Botanicals per litre for the base of a flavoured gin

I read somewhere that for a flavoured gin the botanicals and specifically juniper should be reduced. I plan to half my juniper and leave all other botanicals the same, does anyone do anything wildly different?

Comments

  • I started off with lots of ideas and recipes based upon the imperical info you can find on the internet and the answer is you wont know until you try it. Your making gin with Botanicals and flavors can vary between a batch of botanicals and if your using different botanicals, non juniper and coriander, then you wont know what you have until you have run a test batch. For example I just made a gin using a south american botanical called Pitanga. Its got a Lemon Myrtle type of flavor, between lemon/orange/mint. I got my hands on two kilos of the stuff, which when made in tea is comes as leaves, stems and bark. Great different flavors. Anyway so I got 3 x 1 litre bottles added 600ml of distilled water and 400ml of pure ethanol and then tried three different combinations. one with standard juniper 20g/l and 10g/l coriander plus my other botanicals, one light 15/7.5 and other one really light 10/5 juniper/coriander. Then with the other botancials I put in my normal spread, and on the two lighter ones I put in my Pitanga at 1.5g/l and 1g/l. Put the whole lot of the top of my fridge where there are mild heat cycles and 4 days later I tried them. The winner was the lightest juniper load with the lighter pitanga. Then I did a run of 25l through my carter head. ie I made 25l of product. The final gin is very nice. Most people that I have given it too, I cant sell it just yet, absolutely love it. The people whose pallet I trust said I should back it off a touch to about .8 grams per litre. And I agree with them.

    So what is the moral of this post. You not going to know the answer to these questions until you try your recipes with the botanicals at hand. Start with 1 litre test bottles, or get a small 50 boiler and the excellent SD gin basket and do small runs. The other thing that people said on this forum that I thought I understood is that making gin and making booze in general is a very personal thing. You will have an idea of what you want different things to taste like. You cant get there with your fingers only with your tongue. And that takes writing recipes, trying test bottles, doing test batches and then making one that you taste and think. Hmmm yep thats me, I made this stuff. Right on.

    To answer your question a juniper heavy recipe is 20g/l juniper 10 g/l coriander balanced around 15g/l Juniper 7.5g/l coriander, light is lower than 15g/l juniper. It does depend on your juniper. I got one batch of Juniper that wasnt so heavy and I used 15g/l and it came out really light. I got another batch of 20kg and I use 10g/l for a gin that is lighter on Juniper and for other botanicals. I just did a Royal gin that was 20g/l juniper/10g/l coriander 1.5g/l zarzaparilla and 1g/l Pitanga and its divine. One of the times when you make stuff and say. Hmmm yess thats me. I made this great stuff.
    @needmorestuff keep at it. But with Gin experimenting and using your tongue is the key to success. Your freinds will love trying your experiments.

  • Thanks for the informative reply, I have cone yo the same conclusion... let's get testing!

  • @needmorestuff. One more comment gin you make with Juniper as an infusion will come out a bit heavier in juniper flavr than a vapor infusion. This is because the heavy juniper oils and tannins stay in the liquid. But you will get a pretty decent taste of what its like. I did a floral gin that I thought would work and one mouthful and I thought nope. Spittt.. I put in way to much camomille with my rose and lavender. So I threw it out. the test cost me about $4. So then I tried again, ditched the camomille. A but more lavender and rose and bingo. One more thing you can do is get yourself a gin flavor wheel diagram and when your designing flavors. You can see what the various flavors your after. If you want a couple of flavors that skew a gin in one flavor direction it will tell you what you need to do. I have developed 5 different gins that I am happy with each skewed in one particular direction on the flavor wheel. Now I just have to build my distillery and get selling my gin.

  • Excellent info thanks again

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