buy, and I can't wait to see what it's like in a few weeks. The expense and effort really was worth it." She said what most people tend to say about this - the citrus is a bit too prominent straight out of the still, but it was still excellent.

Not much expense though - as I already had the fermenter etc. from beer brewing, it was really only the still, alcometer and the gas ring. It has already more than paid for itself.

[herbertgeorge]

I'd like to offer this modified gin recipe based on the original.

It's apple and fig gin and I get nothing but compliments on it, even from people who tell me they don't like gin (usually interpreted as they don't like strong juniper flavour).
In this recipe, the juniper is dialled down to 40g. Everything is more or less the same with some minor tweaks to star anise and some of the other spices.

Buy some dried figs, and dried apple slices. I use kitchen shears to coarsely chop the dried fruits into smaller chunks.

Because I use a 2" still and my gin basket is 2", I put a layer of about six marbles, then a dessert spoon of mixture. Another six marbles, another dessert spoon, and so on to improve flow and prevent everything packing down too tightly and choking the still. If you have a bigger still, you probably won't have this problem.

Dried juniper berries - 40 g
Raw almonds - 6
Dried fig - 2
Angelica root - 3/4 tsp
Orris root - 3/4 tsp
Star anise - 1/2
Cassia bark - 2 scrolls
Ginger (ground) - 1 tsp (have also used glace ginger cubes to good effect)
Black peppercorns - 3
Dill tips - 1/4 tsp
Whole cloves - 6
Grains of paradise - 6
Dried apple slice - 4
Nutmeg (ground) - 1/4 tsp
Allspice (pimento) - 6
Coriander seeds (ground) - 1/2 tsp
Cardamom - 1 pod

I prepare the ingredients in a container (like an empty ice cream container) so that at the end, I can fold everything together to coat the chopped fruits with the ground ingredients.

Crack the almonds, peppercorns, grains of paradise, cloves, pimento, and cardamom pod using a mortar and pestle.
Then smash up the cassia bark scrolls a bit and add them to the container.
Bruise the juniper berries too.
Coarsely chop the dried fruits and add them to the mix.
Measure out your dry, powdery ingredients, then spread them evenly over the whole mixture.
Use a dessert spoon to fold the ingredients together until evenly coated.

When I load my gin basket, I insert a muslin bag and add my ingredients into it; mostly to try to prevent the powdered ingredients from ending up in my column packing.
I prefer to leave the chopped fruit toward the top of the basket, but it also works if you evenly mix everything through and add a bit of everything at a time.

I add the loaded gin basket after I have removed foreshots. If your distillate starts to turn yellow, you need to add more marbles between layers to improve flow (again, if you have a large gin basket, this probably won't be a problem).

I've uploaded a tick sheet that I use when adding everything so that I don't lose track.

Give it a go. I'm told it has a pleasant "honey-like" after taste.