StillDragon® Community Forum

Welcome!

Be part of our community & join our international next generation forum now!

In this Discussion

Dried vs. Fresh Spices for Gin

edited January 2019 in Recipes

Hello,

I am wondering what is difference between dried and fresh spices in the production of gin.

Currently I am using fresh lemon and orange peel. Do you have any idea how much dried orange peel would replace 100g of fresh?

Thanks!

Comments

  • For us, for the majority of the spices we use in our gin, "fresh" means "freshly dried" as opposed to "old" which means "dried and stored somewhere long enough to lose flavor". Lemon zest we use right off the lemon, and I'm not sure any amount of dried zest can replace the volatile oils lost when you dry lemon zest.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

  • too many variable to say definitively, variety to variety, supplier to supplier, year to year...

    the other thing is like @zymurgybob says, fresh zest / peel has an intensity that dried doesn't

  • So I was thinking right :) Thanks @crozdog and @zymurgybob !

  • edited January 2019

    I much prefer fresh citrus zest to dried peel.

    The latter is crisp and bright, and has a high fidelity flavor. The latter is, well, bitter and dull.

    The downside though, is that the terpenes from fresh peel have a more limited shelf life, as oxidation will destroy some of the most potent of these (d-limonene).

    What this means is your fresh-zest gin, will have a limited shelf life, especially after opening. I really think that really nice gins, with delicate and fresh botanicals, should probably be treated more like white wine. Stored cool, consumed quickly.

    I think this is also the reason that some gins can benefit from resting, as it allows some of the overwhelming d-limonene to settle down, and allow some of the other terpenes and less volatile components to shine through.

    If you've ever compared straight citrus oils to deterpinated variants, you'll get the idea immediately. Most straight citrus extracts smell and taste nearly identical, due to the hugely overpowering d-limonene. Remove some of the terpenes, and you can begin to very easily identify the specific citrus (lime vs lemon for example, or satsuma orange vs. navel).

  • @Grim is spot on on this one. From my limited experience I made a gin using a lemon myrtle type of tree called Pitanga. which is heavy with different lemoid compounds. The first 4 weeks the flavor was very heavy on the lemon. I tried it a few weeks later and they backed off and more orange flavors came through. 6 months later its a lot better blend of flavors. I love this webboard.

  • I have substituted fresh lime peel for lemon peel to good effect. What @grim says about shelf-life though. Better young than rested for months in corny kegs, or whatever.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • When I just made gin for my kids and friends, I was never concerned about flavor stability. Later I learned that orris or angelical root contributed to general gin flavor stability, so I use it, but I couldn't tell you what flavors it stabilizes.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

Sign In or Register to comment.