StillSmart

Here is a method which is allegedly good for infusing spirits in a couple of days rather than weeks - not tried it but thought it was worth passing on:

http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/ ... sed-vodka/

That looks nice and tasty common sense I suppose just like sloe gin

That's a good tip on blanching bitter things like lemons. I have been unimpressed with lemon when just macerating "raw". I'd skip this step if doing something sweet like blueberry (yumm).

Also as we all have stills, doing the maceration then re-running through the pot still works really well for a more aesthetically pleasing clear spirit with a hint of fruit or whatever you fancy. I've done apple and pear vodka, lemon, & blueberry this way.
If doing something with essential oils (like citrus) this comes off the still first, I keep it separate and you can add the oils back in a drop at a time to tweak the bitterness.

I'm also thinking about trying a straight vapour infusion using my gin basket - lime feels like a good one to try that with, will post back when I've given that a burl.

Well vapour infusion is a success. Works a little too well actually. I used far too much lime and it has come off waaaay too strong and sharp to be sipping neat, but it is rather nice in a long drink with tonic; vodka with a hint of lime it aint.

So either I'll cut it with more neutral, or chuck it back through the still to strip some of the flavour out. I'll wait a few days first to see if it mellows out a bit, as I said, it's quite nice long so I might just leave it.

I charged the still with 3.5lts of 50% neutral and added 5 litres of water for safety. I used my gin basket with the peel from 4 small limes - I think 1 would have done it.
took 30-40mls off really slow and discarded, I've learned from my gin making that the oil in this section can make the spirit go cloudy when cut to drinking strength (if you have ever drank absinthe, you'll know the effect I mean).
Then cranked it up to get a good twist on the output (about 1500w) running it right down to 15% - it got sweeter as the run went and was quite nice in that low ABV section so I kept going longer than usual.

Was done and dusted in an hour from the first drips.

If you had the time on your hands, and plenty of stock neutral I could imagine doing this with lots of different botanicals individually, then you could have stock of each to blend into lots of different gins for recipe development.

I have a jar of the Limoncello sitting. Two days in and it is tasty.

If you had the time on your hands, and plenty of stock neutral I could imagine doing this with lots of different botanicals individually, then you could have stock of each to blend into lots of different gins for recipe development.

I have been thinking along similar lines. It would fun to get a group of gin drinkers together for a "mix your own flavour" evening. It might lead to some good new recipes. If you can remember them....


Chuck

That would be good fun Chuck - I prefer busy\complicated gins one of my best recipes is pushing 20 botanicals, would take a long time to distil all those flavours individually

Also I find some ingredients need a cut (oily stuff at the start with citrus\juniper\caraway etc) or woody spice at the end of the run from things like star anise or liquorice - so its not just run it through, and bottle.

For ease I normally just macerate a little in a test tube and taste after 12 hours to get a hint of what its going to be like, and how well it imparts its flavour to the spirit - so you know do I use a little or a lot.
Its then good to keep these samples to help pick out that flavour in the finished spirit, so you know if you tweak it up or down for the next time.

I've lucked out with a few recipes - but I would say 10 generations of tweaking is about the norm for me before I really start to get a handle on the mix - also as mentioned the cut can be important too.
Oh its hard work

Capn'

20. Yes, that is a lot. I need to cut back to fewer and start learning the macerated tastes. Many of them I know from cooking, but this is very different. The test tube idea is excellent, I need to do that. Thanks! Do you have any suggestions for a reasonable amount of Juniper and Coriander to start with for say 2L of base? I'd like to find a drinkable base to experiment from.

On the quick infusion side, I just made one from mango, blanching the skin as in Jimmy's link and chopping up the pulp. One average sized, very ripe mango to 500ml of 45% base. Excellent!

Chuck

Well this is the problem - the variation between the quality of botanicals seems to be the biggest issue - I use Croatian juniper that seems to be really oily and quite potent - some folks are using really dried berries and seem to use quantities that I find undrinkable - so it was a bit hit and miss when I got started.

For vapour infusion I use around 1.1g juniper per 1L @ 65%
For distilled gin (maceration then distillation) I use around 2.4g per 1L @ 65% and infuse for 24-36h.

The coriander seed can range from 10% to 50% of your juniper weight, the coriander brings a citrus note to the gin.

One ingredient to get is orris root - it is used as a fixative in perfume making and does much the same in gin. If adding citrus peel to a distilled gin, don't soak it for the 36h, just add and hour or so before firing up the boiler else it tends to take over.

I mention 65% spirit above - I store my neutral at this strength but never distil anything above 40% - so this will be watered back down before running.

I run on the pot still - quite quickly, Normally I cut the first portion off the still as this is really oily and the juniper oil makes it taste like pine, and depending on the botanical list, it can start to get quite floral and woody somewhere around the 40-35% mark. So collect in jars and blend the sections you like.