GINS

[copperhead road]

For those that do not venture from the confines of these fences I found this on gin and by far its the best summary and explanation on Gin I have come across.Having my still custom made with whiskey and gin as the main targets to hit, I thought I would share it.
Professor G I thought you may be very interested in this read if you have not come across it yet, I hope you do not mind BT1 (gin master)
So it goes as follows -

[ GINS are a wonderful drink with endless variety. There's as many Gins are there are ppl making them. My thanks go to OD for providing the original recipe(below, slightly moded) and inspiration. it's been a road well travelled since.

If your keen as I am to get details on Gin varieties try this site ...it's a great ref and has category searches for say Modern/Traditional/Pot still/infused/Sloe styles so you can compare and get a feel for what's what. Use the compare function to get a complete ingredient listing.

http://gin.findthebest.com/

Not all Gins are the same there's a couple of really distinct differences in styles and methods of making worth a quick mention.

Gins - generally an infusion by adding a botanicals to spirit. Juniper based. Some nice flavours here

Distilled Gins - Can be done on most stills from a pot through to bubblers. A sub group London/Dry Gins are about a quality benchmark but typically all have the botanicals added to the distillation process by way of a caddy, bag or simply added to the wash. Juniper based generally.

Moderns- Not a method of making gins but a category typically having low botanical count using a distinct ingredients to achieve a specific taste.

Sloes- Generally an infusion make from the berries of the blackthorn bush, a relative of the plum. Fruit availability is UK Sept+, Tassie late summer.

The caddy/bag placement depends on what gin your making but for a clean oil free, high botanical count(4+ ), or using any thing that has oils present in the base ingredient generally use the upward path pre RC /turnover point so oils fall back to the boiler.

If your chasing a modern style , low botanical count or simply wish to get all the flavour and either skim off oils or don't care...downward vapour path is ok

Generally a clean low flavoured wash is required. Weetbix, pumkin or plain sugar, TPW (although these two can be sharp at times), for a pot strip run and spirit run required.

Here's a Bombay Sapphire clone - London Dry recipe as promised.

Cut & crush the following botanicals well and add to gin caddy or bag.

Botanicals
40-60g dried juniper berries depending on preference for lighter to heavier styles
4 almonds
3-5 strips 2-3 cm of orange peel, avoid white pith just the zest
3-5 strips 2 -3 cm of lemon peel, avoid white pith just the zest
2 strips lime peel, avoid white pith just the zest
3/4 teaspoon full of angelica root
3/4 teaspoon full of Orris root
1/2 star anise
1/2 teaspoon full of ground coriander
Cassia bark 1/2 a scroll or 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
3/4 teaspoon full of ground ginger
up to 3 black pepper corns
1/4 teaspoon dill tips
2 whole cloves

Options
Grains of paradise crushed
1/2 green cardamon pod crushed
1/4 teaspoon Lavender flowers diced
rose petals diced
Banksia flowers diced

With the lavender it can dominate early but fades after a few weeks. Rose is nice adds little to taste but makes it smell stunning. Point being you can add local variations like these you have handy and play a bit with sub batches of the run till you find one that suits you.

Also high botanical number gins have two states of drinking. The first few weeks or straight off the still, you get distinct characteristics of most of the botanicals.
Post about 4 -6 weeks when it's better combined.

A modern is best drunk reasonably young as your chasing the blunt edge of the fewer selected ingredients.

Allow it to air for a few days in moderate temps. Make cuts as always based on taste/smell both watered down and straight.

Don't go throwing out the distinct factions you find in your cuts until your sure you don't want them. Typically the citruses are present early, cloves, cinnamon later...other than the obvious tails you don't want it 's a blending dream to play with. Using a quality water, reduce abv to prefs and store.

I'll post up a couple of other type recipes soon.

Enjoy
BT1 ]

[Kenster]

CHR... nice post n well applied, sadly i got pissed as a maggot on gin when i was about 17, drinking it straight out of 7oz glasses, (about 40 years ago) and the thought of it still makes me want to puke. My sister in law just loves the stuff but i cant bring myself to make it.Some stuff just dont change...

[warramungas]

Links dead. For me anyway. :cry:

[Plumby]

Dead on my end too.

[Woodsy71]

Dodo here too.

On the subject of Gin, here's a handy link to botanical's https://www.diffordsguide.com/encyclope ... -explained

Also, take a peek at Artisan Distiller's Gin section. A lot of the info I believe CopperHead is trying to convey is described there :smile:

Haven't seen Bt1 on these shores for yonks :silent: