StillSmart

Unsure where to place this,but I thought it needed moving away from "What I did today.."

odins easy gin,
12 g juniper berries.
3 g coriander seeds
skin of one tangerine.
1 L 43% neutral
lightly crush the seeds, Macerate the seeds and tangerine peel in the neutral for about two weeks, then pot still discarding the first 10 mil collect the next 400 mil and dilute to 45%, store in a Demi John for five weeks, then drink.

So several weeks ago I followed alan with a go at Odin's easy gin,I totally messed up because I ran it through the still with all the macerated solids in it.
End result was very spicey in taste,not very pleasant,smelt great.
I threw it back into a demi-john with some mashed up Juniper berries and left it a few weeks.
This evening it has been re-distilled,after filtering out the solids.
Had a few sneaky tastes,and it is well junipered,but has lost the spiciness.
I'm glad to have rescued it,it is not bad at all,I'm looking forward to mixing the bottles,diluting down and getting into a G&T frame of mind.
If you are looking for a gin recipe,and can pot still,try it maybe.
Robert.

I can't buy any tangerines, out of season. Is there any other fruit that can be substituted?
David (xpc)

I freeze my skins. So I have when I need them. Coop have some yesterday.


Has anyone tried tangerine essential oil?

xpc wrote:I can't buy any tangerines, out of season. Is there any other fruit that can be substituted?
David (xpc)

Yes,expect a slight flavour difference,but you can try just about any citrus fruit,
Watch out for quantity/ratio though,don't substitute a whole grapefruit for a tangerine!
HTH.

Robert.

I usually use lemon peel (the outside only, not the white part), lime, navel orange, and sometimes dried orange peel. You can find the latter in Chinese and Vietnamese stores. I will post some of my gin recipes later when I have had more coffee.

Thanks Guys

Here are some of my AirStill Gin recipes. A few things to keep in mind:
- I like spicy Gin and I drink it straight or with ice
- I can be lazy and impatient
- I like to experiment

6g Juniper Berries
3g Coriander seeds
1/2g Anise Seed
1/2g Orris Root
3 Malabar black pepper
1 strip Lemon peel

Crush roughly, added to 850ml 50% neutral and distill. You might want to discard the first 10ml or so as it has a lot of the citrus oils. Collect down to 70% then into small (100ml) jars. At some point you are going to start getting what I call "low notes" (earthly, soft, violets). I feel this ruins a gin so as soon as I taste them, I stop collecting for gin and start collecting "gin tails". The tails I run later, carbon filter, and re-use for later batches of gin. I only carbon filter them as the very last thing through a batch of carbon before it is discarded.

This is my base gin lately for experimentation and daily drinking
15g Juniper Berries
5g Coriander seeds
3 Cubeb Berries
3 Grains of Paradise
1/2g Cardamon seeds
1 piece dried orange peel
small! pinch of Orris Root
small! pinch of Angelica
2 tsp Anise Seed
1 strip Lemon peel

Do not crush or macerate. Add to 1.8L of 50% neutral. Process as above. You can crush some of the juniper for a stronger flavour.

Chuck

Thanks Chuck,
After the recipes I just had to smile at 'for experimentation and daily drinking'

Robert.

Sooo... I have a little air still. Im guessing I should maybe add the ingredients after the stripping run and then run it through again after the two weeks its been sitting with the ingredients soaking in it?

Or is that completely wrong?

There is probably no wrong way, but there are many ways. I no longer soak the ingredients, others do. It is simply a matter of the taste you are going for and, er, how long you are willing to wait before you have a bottle of gin to drink.

Myself, I double distill, filter and then re-distill a third time. A good quality neutral produces a better gin. Lately I have been using re-distilled heads as the base for my gin (collect the heads until you have 2L, dilute to 4L, distill, and make a wider heads cut).

Chuck

Thanks Chuck. Do you put the ingredients in the still as well?

Yes, Lazy Man's Gin - just bang it all in the still, and fire it up.

Makum,can I recommend a second distillation before your infused one for Gin?
I may be wrong,but I would expect that to produce a better final product.
And my experience was that you take out/filter the botanicals for the final gin run,if not,for me then the results are way too spicey.
Does that make sense,it is late.....


Robert.

Quite true Robert, boiling the botanicals makes for a spicier Gin. I somewhat compensate for that by using less and for the rest, well, I like me a spicy Gin!

Chuck

Think I'll be dabbling with these recipes soon when I've lost my first wash cherry.