Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

You must be one of the few making your own wash Doc - very commendable. Would you mind sharing with us your recipe (also understand if it's your IP too...)? I used to use TPW but found it to have a residual tomato taste. I have been using Teddys FFV which is much better. My next step is to make an AG wash which should be better again.

I use Docs TPPW recipe, It’s on his Distilleries website under recipes I think.

Lowie wrote:You must be one of the few making your own wash Doc - very commendable. Would you mind sharing with us your recipe (also understand if it's your IP too...)? I used to use TPW but found it to have a residual tomato taste. I have been using Teddys FFV which is much better. My next step is to make an AG wash which should be better again.

Lowie if you have residual tomato taste, then you are not getting the spirit to neutral... assuming you are stripping before the spirit run... try more plates in the vapour path or running a bit slower with a fair bit of reflux from the deflegmator... any of the regular TPW recipes will do the job.
Doc

Anyone here grow their own botanicals?

bluc wrote:Anyone here grow their own botanicals?

some of our botanicals we grow... but being over a kilometre above sea level does limit what will grow.
Doc

I am thinking of maybe setting up a small hydro under lights setup and drying vac bagging excess...

bluc wrote:I am thinking of maybe setting up a small hydro under lights setup and drying vac bagging excess...

Why? Unless you’re selling it like doc what would be the point? I just priced to buy all the botanicals at less than $70 and that gives 250g of each, more than enough for years of gin. Way less than setting up a hydro set up.

I use whatever I can from my veggie garden. As in coriander seed, dill, rose petals, etc. The neighbor has oranges & other citrus, all organic. Juniper, orris etc from eBay, plenty sellers im sure you’ll find one you like. Other more common spices like cinnamon, nutmeg etc your supermarket will have.

I don’t think you’ll need a hydro setup unless you’re thinking of a different type of gin.

Thanks for your input, Doc. Much appreciated.

I’m just using an inline basket but haven’t seen any oil type residue carry over to my finished product. I only run small batches though, and pretty slow collection rate so maybe that keeps the oils down?

Dig lol yea I already have the lights :handgestures-thumbupleft: and just thought it would be a fun project.. Just how much money for botanicals per litre is needed? I thought it would end up being quite expensive if making a say 30l per year....dont know never bought botanicals or made gin..

bluc wrote:I am thinking of maybe setting up a small hydro under lights setup and drying vac bagging excess...

Hey bluc...we set up a 6 foot x 4 foot hydro set up for botanicals... I'm sad to say it was a disaster... every botanical has individual needs which mean't that we had one or two that were fine but others that did not perform at all... In the end we gave up on growing Hydro botanicals... luckily we have Austral Herbs just up the road ...so after six months of pushing poop uphill we gave in admitted that we could grow effectively outside ...but Hydro was a no go.
Cheers
Doc

Ok cool yea I was wondering about that last night having mixed plants in one system.

bluc wrote:Anyone here grow their own botanicals?

Not gin botanicals, but I have a good selection of absinthe ones.

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

bluc wrote:Anyone here grow their own botanicals?

Yes, artemesia absinthium for the white part of absinthe and artemesia pontica and lemon balm for the greening.
Also prunis spinosa (sloe plumb) for sloe gin and angelica for the angelica root fixer when making gin.
I've had no luck yet with a couple of juniper pines that I planted.

what ingredient/s in the gin give it the full flavour feel in your mouth? Is it the orris root?

May have missed it but....

I have a cheap Ebay Pot Still with a Thumper Keg. Can I somehow put the botanicals in the Thumper (Running dry)? I could even make a basket that goes over the inlet pipe???

You could soak botanicals in couple litres neutral put that in thumper then distill neutral through it...or put macerated straight in pot and don't use thumper.

Do you have anyway to hang a bag of botanicals above liquid level in either boiler or thumper?(only downside you can't change botanicala)

To chang botanicals you need to either have an rc(deflag) below basket put it in reflux and a way to slide a basket in out via 4" end cap or a big
Botanical basket or just make small amounts of gin and don't change basket..

Rolls912 wrote:what ingredient/s in the gin give it the full flavour feel in your mouth? Is it the orris root?

The neutral base spirit(some cheat and add glycerine). Wheat based neutral is popular for this as it has the wanted"mouth feel" :handgestures-thumbupleft:

One thing to remember is you'll need pretty clean neutral for a good gin... Which will take quite a few runs with a pot and thumper to accomplish.
Once you have a good neutral then soaking the botanicals in it for a few days straining and then running through a pot still produces pretty awesome gin!

Edit: speaking of gin some is heading your way in the mornings post bluc better late than never lol

Steeping in the alcohol for a few days is only good for smokers with damaged taste buds. Adding to that it becomes incredibly oily.
If you want a gin that you can quaff on a summer afternoon then putting your botanicals in the vapour path is the way to go. You get a lovely flowery gin that the girls love. A definite panty dropper. IMHO.

YarraRanges wrote: You get a lovely flowery gin that the girls love. A definite panty dropper. IMHO.

Why didn't someone say sooner... would of had a crack at some :laughing-rolling:

I did make a gin basket to fit in my bubbler to have a crack at it at some point... I'll just have to work on the theory if i like it, i must of got it half right. I've never actually tried gin to my knowledge. I do have someone in the family that could be my taste tester.