Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Calling Gin Experts (Well at least more expert than me, which in't hard :)) ),

Currently running a Boka reflux still. I have recently had some great success with making delicious gin via the post steeping method (steeping botanical in neutral spirit already diluted down to desired abv).

I am keen to give vapour infusion method a go buy placing a basket with botanical just below the boka head.

My question, how would the quantities of botanicals in the basket differ from those used when post steeping? Do i need to consider using more or less?
Any other advice greatly appreciated.

No expert here either, but I would make vapour infused gin in a pot still, not a reflux column. Make good neutral (hearts) in your Boka, then dilute to 20-40% ABV and redistill in a pot with a basket or bag in the vapour path. You will collect from 80% to 20% and because you have used good hearts can combine everything to give drinking strength (~40% ABV) without further dilution (and possible louche effect troubles)
Not sure about quantities, but for vapout infusion I aim for 20-35g of botanical mix per litre of finished product. probably more than what you need for infusion - I guess.
Cheers rs

Agree with the above. Boka heads can be run as a pot if the tap is completely open, don't attempt to run with a botanical bag and reflux as you'll have hot high abv liquid pouring out the top.
I had a 300mm section made up which had no packing and fitted a botanical bag in that.
With a controller you then have the ability to move on to flavoured washes such as rum or wheatbix allbran...

If using a beer keg as the boiler, put 45 litres of 45% neutral into it.
Then put the botanicals in a basket or dilly bag in the column.
My recipe is:
150g juniper
40g coriander seed
10g angelica root
0.5g dill tips
5 cardamom pods crushed
4 black peppercorns (or 50-50% with pink peppercorns)
Pinch of carroway
1/2 tspn lavender flowers
1 big basil leaf
1/2 tangello zest
1/2 lemonade zest
1/2 lisbon lemon zest
1.5 stick cinnamon
3g Rose buds - Optional

The juniper is crushed using a mortar and pestle.
This gives a lovely flowery gin that no one has disliked. The juniper could be cut back a bit if you think it's too much.

No higher than 40% and if using a bag be careful of what its made of synthetic material, dyes etc will leach..

YarraRanges wrote:If using a beer keg as the boiler, put 45 litres of 45% neutral into it.
Then put the botanicals in a basket or dilly bag in the column.
My recipe is:
150g juniper
40g coriander seed
10g angelica root
0.5g dill tips
5 cardamom pods crushed
4 black peppercorns (or 50-50% with pink peppercorns)
Pinch of carroway
1/2 tspn lavender flowers
1 big basil leaf
1/2 tangello zest
1/2 lemonade zest
1/2 lisbon lemon zest
1.5 stick cinnamon
3g Rose buds - Optional

The juniper is crushed using a mortar and pestle.
This gives a lovely flowery gin that no one has disliked. The juniper could be cut back a bit if you think it's too much.

So you made 40ish L of Gin with this recipe. Gin for days.... personally id up the botanticals for that amount of gin

agree, for 45L the amount of botanticals used appears to be at the lower end - but then, maybe, its meant to be a lighter gin...

I might be wrong but a 45l charge of 45% is only going to produce a max of 20l of product and most likely much less, probably actually around 15l but after good cuts would end up in the 9 or 10l range

When detuning and running as a pot still you want to start with clean already cut neutral so 45L @40% is what the botanical should match which you probably won't achieve in one basket and may require to or three stops to refill.
Cinnamon is usually the last to come out so after a jar with strong cinnamon I'd be shutting down and swapping to new botanicals

Thats a good tip coffee.

ir44,
There have been numerous threads on gin and, as the saying goes, there are multiple ways to skin a dog. :teasing-tease:
Several options for what you can put in your boiler: some use crude washes (e.g. TPW), some use low wines (heads/hearts/tails) and some use well cut, clean neutral (hearts only).
The thing with Gin (and any other flavoured vodka) is that the flavours from your botanicals are unevenly distributed across the run (in my opinion this is tmperature/abv dependent): citrus-floral is coming of first, while the earthy flavours (e.g. cinnamin, orris, etc) come through in the end. Basically, if you use un-cut base spirit, these flavours will overlay with your heads and tails, which you dont want in your final spirit. Thats why you should be using good hearts as your base spirits, because you dont have to worry about heads/tails. If you take cuts during such a run, you can also mix according to taste and create quite a variety of distinctly flavoured gins.
Cheers RS

YarraRanges wrote:If using a beer keg as the boiler, put 45 litres of 45% neutral into it.
Then put the botanicals in a basket or dilly bag in the column.
My recipe is:
150g juniper
40g coriander seed
10g angelica root
0.5g dill tips
5 cardamom pods crushed
4 black peppercorns (or 50-50% with pink peppercorns)
Pinch of carroway
1/2 tspn lavender flowers
1 big basil leaf
1/2 tangello zest
1/2 lemonade zest
1/2 lisbon lemon zest
1.5 stick cinnamon
3g Rose buds - Optional

The juniper is crushed using a mortar and pestle.
This gives a lovely flowery gin that no one has disliked. The juniper could be cut back a bit if you think it's too much.

