In Development - CH Gin Basket

punkin

Excellent mate. I have a couple of customers waiting.

cooperville

this is fantastic Lloyd well done on getting the GB out for the lads! congratulations

radiatorboy

So whats the size of the basket? So I can start planning to build my copper one to fit the basket?

punkin

You'll have to wait till either Awesome gets his today or tomorrow and hope he'll measure it for you, or wait for Lloyd to get back from holidays and measure mate.

Lloyd

@radiatorboy, I'll send you a PM with the measurements when we return home.
We are getting nervous posting too many measurements here now because it makes it so easy for milehi and mcsteal to copy our products.
If they want to steal from us the very least they should do is to actually buy one :))

radiatorboy

Thats a good idea. Thank mate

crozdog

I road tested the gin head over the wekend. What can I say - bloody awesome! Simple as to setup & run. I ended up with a beautiful end product that a few gin fiends I know really enjoyed after it was in the bottle all of 5 hours. haha

I only had about 100ml of condensate in the bottom of the head after a 6L run. The condensate was quite watery and not very strong in terms of botanicals - that surprised me a lot.

The not so funny thing is I was that I was that excited I forgot to take pics!

Gotta put another botanicals order in soon cause this batch aint gunna last long ;-)

The all grain corn cooking experiments might be going on hold so I can make more TWP base...maybe I just need more fermenters! Does anyone know where I can get cheap 60+l fermetners in Sydney?

Philter

Check Gumtree for second hand ones Croz. There always seems to be someone selling 'em.

punkin

Plasdene are cheap if you want new ones. That reminds me, i have two choke washers for that head sitting here for you, i better post em off.

Lloyd

Finally got a chance to play with the GB4 today.

On the left are two cups of mixed herbs and spices that we usually cook with. Coriander, star anise, bay leaf, capers, etc., 45 grams in each cup.
In the center is dried banana chips. 595 grams in each of two baskets. On the right is fresh sliced ginger. 695 grams in each of two baskets.

I setup the GB4 like this:

I filled the boiler about half full of water and threw all the power that I have to throw - 6kW - and loaded the first basket with the handful of herbs.
This basic test was to try three completely different flavors using both water and alcohol for the extraction. Water was first.
I collected 1 liter of water-extract from the herbs, changed the basket and collected 1 liter from the bananas and then a liter from the ginger.

I flushed out the condenser and emptied the housing between each basket change.
To change the baskets took less than 5 minutes each. I unplugged the elements, waited 1 minute, then drained the housing and discarded it, flushed out the condenser and the funnel and lastly changed out the basket and closed the housing drain valve. After a few times I started to get good at it.

I then added 1 gallon of water to the boiler to cool it down before adding about a gallon of my best 95% neutral. Then repeated the process using the exact same weight of each 'botanical' as was used for the water extraction.

Now for the interesting part; the results.
The bananas carried over no smell or flavor with the water. No smell with the alcohol either but there was almost the tiniest note of banana, almost.

The herbs had a good strong smell with the water but almost no flavor. Using alcohol, the herbs had a stronger, richer smell and lots of flavor. BUT the interesting bit is it was even better when 2 parts alco extract was added to 1 part water extract.

The ginger was the kicker. Great smell with the water extract but almost no flavor. Weaker smell with the alco extract but a much richer flavor. When combined 1 part water extract to 2 parts alco extract it was superb.

These will be great additions for my cooking. The banana water was tipped down the drain but the banana tainted vodka will not go to waste. Too bad about the bananas but someone had to try it.

Oh, yes... the GB4 comes with an end cap to close off the unused port (that allows it to be either left hand or right hand) but a sight glass lens could be used there instead and it would make it easier to see inside of the housing.

Also there seemed to be very little difference between using water or alcohol on the botanicals - they all came out of the basket just slightly moist, not wet and not dry. The bananas did pack a bit and were leathery instead of crispy.

There is a world of flavors out there just waiting to be extracted. My eye will be a little more focused the next time we go shopping for veggies. I'm thinking citrus!

crozdog

Hi Lloyd, interesting the difference between water & alcohol - especially when combined! have you tried to use it in your cooking yet?

I have also found the botanicals are a lot drier than I expected.

Do you have a flower market nearby? I reckon essential oils & floral waters are also candidates for the GB4

Lloyd

I have made the ginger and the herbs before, they were a hit and when gone they were sorely missed. This batch is certainly better than the last.

There is a great assortment of dried fragrant flowers here that are used to make tea. Some are insanely expensive. And there is also a lot of stuff that I have no idea what it is or what the English name would be.

