Pink Gin

[evildrakey]

I've tried to do a macerated gin, using a spice mix partially made up, partially derived from Renaissance aqua vitae recipes. I was looking for a Geniver like property to it, but due to the chokeberry and elderberry, damn stuff has gone pink, and then a rather deep red... Tastes like a very dry gin, with tart berry and spicy notes... Almost like a dry gin, mixed with Angostura, but really, it's rather unique... I macerated the spices in the spirit for 2 weeks - strained the spices put and filtered...

900ml Neutral Spirit - 92%,
900ml Pure Water,
40g Juniper Berries,
20g Coriander Seed,
10g Allspice,
10g Cassia Bark,
8g Grains of Paradise,
6g Dried Chokeberry (omit for clear gin),
5g Cardamon Seeds,
5g Long Pepper,
4g Mace Blades,
4g Anise Seed,
3g German Chamomile Flowers,
3g Fennel Seed,
3g Fresh Kaffir Lime Leaf,
2g Dried Elderberry (omit for clear gin),
2g Dried Linden Flowers,
1g Fresh Parsley Flowers,
5g of Malic Acid for stabilization and pH correction.

[Al Qaemist]

That's a large volume of botanicals for a couple of litres drinking strength - also a long maceration - If I were to dump 10g Allspice and 10G cassia into 2 litres I couldn't drink it - I use a "little" cassia when doing "apple pie" maceration and I have to pull it out after 4 days to stop it overpowering the drink.
Are the volumes & quantities accurate - or is this an essence that you add to larger volumes of spirit?


Al.

[evildrakey]

It's off the spices now - I'm going to water it down to about 30%. I'm coming to the conclusion that cassia's a bitch in the maceration and is causing some issues.
It's coming across now as quite a powerful gin with a very dry back finish. With some tonic water and ice, it's rather pleasant. Very much like you mixed a gin and tonic with Angostura...

But yeah, I'm coming to the conclusion that 4 days was enough and that I've got to cut back on the cassia back - it's powerful stuff. I'm normally a mead maker and I'm learning that spice mixes for mead and spice mixes for macerations are very different...

[wynnum1]

Has any one looked at growing juniper .
Juniperus communis, the Common Juniper, is a species in the genus Juniperus, in the family Cupressaceae. It has the largest range of any woody plant, throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30°N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.

It is a shrub or small tree, very variable and often a low spreading shrub, but occasionally reaching 10 m tall. Common Juniper has needle-like leaves in whorls of three; the leaves are green, with a single white stomatal band on the inner surface. It is dioecious, with separate male and female plants. The seed cones are berry-like, green ripening in 18 months to purple-black with a blue waxy coating; they are spherical, 4–12 mm diameter, and usually have three (occasionally six) fused scales, each scale with a single seed. The seeds are dispersed when birds eat the cones, digesting the fleshy scales and passing the hard seeds in their droppings. The male cones are yellow, 2–3 mm long, and fall soon after shedding their pollen in March–April.

[Al Qaemist]

wynnum1, 18 months to ripen, but I believe they can go several years without any berries between flushes. Also as you said the plants are sexed, so only the females produce berries.

I am able to get to bushes near by, but the quality is not as good as what i can buy from a distributor.

[wynnum1]

Are they grown commercially any where in Australia Brisbane may be the wrong climate .