The Big Gin Thread

Homebrew

@needmorstuff

I am not producing commercially until at least May 2019.

I am doing R&D right now. It's not a hobby for me, purely a profession.

You are trying to make a cherry gin right? Sounds like a very tall challenge to get a cherry flavour from gin.

needmorstuff

yes, trying to make cherry..

hopefully it will be a profession for us but keeping our day jobs to start with, my salary is quite good so it will be a while before it can be displaced.

I've been in GIN R&D for 6 months.. making product for maybe 18 months. Got license approval on Thursday.

Homebrew

How long did it take to get rectifier’s licence from HMRC?

needmorstuff

about what they say, 40 odd days...

Homebrew

Did you have to do a telephone interview?

If you did the interview, what did you say when they asked you how you learned to distill?

I'm waiting for my lease to complete before I start the application.

Homebrew

@DonMateo said: homebrew. I have read that some pink gins use angostura bitters to turn them pink. I tried strawberry in a trial batch to not much success. Thanks for the hint on the hibiscus.

Missed your reply earlier.

Apparently Angostura bitters are used for the cocktail named "pink gin" rather than "pink gin" retail products.

Pink Gin @ Wikipedia

Certainly that is my understanding after reading quite a lot of information.
That certainly confused me at first - I though all pink gins off the shelf had Angostura bitters. This is not the case. The pink colour is from fruit: raspberry, red grapefruit, strawberry, etc.

DonMateo

@homebrew. That was my understanding. I am going to get my hands on some angustura bitters and try to make a pink gin. I have tried to color a gin with strawberrys but all I got was strawberries soaked in Gin. Which were still fantastic but no the recipe result I wanted. I am going to make some Neutral gin and then try my last couple of recipes and try my floral gin with some Hibiscus petals. Thanks for the tip.

DonMateo

I have said it before you guys are so great. If I was going to have another kid I would name him or her stilldragon forum brook. You guys are great.

Davidksa

Hi everyone, fascinating thread. I have been making gin for a little while. My problem is that the tails of the run (about the last 1/3 of usable gin) are tainted with a purplish/ brownish colour, still clear but I cant add it to my main run as I want a totally clear gin. It has good flavours still it’s just the taint that is the issue. I’m assuming some colour is being picked up from the juniper berries some how. I have a column reflux still. Any ideas on how to eliminate this taint? Many thanks

Kapea

Are your botanicals in your boiler, or a gin basket?

Homebrew

Why not recycle the tails section into neutral?

Adding it to your gin will ruin the flavour.

Davidksa

@Kapea said: Are your botanicals in your boiler, or a gin basket?

Hi @Kapea,
The botanicals are in a Gin basket.

@Homebrew, the tainted tails taste fine it is just the colour.

I think I may be putting too many botanicals in, my run is 15l at 40% with about 360g botanicals-185g juniper berries.

CothermanDistilling

You might have your boiler too full and using high power... and sending bubbles and froth up into the basket.. otherwise there will be no color coming out in the distillate...

punkin

Or not draining the juice from the bottom of the basket more likely.

Homebrew

Too many botanicals? That is 24g per litre.

I use way more than that and my tails are cloudy (due to heavier compounds) but still "white".

However mine is in the boiler and not in a vapour basket.

Kapea

Seems like I remember a thread on another forum concerning distillate tinted blue from copper compounds, caused by copper still components. It's been a while. I don't remember the details. Perhaps this rings a bell with someone on this forum?

punkin

Shweizers reagent or something? Needs to be an alkaline wash if i recall.

grim

What he said, named after a nazi officer who went crazy drinking the stuff.

richard

Anyone have a decent botanical ratio & list for a MEDITERRANEAN GIN.

I base my gin ratios / quantities on 30% ABV in the kettle.

Sam

So I have ordered some native botanicals to play around with and was going to make some 'one note hymns' to better understand each one's flavour profile.

My plan is to macerate the samples as the quantities I'm doing are to small to distill. I was wondering in people's experience am I better off macerating at 40% ABV or using higher proof at 96% ABV and then diluting down after extraction?

GD50

Don’t really know here as I would use a small lab glass still in this case. I vapour infuse but have started to put juniper and a few hard components in still and mascerate What are you going to play with as I use a few. Bought a boobialla only gin the other day and it was crap. Expensive crap.

richard

Macerate at 60% for 12 - 24 hours, dilute to 30% ABV and distill for a pleasant and mellow tasting gin

crozdog

@richard said: Anyone have a decent botanical ratio & list for a MEDITERRANEAN GIN.

I base my gin ratios / quantities on 30% ABV in the kettle.

I haven't experimented with a Mediterranean gin yet. Lots to choose from including olive leaf, basil, bay leaf, black pepper, cloves, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, garlic, lavender, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, paprika, rosemary, saffron, sage, savory, sumac, tarragon, thyme, and turmeric.

FYI, I base my quantities on the volume / abv I want to produce, not what I put in the boiler.

Sam

So my intention here is to keep it simple and just macerate and then pass through a coffee filter to remove any particles.

Im just doing this to get an understanding of the flavour profiles so am not trying to drink it or blend it into a gin, simply to start building. Bit of a flavour library for my own interests.

richard

@crozdog said: FYI, I base my quantities on the volume / abv I want to produce, not what I put in the boiler.

Thanks. I initially did it your way but I perceived this to be too hit or miss. Doing it this new way, I believe that I hit the consistency mark every time.

DonMateo

I have one. My main Mediterrenean herbs are Basil, Thyme Oregano and Rosemary. Some chomomile and lavender for florals, orris sarsparilla and almonds for earthy notes and a bit of black pepper, as well as the base Juniper Coriander and Cardomon. I made it here for all the Italians and people of Italian heritage. Its funny when they are tasting it or drinking it they almost always say. Wow reminds me of my Nonas cooking. Add a sprig of Rosemary with a gin tonic and its fantastic.

richard

Thanks. Very interesting.

I recently tried a hopeful Mediterranean recipe consisting of; Juniper, Coriander, Cardamom, Rosemary, star anise, orange peel, Basil, Lavender, Grains of paradise, Almonds, Cinnamon and Angelica root.

Basically it wasn't a well researched recipe and I think I had too many contrasting elements. Bottom line I didn't go WOW with the tasting.

DonMateo

I copied Gin Mare basically. If you want the combination of mediterean aromatics to shine dont overwhelm them with other things. One more thing you dont need a lot of basil thyme oregano and rosemary as they are very strong. This recipes needs a medium juniper load.

richard

Thanks. I think I may try it again later this week.

Clickeral

Ill create a specific thread once labels arrive and we've bottles filled/done a release (probably in the pro corner though)

Have partnered with a local bar that needed a distiller

Ran circa 20 bottles of our first commercial gin tonight, only using a 5 plater in potstill mode (100L boiler) at this stage aiming for 30-60L a week so small volumes.

Did a few batches end of year to dial the recipe in and been slowly scaling up. Need to get more botanicals for next batch.

But all legal and licenced etc, mainly going to be suppling the bar but see how we go

Nice to have gone pro in a smaller scale even if it is partnering with a few other people, always learning more.

So should be interesting going forwards.