I've seen cucumbers listed in gin ingredient lists before but I fail to understand why that flavor would carry over and the banana would not. @minime told me once that pineapple also doesn't carry over well.

punkin

Maybe cause the banana was dried?

Law_Of_Ohms

try a radish next time!

punkin

Or a durien?

crozdog

NO - NOT DURIAN!!!!!!

punkin

:))

FullySilenced

The Durian... wtf is it

The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour that is strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as pleasantly fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and revolting. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as almonds, rotten onions, turpentine, raw sewage. The persistence of its odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia.

The durian, native to southeast Asia has been known to the Western world for about 600 years. The nineteenth-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace famously described its flesh as "a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds". The flesh can be consumed at various stages of ripeness, and it is used to flavour a wide variety of savoury and sweet edibles in Southeast Asian cuisines. The seeds can also be eaten when cooked.

NOW I KNOW ....?

punkin

Big fella's too

Lloyd

I can't even walk down the produce aisle if there is durian without wanting to barf.
Same with stinky tofu. It's just disgusting.
We saw a sign above a stinky tofu vendor that read, "Guaranteed to stink or your money back". Not to be outdone, the next vendor's sign read, "Guaranteed to stink or we pay you 10,000 RMB". They seem to have confidence in the offensive odor.

Moonshine

+1 for the DURIAN >:)

StillOnFire

Instead of a safety valve, a simple U trap filled with water works fine to keep the vapor in. I use one on my still . I use about 300mm, which would bubble at about 1/2 psi, but have never even come close to doing so, except in the very early stages of boil when the CO2 escapes.

Smaug

FYI this complete assembly is now available in the US

Lloyd

@StillOnFire said: Instead of a safety valve, a simple U trap filled with water works fine to keep the vapor in. I use one on my still . I use about 300mm, which would bubble at about 1/2 psi, but have never even come close to doing so, except in the very early stages of boil when the CO2 escapes.

Please post the pictures over here, @StillOnFire.

StillOnFire

A better design would be to have a small tube coming down into a larger diameter tube going up. This way you are less likely to blow out the water in the event of an event. But this works.

Lloyd

It occurs to me that some companies are charging hundreds of dollars for a simple piece of pipe with a plate and a few holes drilled into it. These are inline with the column so you'll need to scrub out the boiler after use and there is no possibility of making quick basket changes (because they have no baskets).
For StillDragon users the same thing could be done with a $5 filter disk.

@StillOnFire, thanks for the picture. It gives ideas.

Lloyd

So far the gin basket, GB4 (gin basket 4"), is a hit.
Punkin will get his order of six GB4's in about 3 weeks or so. A couple of units were expressed to Australia already.
The first batch sent to the US sold out quickly and the new stocks by sea freight has just arrived. Smaug is asking that I direct the remain stock from the first 50 sets that we produced be sent to him on his next order. I'll hold back 2 sets to fill the international orders.

To me, the interesting part will be when the owners of the GB4's begin to create and share recipes - and to use them in ways that we never imagined.

It was, from beginning to end, one of the hardest and most expensive projects to produce and certainly the most time consuming. Really proud of this one.

If you are in Australia or New Zealand and considering getting a GB4 you may want to contact Punkin and have him reserve one for you. My lead time for the production run is months instead of weeks like most of our other products. We have started preparations to stock up on all Dash parts to combat the February, month long, shutdown because of Chinese New Year. Most factories begin refusing new orders in early January to clear the books and when they open in March they are inundated with new orders. Products begin to flow in late April or so and every year this has been more of a problem as we have grown. Just saying it could be July of next year before more GB4's are produced. I'd start the production run now but the bulk of the 50 that were made has just arrived in USA and our resources are best spent supporting the Dashes, especially the 4" but also the 6" and 8".

I'm keeping mine. I've taken a few parts off of my personal still to fill an order before but I'm not parting with my GB4.

Smaug

Lots of inquiries here in the US

Lloyd

@Smaug said: Lots of inquiries here in the US

Always your inquiries equate into us running out of stock. That makes me nervous.

I'm not ready to make more GB4's because:

1. They are hard and take a long time to produce
2. I just send you a big bunch of them
3. I want to play all day and avoid work
4. They are hard and take a long time to produce
5. 50 more sets will detract from the core Dashes
6. I just want to play all day
7. They are hard and take a long time to produce
8. I really, really want to play all day
9. They are complicated to produce
10. I only want to play all day

So now you have 10 solid reasons why the GB4 is difficult to produce.

jbierling

I assume the GB4 could be used with the 8" bubble still, but are there GB8's in the works?