Running through the process.

[NigelMG]

Here is the workflow I think I need to do, please correct me where I am wrong. First attempt at a gin.

I have Mash's late sugar wash virtually ready to run.

#1 syphon off wash & fill boiler.
#2 run still keeping everything other than foreshots. run till 40-50%abv. ( this I'm not quite sure about)
Next day or so.
#3 dilute alcohol to 40%.
#4 prepare bots & place in top cap of boiler.
#5 I need a minimum of around 3/4 gallon in my boiler. fill boiler with 40%abv ? ( also not quite sure)
#6 run still low and slow, collecting result in 250ml jars.
#6 taste and blend accordingly.
#7 if drinkable- drink.

Bots- Juniper, Coriander, Cinnamon, Angelica, Orris, Ginger, Orange peel.

First run probably tomorrow or Monday.
All pointers and corrections welcome

1 question. If a recipe is for 1 litre of spirit and I try 2 or 3 do I double or triple respectively the amount of bots ?

Thanks
Nige.

[phantom]

Never a gin monster around when you need one eh!

[Minimag]

I don't do much gin, but first distill I collect down to 30%, I don't discard anything, second distill I water down to 30%, I throw approx first 20% output and last 20%, collect all in the middle. You can calculate your output - for me say 20l at 30% equals 6l final. 1.2l heads and foreshots, 3.6l hearts, 1.2l tails. This gives me a good neutral (Vodka), but this on a T500. I then put 2l of this spirit and water down to 40% in my airstill, put in my sputnik with my botanicals, then collect all down to about 35%. This is then watered down to about 42%, makes a decent gin so I'm told - don't drink the stuff myself. There are different methods, this has worked for me, but so long as you dispose of the the foreshots, heads and tails somewhere in the process you should be good.

[Jennysgin]

Hi Nige,

You probably want as good a neutral as possible to start with. I think most people do a double distill, making cuts on the spirit run, then use the good hearts for a third gin run with the botanicals.

I tend to water down to about 30% for the gin run but I'm also using much smaller volumes with the airstill. Personal preference perhaps?

Re your botanicals, I'm sure that you've already got a recipe in mind but this might be helpful as a starting point for proportions if you're having a play around.
I'm sure I saw a better format for it but can't lay my hands on it just now!

gin_recipes_using_botanicals.pdf

[NigelMG]

Thanks for your replys, great information.
I will double distill before my gin run, and cuts on the second.
Thanks for the pdf Jenny, very helpful.
I'm looking forward to starting the distillation

Nige.

[BlindXX]

Definitely double distill first. I always run 40% through the still to get the flavours. I tend to cut off around 45% on the flavour run. Don't set yourself a target though - keep tasting as you go through the run. If you don't like the taste of what's coming off the still, don't put it in! You'll be amazed how the flavour profiles change through the run.

[Tollesburygin]

Hey BlindXX, did you get a licence to distill or rectify? If it’s a rectifiers, I presume you buy in GNS. Do you just dilute and do a flavour run or dilute, do a spirt run on the GNS and then a flavour run? Cheers

[BlindXX]

Hey BlindXX, did you get a licence to distill or rectify? If it’s a rectifiers, I presume you buy in GNS. Do you just dilute and do a flavour run or dilute, do a spirt run on the GNS and then a flavour run? Cheers

I have a rectifiers licence so yes, I buy in NGS. Procedure is exactly as per your first suggestion - immediately dilute down to 40% (much safer storage and ready to do a flavour run). All the hard work in getting a decent neutral has been done for me, it only takes one run to get a finished gin concentrate.

[Mash]

#5 I need a minimum of around 3/4 gallon in my boiler. fill boiler with 40%abv ? ( also not quite sure)

The AS recipe use 1 litre of 40% neutral & 1 litre water. That yields 1 x 70cl bottle of gin. You lose a bit of spirit to the angels.

1 question. If a recipe is for 1 litre of spirit and I try 2 or 3 do I double or triple respectively the amount of bots ?

Thanks
Nige.

Linear Scaling. This is the BRILLIANT bit about using vapour extraction rather than immersion. Just times everything up.

You don't need to blend, but it will benefit from standing for a couple of days. Allows it to combine.

Chin chin

[myles]

If you are making Gin you need an absolutely clean finished product as a starting point. This means a tasteless neutral, or in the case of Genever, a clean whisky.

Essentially though it means you need to start with a clean finished product.

You then add flavour to that.

Most producers will dilute their "clean base spirit" to between 15 and 20 % ABV. That way after their botanical run - to add flavour - their product is close to bottle proof. You do NOT want to dilute it again, because if you do so you also dilute the flavour that you have just put in.

The only exception to this is if you first make concentrated botanical essences - each one has only a single flavour component - and you subsequently blend these with neutral spirits to get your final Gin product.

Genever is different. It is essentially made by combining a clean white whisky, a neutral, and flavours - to make a unique product. I like it.

[NigelMG]

Thanks for all the information guy's.

Update.
First run took 5 hours. Yielded approx 3.5 litres 70abv.
Second run, centre 60% of the run kept at 90%abv.
Diluted to 40% approx 2.5 litres.
Third run. 1 ltr 40% + 1 ltr water. Bots 12g Juniper 6g coriander seed, 2g cinnamon, 3g orange peel, 3g ginger, large pinch angelica, large pinch orris, large pinch nutmeg. Placed in boiler cap.

