StillSmart

I was running low on gin the other day so ran a new batch. First time I'd tried this recipe, but I'm familiar with all the botanicals so was sure it would be close, and only need a little tweaking.

Charged the still with 5L of 56% aged neutral + 5L of water to bring the ABV down to 27% - the product will require minimal watering down to bring it to my desired drinking strength of 46-47%.

All botanicals ground with pestle and mortar (unless stated) and added to my gin basket for vapour infusion.

5g Croatian Juniper
2.5g Coriander seed
1g Orris Root Powder (no grind)
0.8g Bog Myrtle
0.6g Meadow Sweet Leaf
4 Almonds
5 Cubeb Pepper Corns
2" Lemon Peel no pith (no Grind)
1 Torn Up Basil Leaf (no Grind)

I took off about 100ml at a low trickle (about 700w on my still) I keep this separate - It taste of pine from the juniper oils, and a bit bitter from the citrus from the coriander and the lemon. If you feel your gin is not ginny enough you can carefully blend some of this back in a few days down the line when it has settled down.
I make this cut by taste, but 100mls is probably the max you need to cut.

I turn up the power until I get a thick twist on the output - about 1400W.
I'll keep increasing the power to maintain this twist as long as possible up to about 1650w. So this is no slow and steady run, it comes off at a fair old lick.

By the time you can no longer maintain a twist the ABV is starting to drop under 40%, and you need to keep an eye on it. I stopped round about 30%, it starts to get quite floral down there, and you can't taste the alcohol in the output.

Its a good one.

Thanks for the recipe.

I just nipped out to the local supermarket with my shopping list but apart from the Lemon, Almonds & Basil they just looked at me as though I was from another planet.

I will have to do some investigating where I can get Bog Myrtle and the like from, or are you prepared to give me a clue?

How do you measure 0.8 Grams of Bog Myrtle? It does not sound like a lot.

I use a cheap set of 0.1g "drug dealer" style scales.

The Bog Myrtle is dried so it is very light, 0.8g is quite a bit volume wise, there is an online place that sells it.

I'll send you down a gin starter set with a sample of some key botanicals if your really interested.

The problem with following an online recipe is the quality of the botanicals, if using old drier juniper, you'll need a bit more, this caught me out at first and my first few goes at it were like pine floor cleaner as I used waay too much:D
In the recipe above the juniper is good, and the coriander less so. There really is no replacement for experience of the different botanicals, and like a cook you can judge if something is hotter, milder, stronger weaker than the last time you used it and adjust accordingly, with the oily items you really need to crush fresh before you know what your working with.

Some UK links for procuring quality botanicals,
http://www.cotsherb.co.uk/
http://www.justingredients.co.uk/
bog myrtle http://www.totallyherby.com/

Not quite as good - but cheaper and of okay quality http://www.purplesage.org.uk/

the bulk items are tempting, but as you can see from the quantities above, would last a long time - fresh is often better. I keep everything in kilner jars or click and seal boxes.

Some other links if identifying things in your local surroundings.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm
http://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/

Captain, you may have inadvertently solved my "can't make drinkable gin in an AirStill" problem. Looking at your botanicals list vs 10L of water, I realized that I am probably making "gin essence"! I was getting some odd tastes and what I perceived as not enough juniper. So I kept adding more and more of everything. Now I suspect it is some notes overriding the others at excessive concentrations. I added a large (still too much) splash of my alleged gin to a goodly amount of vodka and some ice. Yes! Not excellent, but drinkable. Onward and upward.

Thank you!

Chuck

Hi Capt
Thata quite a mixture of botanicals in your gin. Can you please advise if your Gin remains clear when mixed with tonic. I have tried several concoctions of botanicals in the past and have found them to louche quite badly when mixed. My best recipe to date (no louche) is from a recipe found on Artisan site by Stone Cold. Its a great recipe.
Stone Cold O.K guys, I've wanted to make gin for a long time so I've been reading as much as I could and noticed that there were hundreds of ways to make it from recipe to technique. I took all I could find and sorta made my own and it turned out better than I ever expected.

Here we go:
60g dried juniper berries cracked
1g cardamon seeds --- I used powder because I already had it
1g coriander seeds cracked
0.5g dried cinnamon -- I used 3/4 of a stick
0.5 Anise Seed
and a hint of clove

I simmered all of the above in 1 liter of 50% neutral spirit for 10 minutes (the smell is wonderful). Be very careful if your using an open flame or you could have "issues". You may want to put a stainless steel bowl filled with ice into the top of your pot so you don't lose too much vapor.

Allow to cool and pour into a quart jar. Allow to sit 24 hours. Shake the jar everytime you think about it.

I built a small pot still using a 1.5 gallon pressure cooker and a liebig condensor (I'll post pictures after I polish it up a bit). I put 500ml of water in the bottom of the still and then poured the contents of the jar into the still ---- berries and all.

I ran this with very low heat until I had collected 500ml of a very medicinal, gin like essence. It was at about 120 proof.

