globalmark wrote:HI guys
thanks for the reply
Big rig - thanks for that info i will give it a try your way as seems more sensible - lemon murtle (have a local tree nice)
question after mascerating for 5 days do you leave the botanicals in the spirit and distill or do you sieve it first then distill ? or do you use a muslin bag or something ?
So if i understand right you discard first 50ml and keep 1.5litres which is then diluted to 42% (so you actually finish with more then 1.5litres of GIN from 4litres in correct ?
EXTRA question - can i save what came out all those jars what do you suggest mix it all together and redistill or mix it with more neutral spirt and macerate more i have all jars and % still listed before - thanks guys
Sorry i should've added some context to my previous post. I have ran plenty of gin through the airstill and with much experimentation and a gin snob brother as a sounding board came up with my steps in the earlier post. This results in a good drop.
I put the macerated spirit and botanicals straight in the air still, no sieve or muslin cloths.
Assuming you are starting with a nice clean neutral you don't necessarily need to take a "heads" cut as this would've been done during the neutral spirit runs but the botanical flavours do come across at different stages throughout the run, i do make cuts as follows which end results in the quantities in my previous post.
1. first 50ml will have an off taste and is full of oils. dump this. dont try and keep it, it will just spoil the booze - trust me i tried.
2. i collect in 250ml cuts - i take 6 then turn the still off.
3. let them air a little then combine. taste if you want to see the differences between jars, there will be big swings in flavour, smell and mouth feel. You will likely hate them all individually but thats the beauty of chemistry.
4. dilute down to 42% and let it sit a bit so the flavours really combine. I wait 4-5 weeks. Once done i end up with 3-4 bottles.
Re; Extra Question - if you have the spare neutral and botanicals i would make another batch and use the stuff you already have in the jars to dilute the new batch to be added to the still.