So I took some photos of me making my gin....

[Richard Jack]

Glen suggested that some of you might be interested in this. It was written for a non-brewing audience, so I've kept it pretty simplistic. No sneering now at the sugar ferment, it's getting stripped to neutral anyway :)

 

Link is here.

 

Anyone in Auckland is welcome to come around and try some! It'll knock the socks off most commercial gins.

 

If anyone is curious, the botanical bill was:

110g juniper

15g coriander seed

4.5g orris root

0.75g licorice root

1.3g caraway seeds

2g almond

0.8g cinnamon bark

0.2g dill tips

1.6g lemonade lemon zest

3.6g tangelo zest

3 cardamon pods

6 black peppercorns

2 sweet basil leaves

2 rosemary leaves

1 uncompacted teaspoon of nepeta petals

 

 

[denimglen]

I might be mental but I'm sure I read of hops being used in some (or a) bills.  Ever heard of anything like that?

[Richard Jack]

I broke my rule of never putting hops in spirits recently, for Reviled. Maybe he'll chime in and tell you about the results :)

 

Spoiler - it was fucking awful

 

I think there is one distillery at least in the states doing something they called a hopquila (dryhopped whisky), but every time I try to hop spirits, or distill beer, it's just a bitter, bitter disaster, literally. There is bierschnaps as well (white distilled beer), but I'm pretty sure that most commercial examples would distilled pretty pure, to almost neutral. That or not much hops. I've only ever tried one, there was very little beer or hops to it.

 

Didn't Luke have a lash at distilling an Epic beer?

 

As for in a gin... I don't know... Maybe I'll dryhop a little for an hour or so and see what it tastes like. Would certainly be a point of difference. Will report back later. I'll use something citrusy, maybe cascade?

[denimglen]

Haha I remember you telling me about the one you did for Tyler.  It's made me wonder about making some hop extracts to play with though...could be a good way of getting bitterness into the boil with the vege matter.

 

I heard something about Luke distilling too, ice distilled maybe though?

 

I'm guessing American citrusy or German herbal would be the way to go with gin?

 

EDIT:  Just did a quick google search, seems a few people made cocktails with gin and hops, that must have been where I got mixed up.

[Richard Jack]

Well, the gin's sitting on a cascade hop right now, so lets hope it's yummy :)

[Richard Jack]

Ok, after an hour, the sample of gin is a pale yellow/green, maybe a shade or two lighter than Roses Lime Juice. The nose is actually pretty awesome on it, if a little harsh. Drunk straight, it's a little too bitter, and it's harsh.

 

Mixed with tonic, it actually seems to make a bit of sense. The bitterness seems more refreshing, and less upfront, more in the finish. The lemon seems really exagerated compared to normal, and I haven't put a slice of lemon in the drink. Seems sweeter - had me checking to see that it was the normal tonic, which it is. The hop aroma isn't really there though, it sort of vanishes behind the gin.

 

Interesting.

[Andrew]

You could get some Iso or tetra hop extracts. Not sure of the availability from NZ Hops but you can get them from the UK, only problem is they're a bit pricy.

These would be ideal if you wanted to put them in a spirit as straight hops would get lighstruck in a clear bottle unless you were really careful with storeage, but; to be honest, I think it would taste a bit rough, I,m always open to be being proved wrong though ;-)

[James P]

That's awesome! I'm not a gin fan, but your process and write up are excellent.

 

What type of reflux did you make? I'm always reading about making a still, but never get off my butt! :)

[Richard Jack]

It's a vapour management design - pretty bog standard really, just a couple of tweaks from what would be a "standard" vm design that lets me run at lower reflux ratios and whatnot for white rums, which I've taken to refluxing for better esterification. It sits nicely at about 2 litres per hour with 95+%, so about as much as you can expect from a 2" column. That still might be for sale soon - building a bigger, faster one :)

[James P]

You'll have to post back when you build the new one, always interested in fabrication etc.

[Richard Jack]

Will do - will be more about the design though and less about the fabrication, I'm trying to find someone else to do most of the fab, tig welding is a bit beyond me, and I doubt my little propane torch will cope with 4" copper to stainless joints :)

[Barbara Joppa]

That's really cool! Thanks for sharing. 

We have a beginner set up still where we end up with 95% EtOH.  But the advanced bit for flavoring the gin is beyond us for now so we just use the flavour packets they sell. Where do you find some of your ingredients (nepeta petals, orris root) and do you think you could get a passable gin by just adding the botanicals into a bottle at 40% for say a week or so?

[Richard Jack]

Hey there -

I just have a little nepeta bush in the garden. Every now and then it dies of negligence so I get another from the garden centre for $3 or something. Orris root I got powdered from a soap maker.

 

I don't think you could make a passable gin through maceration alone, you'd end up with a bitter, green product. you can however just macerate them and then distill, which makes for a fine heavy gin. Most gins would be made that way. You would have to detune your column still into something aproximating a pot still in order to do that - happy to help you do that if needed.