Yield 1 x 50ml & 9 x 100ml jars. blended in 2 ways for 2 very quite flavors. Very strong coriander on the last 300ml.... first 50ml & last 100ml not used.
First blend 38%abv, smooth fairly strong coriander hit with a nice mixed after taste.
Blend 2 needed a drop of water to bring to 45%abv, Lovely orange odor, smooth orange and coriander with a sweet after taste, very nice.
One small problem, me and the mrs can't decide which is better so have to keep tasting, I must keep some so the flavors blend well.
I'll use less coriander, a little more juniper, ginger and orange on the next run.

It's drinkable, more than that, it's nice and the mrs likes it.
The flavor change through the run is very noticeable, the lovely orange 4th and 5th jars, very strong coriander from jar 7 onwards.

I really appreciate all the help you have given, I would be stuck wondering what went wrong.

Cheers
Nige.

[Mash]

Well done that man.

I wouldn't reduce the coriander of you want to taste more juniper. INCREASE both. Cori and juniper seem to have a strange partnership that deliver the flavour you perceive as juniper.

[Jennysgin]

Well done that man.

I wouldn't reduce the coriander of you want to taste more juniper. INCREASE both. Cori and juniper seem to have a strange partnership that deliver the flavour you perceive as juniper.

I hadn't appreciated that
Cheers Mash!

[NigelMG]

New update.

Things are turning bad
The flavors are blending and the product smells better, like a gin, positive.
BUT it tastes bad, very raw on the throat, now undrinkable.

I noticed a slight blue tint to the alcohol, also goes cloudy with tonic. It must be coming from the boiler.
I'm guessing an airstill runs hotter to pull the water with the alcohol, my still went off the gauge to pull the last couple of jars low proof, max gauge temp 195f.
This is hotter than any run since the vinegar run. I'm thinking this is where the nasty bit got picked up.

I clean the boiler and bits after every run with water and clean rags, then before I load the boiler with product I give a quick wipe out with a clean rag plus a little neutral.

Today I'm going to boil my boiler with some diluted alcohol left from my first 2 runs, monitor it very close and check for any nasty deposits.
Photo's 1st my product, 2nd my product with tonic.

my gin st.jpg

My gin&t.jpg

What do ya think guy's.
Nige.

[BlindXX]

Cloudiness when you add tonic can be caused by louching. Alcohol can dissolve a lot of things (hence our hatred of plastics in distilling). When you dilute the strength, the alcohol can no longer dissolve as much, so what was in solution changes to be in suspension. This happens to my gin - crystal clear after distillation at 71.6%, goes cloudy when diluted to 40%, slowly clears after a couple of weeks but has an almost iridescent look, goes cloudy when diluted with a mixer. I think its the citrus oils. Yours looks very similar to mine. I am a commercial distiller (all be it micro scale) so I know it's not any nasties in the alcohol as I buy that in. The taste I can't explain though, althouhg my homebrew neutral was never as clean tasting as the commercial neutral. It always tasted harsh and "muddy" as I could never quite remove all the flavour. So yeah, don't worry too much about the cloudiness.

[Mash]

Probably harsh from fermentation. Aeration helps.

[Minimag]

I think louching can be avoided by keeping the alcohol % above 42%, I may be wrong, but there was a reason I water the final gin down to 42% and not 40%

[Easydrinker]

My money is on louching.
I sometimes have it, mostly not.
You cannae taste it, it is a purely a visual, esthetic issue.

Robert,

[NigelMG]

A lot has happened in the last 2 weeks.
My mrs was involved in a motorway crash totaling our car, not her fault and no injury thankfully, a lorry span her round then dragged her along the motorway for a couple of hundred feet backwards all caught on her dashcam.

I found a problem with my boiler which is most likely the cause of my troubles.
After a run I kept finding a faint yellow residue left coating the inside. I made up a solution of citric acid, filled the boiler to the very top and left for an hour or so. After a clean and wipe out the copper came out much brighter but still a little residue after the clean, so another citric acid clean and hard scrub through every part of the still a couple of rinses with hot water and now no residue left at all. There must have been some sort of coating left on the copper and or muck in the folded seam.

I stripped the alcohol again, checked for residue, non left So I tried 2 different methods at producing a gin flavor with 2 different results.
First run with the bots placed in the cap with nothing in the column, second run with bots placed at the top of the column with scrubbers placed in the column below.

The second run turned out better flavor, high proof as expected so needed more water to bring to a sensible 45%abv, but smells just like a London dry.

I done a bit of research on louching, sometimes louching happens when there's oils etc present from botanicals, not a bad thing at all, can happen even with high abv.

I think I need to invest in an airstill once funds return, for my flavoring runs, my diy still now clean is fine for stripping and spirit runs, but not ideal for a consistent flavor run.

I'm starting from scratch again I did say I learn the hard way. Although the spirit has now had been distilled 5 times in total I don't really trust it, what its been through.

Cheers
Nige.

[Easydrinker]

Firstly, glad your Mrs escaped without physical injury.
Louching can be a bugger, I am never quite sure why it happened THIS time, and not others!
And don't forget to give your condensor the odd clean, it can make a difference.


Robert.

[Jennysgin]

That's scary Nige!
Glad your good lady is ok x

[Mash]

Blimey Nigel. You and your lady deserve a gin after that. Pleased she is OK.