Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

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?

the rule of thumb is 20-35g botanical mixture / liter of finished product (@ 40% ABV) - I think.

rumsponge wrote:the rule of thumb is 20-35g botanical mixture / liter of finished product (@ 40% ABV) - I think.

That's a very interesting and useful bit of info :-B Don't suppose you remember where it came from do you? :think:

Drinking my second batch of this awesome gin now. As per original recipe with some extra botanicals. 16 all up. Stripped kale wash run through 4 plates, inline basket added above RC, after fores & heads bled off. Bought a bottle of Hendricks the other week as a comparo, this gear is at least equal to it. If not better, I may be biased but it has all the flavour but a bit smoother. By the way I'm drinking mine at 46% as opposed to 41.4%. As a real Gin should be.
This really is a great Gin :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Not bad at all. However I recommend changing the botanicals abit more. Every liter or so of 95% seems about right. First 2 jars were magnificent but that strong citrusy gin flavour petered off after that. Tasted and combined the first 2ish liters but it wasn't as good. Had the botanicals above the rc as my dinky t500 style boiler lid was struggling to take the weight of only a couple of plates let alone the big ass carter head setup I made out of my thumper.

Nah mate, all the woody botanicals come through after the citrus. Blend these back with the citrus end to get a nice Gin with some complexity, otherwise you'll just have a citrus vodka. Last run I collected 9.5 litres from 1 basket. Probably could have changed basket contents over after 5 litres but not every 1.
Also the strong citrus note will fade somewhat after a couple of days.

Just what i was about to say DB.
Have not made gin but have heard that the flavours come out at different points of the run rather than mixed all through it.

Just did my first Gin by this recipe. WOW. love it.

tripple distilled TPW Gin is just beautiful.

I did 4 30l ferments.
striping run
spirit run all of it.
then ran the gin recipe above the RC in a coffee filter to hold all the spices.
ended up with 3.5L at 90+%of really clean really good tasting gin.

thanks Guys for sharing this great recipe. My wife and all my mates wives are going to love it.

Dig Brinker wrote:Drinking my second batch of this awesome gin now. As per original recipe with some extra botanicals. 16 all up. Stripped kale wash run through 4 plates, inline basket added above RC, after fores & heads bled off. Bought a bottle of Hendricks the other week as a comparo, this gear is at least equal to it. If not better, I may be biased but it has all the flavour but a bit smoother. By the way I'm drinking mine at 46% as opposed to 41.4%. As a real Gin should be.
This really is a great Gin :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Sounds awesome and a bit jealous I dont have some gin right now to sip

I'm running a bit low at the mo but will be putting a big batch down soon. Let you know when I do, Shorty.

Speaking of Gin, I noticed my neighbors' orange tree is full & nearly ripe. Gotta grab a few & dry out the skins. I found the last batch I made, using supermarket fruit, was slightly bitter compared to the batch before that. Previous batch had a better citrus profile.

Dig Brinker wrote:I'm running a bit low at the mo but will be putting a big batch down soon. Let you know when I do, Shorty.

Speaking of Gin, I noticed my neighbors' orange tree is full & nearly ripe. Gotta grab a few & dry out the skins. I found the last batch I made, using supermarket fruit, was slightly bitter compared to the batch before that. Previous batch had a better citrus profile.

Haha i just order botanticals and put down a 60L ferment of tpw for my fitst gin. Always been to pre occupied with other stuff. Really pumped about it

res wrote:

rumsponge wrote:the rule of thumb is 20-35g botanical mixture / liter of finished product (@ 40% ABV) - I think.

That's a very interesting and useful bit of info :-B Don't suppose you remember where it came from do you? :think:

Hi Res, I posted a similar amount in reply to Lowies Spiced rum thread http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=10796, it's what has always worked for me.

Urrazeb wrote:

res wrote:

rumsponge wrote:the rule of thumb is 20-35g botanical mixture / liter of finished product (@ 40% ABV) - I think.

That's a very interesting and useful bit of info :-B Don't suppose you remember where it came from do you? :think:

Hi Res, I posted a similar amount in reply to Lowies Spiced rum thread http://www.aussiedistiller.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=10796, it's what has always worked for me.

Sorry, havent checked this thread for a while. the original ratio came from a yahoo group discussion on gin blends. Can be found on artisan distiller (not sure if I am allowed to post link, but google is your friend).