To a 5th bottle (750ml) I added 40ml of the essence and topped off with 50% netural spirit and shook well. If you want your gin stronger just add a bit more essence or less for lighter gin. Being able to "adjust" the flavor is what made me use this method.

This gin has the most wonderfully complex flavor and is really easy to make. The flavor is somewhere between BeefEater and Burnett's and I love it.

I rarely get a louche, normally when doing a distilled gin (botanicals in the boiler) its more likely to happen - cant say its every happened for me with vapour infused.

That recipe sounds nice, but I think it wouldn't be one for keeping in storage for long.
Most commercial gins will contain a fixative of some sort, orris root, angelica root and bergamot orange are few that you see cropping up a lot in the botanicals bill. I find gins without these can be very tasty off the still but a few weeks down the line the favour has changed and normally not for the better.
There is lots of information about fixatives in perfume making, but harder to find out about them for gins. I would have no problem doing small batches without as I would drink them quickly, but would hate to gift a bottle to to an occasional drinker for it to lose the flavour you worked hard to create.

Hi Capt
5grams of Croatian Junipere. Is that dried berries or what.
Regards
Runningman (Patch)

They are dried, but still quite oily. I've bought some Juniper from the supermarket before and they were really dry by comparison, and you had to use a lot more.
I know your pretty local, If you fancy a pint one day, I could drop some off with a bottle of the gin too, drop me a PM.

I always used to think that I didn't like gin. Apparently, I just didn't like commercial gin - or at least the commercial gins that I could afford. These days gin is probably my favorite of all the stuff I make.

All done in an airstill, distilling on the herbs. I've only once had a problem with cloudiness (with one really juniper-heavy recipe), but I fixed that by upping the ABV a little. If you are distilling on the botanicals though, you might want to remove the first few ml that comes out of the still, especially it you have particularly oily juniper berries.

Hi Wormwood,

Can you share some AirStill Gin recipes? This is one thing that I am still trying to get a good result from.

Chuck

I'm no expert on this, but I've had good results following the advice of Odin, from homedistiller.org

You want about 20 - 30 grams of botanicals per liter, macerate in 35% ABV for 12 - 24 hours, dump the whole lot into the airstill and collect half the volume that you put it. So if you did a full 4 liter load, you would stop after you collected 2 liters of product. Then dilute to drinking strength (about 45% ABV seems good) and give it a couple of days to gather its thoughts.


Odin's recipe for Genever:

Per liter:

18g juniper berries
9g coriander seed
0.5g lemon peel (no pith)
0.5g orange peel (ditto)
0.5g mango peel
0.1 gram of liquorice

I did a batch of this with goji berries instead of mango peel and really enjoyed it.


For more of a London type gin:

Per liter:

10g juniper berries
10g coriander seed
1g bitter almonds (or apricot kernels, cherry pits, etc.)
0.5g angelica root
0.5g liquorice root

The quality of the ingredients seems a bit more important than the precise quantity and as I said, if your junpier is particulalry oily, you might want to discard the first few ml that come from the still.

You might also want to try adding small amounts of cinnamon, cardamom, orris, calamus, grains of paradise, cubeb, or anything else that takes your fancy - maybe start out with .25g per liter and see how it works. I'm intrigued by CC's use of bog myrtle - I've used that before in gruit-style beers. I may have to try some in a gin.

Captain i was going to have a go at this essence recipe from hd parent site

I use juniper berries by simmering them in 50% vodka for ten minutes (with the lid on), then letting it cool overnight on it's own. The next day I filter this mess through a couple of coffee filters to get a homemade (and better quality) gin essence. I use about 35 grams of juniper berries (crushed) and 350ml of vodka - 5ml (one teaspoon) will turn a bottle of vodka into a light flavored gin. 10ml make a more traditional, strong flavored gin. You can add other spices like cardamom, coriander, and lemon peel (about one gram of each) for a more complex flavor in your gin. Using 10ml makes a straw yellow colored drink.
Will this still require the fixative you mentioned above if so wich would you choose and how much for this recipe

Cheers

wormwood wrote: I'm intrigued by CC's use of bog myrtle - I've used that before in gruit-style beers. I may have to try some in a gin.

I'm not really blazing a trail, it's used in 2 of my favourite Scottish gins, Blackwoods and The Botanist.

billmcc wrote:Will this still require the fixative you mentioned above if so wich would you choose and how much for this recipe

You don't "need" a fixative, but I have had gins go south after a few weeks, that seems to have stopped since I started using them, so I'll continue doing so.
I'm still playing about to get the levels right, but starting somewhere about 3-5% is a good start.

All good mate
Cheers

Thanks Captain. I'd never heard of bog myrtle being used in gins, but then I'd spent most of my life mistakenly believing that I didn't even like gin.

If I recall correctly, they use bog myrtle in Denmark for making schnapps - but over there, they seem to use just about everything for making schnapps!