Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Maka,

"The Doctor" makes gin by adding the botanicals to neutral in a Mason jar and pulling a vacuum on the jar then placing the jar in hot water.

The neutral will boil at a much lower temperature due to the vacuum.

I am not sure of botanical quantities, neutral ABV , how long in the hot water bath or the temperature.

Could be worth asking "The Doctor", it seems an easy way to make a drinkable gin. The resulting product will not be clear but could taste OK.

Vacuum is the fastest way to make gin period....about 10 minutes in a sous vide or water bath at 60*C and you are done...the quantity and type of botanicals are up to you.... just filter through a coffee filter.
cheers
Doc

Thanks Doc,

Is it there a difference when using drinking strength neutral or say 90 ABV?
I am assuming the higher the ABV the more vigorous the boiling action at 60 deg C.

Thanks guys,

So I am seeing here is that I probably had my alcohol strength too low to macerate (probably need to be at around 60% abv. and I had the botanicals macerating for too long.

I am going to try a vapour path method today to see how that comes out. What sort of volume do people generally run through the still when they are making a gin?

I am trying to do small batches so I can work with botanicals and see what I like.

I'm still not sold on the cinnamon flavour that comes through. Once the citrus and juniper flavours run out the cassia flavour takes over. I'm going to modify the amount in the recipe and try this again. Maybe strip it back some more

MaKa:
The idea is to try and make the cuts as the flavour changes and then blend to your liking altho i guess you should try it all as one the first time to get a baseline.
Which if that is what you have done then good stuff.
You want to try and use the highest %ABV you can so that all of the flavour can be extracted, 60% means there is 40% water in there as well and water does not extract the oils.
Water can start oxidizing and changing the flavour, which you may or may not like.

As an aside ...if you are using a basket in the vapour path...the florals and citrus will come through early...the woodier and astringent notes last...so time your baskets to only extract the parts you want.... I find that things start to get very "Woody" after about 25 minutes of contact.
Doc

Is there any benefit to doing 1 ingredient baskets?
Or is macerating a better idea if you are after a single flavour.

scythe wrote:Is there any benefit to doing 1 ingredient baskets?
Or is macerating a better idea if you are after a single flavour.

one ingredient baskets are a great way to do triple sec and single botanical vodkas....experiment, you will not regret it.
Doc

Could I please be pointed in the right direction to read up on how to vacuum distill, many thanks

Knocklofty wrote:Could I please be pointed in the right direction to read up on how to vacuum distill, many thanks

You need some very specific lab equipment to do it properly. Called a rotovap. Usually expensive and used in labs for solvent extraction. Homemade jobbies exist but I'm not sold on their effectiveness or reliability. Not sure what the Doc uses.
I've used them in a lab and they are incredible for speed. Never timed it but it'll suck a liter of alcohol out of solution in about 30 seconds to a minute.

Thanks for that

Wow, they are expensive

Knocklofty wrote:Could I please be pointed in the right direction to read up on how to vacuum distill, many thanks

This is the exact same set up I use to do the vacuum gin......................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4Rie59gp7g

Grind the botanicals of your choice.
Place the botanicals into the Ball Mason jar and add the alcohol. ( I used 45% ABV and I am not sure if this is correct, maybe a higher ABV solution is required)
Do as in the video clip, vacuum seal the jar.

I then turn my small boiler, with the concealed element, into a Sous Vide (hot water bath).............I use the power controller to set the water temperature to 60 Deg C ........... a cake stand is placed in the bottom of the boiler for the jars to sit on......................When the water temperature reaches 60 Deg C add the jars and leave for 15-20 minutes. ............strain the gin through 2 coffee filters to remove the botanicals............now it is ready to drink but it seems to improve with age.

The product tastes great but for some the color of the gin after the process is a bit of a downer. We are using one of these at present for our evening drink (gin and tonic with a squeeze of lemon) and it's very good.
This is a quick and easy way to produce a drinkable gin

Also have some AG whisky on oak in the Ball Mason jars and sealed them the same way, they also get the warm water bath on a daily basis for 1-2 weeks in the hope of aging a little quicker.

Ok, so your method is extracting the flavour without actually distilling it?
Thanks for sharing:-)

Not vacuum distillation. That's macerating with a heat up to accelerate the flavor compounds extraction.
Does the vacuum on the jars make any difference? Say different to just chucking a jar with the lid loose in the same bath for the same time?

warramungas wrote:Not vacuum distillation. That's macerating with a heat up to accelerate the flavor compounds extraction.
Does the vacuum on the jars make any difference? Say different to just chucking a jar with the lid loose in the same bath for the same time?

I was thinking the question about vacuum distillation was referring to a previous post by "The Doctor".

It is macerated/vacuum infused gin. the reason for the vacuum is to lower the boiling point of the alcohol/botanical solution to increased the flavor extraction.

Never tried with out a vacuum, it is a simple way to produce gin in about 30 minutes start to finish and easy to try different combinations of botanicals with out using a still.

All of what I have learned about vacuum infused gin comes from forum posts by "The Doctor", I like to try different things with gin and this method has been interesting. The color of the final product was a surprise.

Also use as close to 95.6% as you can, water does not extract oils well.

scythe wrote:Also use as close to 95.6% as you can, water does not extract oils well.

Thanks scythe, been thinking the higher the ABV the better, only used 45% ABV so far.

So rounding up the botanicals for this recipe at the moment for vapour infusion. For each fresh 'batch' of botanicals I put together, how many liters of 96% (watered down of course) neutral should I plan to use?
I'm using the last of that 40 mm zak sent me to make a short (140 mm) thumper cap to make an inline carter head (cheap and nasty version of) out of my thumper and my boiley mate is knocking up a basket out of some stainless chemical (new) filter mesh for me.
Cheers guys,
Warra

Oh. And merry Christmas. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Do people have any pics of their vacuum setup?

I have a mason jar attachment and a food vacuum sealer that lets me pull a vacuum then pops the lid on but I cant pull enough vacuum to get more than a few bubbles at 70'



Trying to get something going but having some trouble!!!