Complete novice here with a FSD Neutralizer and gin basket. I'm going to give this recipe a go for my first run after the sacrificial/cleaning run. The recipe as written on page #1 of the thread is for 25L. If I want to do a 75L wash, do I triple the botanicals? Is it a linear relationship of wash volume to botanicals quantity or some other ratio when scaling up?

I've read all the way through the thread and it sounds like I should: Use all 5x plates, run the heads and fores without the gin basket, put the still into full reflux and add the gin basket, then exit reflux and start my product collection. Is this a reasonable plan? I'm trying to keep it simple for my first go!

Assuming that is all correct, at what point should I stop collecting? When the product drops to a certain alcohol % ?

Borneogoat wrote:Complete novice here with a FSD Neutralizer and gin basket. I'm going to give this recipe a go for my first run after the sacrificial/cleaning run. The recipe as written on page #1 of the thread is for 25L. If I want to do a 75L wash, do I triple the botanicals? Is it a linear relationship of wash volume to botanicals quantity or some other ratio when scaling up?

I've read all the way through the thread and it sounds like I should: Use all 5x plates, run the heads and fores without the gin basket, put the still into full reflux and add the gin basket, then exit reflux and start my product collection. Is this a reasonable plan? I'm trying to keep it simple for my first go!

Assuming that is all correct, at what point should I stop collecting? When the product drops to a certain alcohol % ?

Run strategy is just about right. Stop collecting when the tails appear. Don't triple the botanicals, change the contents of the basket with a recharge of botanicals every once in a while. I change mine out every 40 mins.

Thanks Fishws, I just got back from the spice store and am getting excited! So every 40mins or so, just throw the still into full reflux and swap the goodies. I can handle that.

Apparently Biosecurity TAS makes getting grains of paradise difficult. I took a wild stab and grabbed some native pepper berries to sub. Anyone tried this? I know some of the local pro's use them, but no idea how much....

Hey BG, grains of paradise are used as a pepperish flavour. You can just use regular peppercorns, nasturtiums, native pepper berries would be a nice Aussie substitute.
Your run theory is spot on, I reckon you should run with maybe 1 change of botanicals, if that. I have collected over 9 litres of 92% on a single batch of botanicals and had great flavour throughout the whole run.

And I run down to >20%. Feints can be added to next run, or added to neutral run to add a slight juniper/citrus flavour to it.

Borneogoat wrote:Thanks Fishws, I just got back from the spice store and am getting excited! So every 40mins or so, just throw the still into full reflux and swap the goodies. I can handle that.

Apparently Biosecurity TAS makes getting grains of paradise difficult. I took a wild stab and grabbed some native pepper berries to sub. Anyone tried this? I know some of the local pro's use them, but no idea how much....

Yep, pepper berries will work, I have used them. Take 5 or 6 and give them a quick grind in a pestle and mortar. I have ordered grains of paradise into WA from a NSW herb and spice shop and there was no problem. Not sure if you can do that into Tassie.

Remember too, that you should blend the results of each botanical basket together as the flavours change through the run - light florals and citrus first, followed by the woodier stuff later in the run. The sum of the parts of one botanical basket make up a balanced gin.

Enjoy your run and your gin. Your first time will be a real experience and you'll be amazed at what comes out of the parrot. I did one run on the kit you have and had so much fun that I immediately went out and ordered a Carter Head from Mac.

Fish

Dig Brinker wrote:Hey BG, grains of paradise are used as a pepperish flavour. You can just use regular peppercorns, nasturtiums, native pepper berries would be a nice Aussie substitute.
Your run theory is spot on, I reckon you should run with maybe 1 change of botanicals, if that. I have collected over 9 litres of 92% on a single batch of botanicals and had great flavour throughout the whole run.

And I run down to >20%. Feints can be added to next run, or added to neutral run to add a slight juniper/citrus flavour to it.

DB, I'm not sure what gear you're using but if you run to 20% aren't you getting deep into tails? I'm brutal with cuts and use only the hearts - I want a clean, pure spirit that carries only the botanicals' flavour.

Each to their own, I guess and I'm sure it works for you.

Cheers,

Fish

There will be no tails when you only use hearts for a Gin run.
Which is what you should be doing.
Very neutral alcohol with desired mouth feel should be used.

All the flavours come out at different temps, so why risk missing one by discarding it due to the presence of tails?

Yep, as above. In the first few pages of this thread BC & BT1 talk about the rose flavour coming through at 30%. I don't use all the tails, obviously, but they don't all taste of tails. I collect tails about 100mls per jar, and 1 or 2 may make it into the final cut.