I thought urs tasted good :handgestures-thumbupleft: not just my opinion, a mate tried it too. Got the big :handgestures-thumbupleft: but I’m not much of a gin drinker :))

I use Odin’s Gin recipe. Hearts from a TPW, 5 litres at about 40 to 43%. Leave overnight in the boiler with 100g crushed juniper, zest (my zester is better for not getting any white, can’t do the same with the peeler) from 4 mandarins (wrap the zested mandarins in glad wrap they will keep for a couple of days so I don’t have to eat them all in one day!) and about 15 to 20g of coriander seeds crushed. Leave to soak in the boiler overnight. Whole house smells like juniper! Ditch the first 10mm (dunno why but that’s what it said to do) then collect the next 2 litres (400ml x 5). Recipe is for one litre so I times by 5, except the mandarin as it’s stronger than a tangerine. Turns out a good gin. Done with the T500 pot/dome. It’s basic but tastes good. All who have tried have said its good. I triple distill all my product so the gin is basically distilled 4 times so turns out very smooth. I do allow it to age for as long as possible. Tho the first we were drinking after a few days! But the flavours definitely improve with time. Had some 6 week old a month back and geez it’s good. So I better get gin making before the mandarin season is over. Would like to add another ingredient or 2 but unsure what to use at this point. Maybe peppercorns. Thinking of rose petals...will have to pinch a rose from my neighbour when she’s not looking (92 and deaf so I can sneak in :)) ).

Smiffyandmissus wrote:I use Odin’s Gin recipe. Hearts from a TPW, 5 litres at about 40 to 43%. Leave overnight in the boiler with 100g crushed juniper, zest (my zester is better for not getting any white, can’t do the same with the peeler) from 4 mandarins (wrap the zested mandarins in glad wrap they will keep for a couple of days so I don’t have to eat them all in one day!) and about 15 to 20g of coriander seeds crushed. Leave to soak in the boiler overnight. Whole house smells like juniper! Ditch the first 10mm (dunno why but that’s what it said to do) then collect the next 2 litres (400ml x 5). Recipe is for one litre so I times by 5, except the mandarin as it’s stronger than a tangerine. Turns out a good gin. Done with the T500 pot/dome. It’s basic but tastes good. All who have tried have said its good. I triple distill all my product so the gin is basically distilled 4 times so turns out very smooth. I do allow it to age for as long as possible. Tho the first we were drinking after a few days! But the flavours definitely improve with time. Had some 6 week old a month back and geez it’s good. So I better get gin making before the mandarin season is over. Would like to add another ingredient or 2 but unsure what to use at this point. Maybe peppercorns. Thinking of rose petals...will have to pinch a rose from my neighbour when she’s not looking (92 and deaf so I can sneak in :)) ).

Indeed. Odin's recipe is a great way to dip your toes into Gin world. If I could offer one piece of advice? If your planning on storing that gin for 6 months or more, you will need to add a fixer. Angelica or Orris root will do the job. Add either of these at 2 grams/litre during maceration.
As for other ingredients? Green Cardamom pods are excellent in gin, as is Cassia bark.
Hope this helps :smile:

Sorry I've been away for a while and didn't notice this thread had developed.
The recipe I posted gives about 23 litres at around 75-80% which I dilute back to 40% for drinking strength.
I use a 100mm dia stainless steel botanical container which has very fine holes punched into it. It is 180mm deep and the botanicals nearly fill it. It is placed in the vapour path just below the vapour output. If you're using rose buds go down to 18% as the rose oil doesn't start coming over until you're almost at 20%.
I've never had a complaint with this recipe. People that smoke tend to need more flavour. Four Pillars Gin in Healesville steep their botanicals in the pot overnight before starting the run. I find their gin too strong and oily. Smokers seem to like it though. It's all up to individual likes and dislikes.

Getting ready to get ginned up