Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I have been reading about various non-alcoholic spirits. I wonder if essences mixed with water instead of alcohol would create a suitable non-alcoholic "whisky" or "gin".
Has any one tried it?
I have several friends and family members who have to avoid alcohol for health reasons and wonder if this might be an option for them.

Cheers
Carol

I found a VERY old gin sachet in my stash of brew stuff. Have added it to filtered water and will give some to my non-drinking friends to see if the concept is feasible. I am sure that it has lost of lot of flavour - smells more like coriander than juniper - but will do as a first step. If it seems Ok but just lacks enough flavour the next step will be looking at available essences.

Cheers (sort of)
Carol

Did you distill it after steeping? Watched a thing on tv couple days ago bloke making alcohol free gin. But he used a whole lot more botanicals per batch.

Hi Bluc
It was a sachet of liquid so I just added it to filtered water to see what happens.
Instructions were to add one sachet to 1.12l 40% neutral.
I added both sachets as the flavour did not smell very strong. (it was porbably 10 years old LOL!)
I will see how it turns out.
Cheers
Carol

Was on this weeks better homes and gardens. Fast ed did the story. I think it will need to be distilled to drag the oils out and you may need to suspend the botanicals above the water steam will carry over the flavours like making essential oils. Good luck :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks Bluc
I have made a low alcohol gin by adding gin extract to water and this worked quite well. But there is still some alcohol in it.
One of my friends cannot have any alcohol at all. Even small amounts cause problems for her.
If this (not very flavourful) version does not cause any reaction - then a bottle or sachet of essence with water might work for her.

Cheers ( watered down!)
Carol

I got a bunch of targetted advertising around non-alcoholic spirits. Here's some ingredients, if that helps:

Gin: Water, Glucose Syrup, Natural Flavouring, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Stabiliser (Cellulose Gum [E466]), Quinine (Cinchona Bark). CONTAINS QUININE (Cinchona Bark).

Bourbon: Water, Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Natural Flavouring, Acidity Regulator (Phosphoric Acid), Preservative: Potassium Sorbate, Stabiliser: Cellulose Gum (E466), Steviol Glycosides.

https://lyres.com.au/

I've not yet tried any of the above products, so cannot attest to the taste!

Thanks Southern45
I will see if I can find out more about what flavours they use.
The "gin" gets delivered to its taste tester tomorrow . I am interested to see what she thinks about it.

"Cheers"
Carol

Delivered to the taste tester yesterday. Smelt more like juniper than coriander after sitting for a while. Taste tester reported that it tasted like gin! She was very happy that she could enjoy a gin and tonic with zero alcohol! So that has been a success. We will see what other varieties of gin are available as essences. Also looking at trying butterfly blue pea water to make a colour changing version.
Cheers (of the non-alcoholic variety)
Carol