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the Doctor writes:
Bombay Sapphire quality vapor infusion Gin with
1x pot strip
1x 6 plate bubble cap
1x 2 plate bubble cap / pot hybrid with infusion basket
Which measures of the well known botanicals to start ?
Thanks for any suggestions
Alex
Comments
Not really any experience with Gin so far, as you may already have seen, the SD Gin Basket is not ready yet. Once it hits the market, there surely will be more to chime in.
StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area
We have a few gin guys here, i'm sure they'll chime in.
StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand
I am very intrested in making a gin. I have an idea on all the botanicals I wanna use but I am unsure on how muchjuniper to start with. I am doing a vapor infused gin. I am charging my boiler with 5 gallons of 40% abv stripped wash. I have a six plate bubble still. How much Juniper do you recommend starting with?
I can't tell you for sure how much juniper to use for two reasons. First, I'm a macerate-and-distill-and-dilute gin-maker, and second, it all depends on how much juniper flavor you want in your gin (Third, I don't know how strong your juniper is). Because the ratios of botanicals should be similar for maceration and vapor infusion (well, sorta), I can give you a starting recipe, and if it's too strong, just dilute it with vodka until you like it.
80 grams juniper berries 40 grams coriander 8 grams angelica root 8 grams cassia 8 grams liquorice 8 grams bitter almond 1 gram lemon peel 1 gram orris root
This should get you close, except maybe for total concentration.
Where are you getting your herbs and spices?
Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller
my book, Making Fine Spirits
Thanks zymurgybob. This gives me an area to start with. I just didnt want to jump into it and ruin a batch. I will be getting all of my botanicals from monterey bay spice company. Do you have a different company that you would recommend.
Moutain Rose herbs here,good quality may be a little on pricey side but always good!
It is what you make it!
Chef,
I've never checked out Monterey Bay Spice, but you might look at Penzey's Spice Company. One great selection of fresh strong and inexpensive spices. For the odd herbs (orris root, angelica root, licorice root, grains of paradise, etc.), I also use Mountain Rose.
Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller
my book, Making Fine Spirits
Any ball park figure on the max weight of average botanicals the gin basket will hold and function correctly?
from memory 400+g.
remember not to crush the botanicals.
I should be getting my gin head tomorrow. I would like to ask though if there is any downside to maceration. What I'm thinking is recycling botanicals that have been used in the gin head, and do a combined run of new dry stuff in the head along with alcohol that has been steeped in used material.
I do this gin blend, it's from bt1, some may know him. On @olddog's recommendation I use a cotton botanical bag in the neck of my boiler. Run it through 3 plates at 90%, diluted to 48%. It's a Bombay copy, and very nice.
I'd think the main downside is a "stinky" boiler that needs cleaning to run anything else. That's one of the advantages of the gin head.
+1 @jbierling
A dedicated rig prolly mitigates that if one where to be so lucky to have that kind of demand.
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People kept telling me don't do it in the boiler or the upward side, do it on the downward path to the pc, I have had no trouble with it stinking the boiler.
my boiler I use for gin has a removable lid, so I can put my gin basket right above it, as I can get in to scrub it down. If I couldn't do that, I'd definitely use an offset basket like the SD one. I'd also avoid doing macerated gins for the same reason, that some oils are hard to shift and will contaminate whatever you run in the boiler unless you can clean it down after the run.
I was given that advise and ended up with a big green oily mess in the collection jars. It smelled like gin but all the oils and crap from the botanicals dissolved and ran into the distillate which louched when water came anywhere near it. It was also a massive pain in the arse to clean the still afterwards.
Ended up being a waste of time, botanicals($) and neutral.
No Coriander seed - just the ground stuff in that @googe?
Sounds like a nightmare @unsub! I've read that a good gin should be a but cloudy because of so many oils carried over? I don't know. Mine is slightly cloudy, nothing like a taily rum etc. I just used dried coriander lucky liqueur. Ground everything in a mortar pestle.
Actually I like a heavy hand of coriander (in gin and in cooking).
Probably just me though.
For what it's worth:
I'm not using a Gin Basket (at the moment) but here's a recent maceration recipe just to illustrate the juniper / coriander seed proportions I'm accustomed to using.
I feel the more coriander used, the more suitable it is for a martini.
Macerate the following ingredients in 10L @ 45% for 2 ~ 4 days:
Pot still and dilute to 45% ABV
(I didn't have any citrus peel on hand at the time)
@Unsub using a tea ball, mesh basket or cloth bag in the downward vapour path will result in coloured output. The resultant product will be fine to drink but. Try "stretching" the product by adding more neutral if it is too strong.
@googe - its a nice blend that, some similarities to bombay / saph but also some additions eg dill, black pepper & anise & subtractions eg liquorice root, grains of paradise, cubeb
@crozdog, if you get past the color, any thing else, like the first bit being bitter or something. Thinking of rigging the GB4 backwards.
Sorry @rocky_creek i missed your post. colour is the draw back of using a tea ball, mesh basket or cloth bag in the downward vapour path apart from having to clean the smell out of a few components - flavour is fine.
What is the idea behind rigging the GB4 backwards?
crozdog - Putting it on backwards would allow the vapor to come in from the top and go down thru the botanicals. This would allow any liquids that condense to come on out. May not be worth a damn just thinking about "downward path". A half baked idea at this point.
Never know @Rocky_Creek, please give it a go and report back with your results.
That would work, but dunno it it adds or subtracts anything. Give it a try & report.
I have found that upward rising vapour that condenses on the botanicals drops into the bottom of the head because of gravity :-)
OK I will. But since I only recently got all my equipment together I am still setting up, cleaning and getting ready to go.
Placed here after reading a comment on another thread...
Here are the Standards of Identity for Gin in the US:
Europe has different defs:
And my favourite, although slightly different. Jenever.
where's the damn like button?