Vapor lane Gin

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The Booze Pipe
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Vapor lane Gin

Post by The Booze Pipe »

I began a trip down Vapor Lane to Gin Town yesterday using a gin head fixed just above my boiler and below my riser. Recipe is as follows:
80g juniper berries
25g coriander
15g grains of paradise
4g cardomom
2g cassia cinnamon
2g lime zest
15g orange zest
2g anise seed
One half star anise
Five litres proofed to 80 making total 9 litres

All was roughly ground in electric grinder and distilled with a twice stilled sugar vodka. It needs a little more time to settle to show it's flavor profile. Initially the anise came over strong, but is already started to mellow.
13.5g/50L keg boiler
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Danespirit
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by Danespirit »

I assume the "sugar Vodka" is neutral.
Do you distill it in a pot still or a reflux still...?
I've experimented with some Gin recipes myself and must say I've similar experience with star anise...it's very easy to get an Ouzo like product out of it instead of Gin.
I'd ditch the anise seed and only add a quarter of that star anise. That will still bring a wonderful flavor over, but the penetrating smell of it would be softened.
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NZChris
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by NZChris »

Save the anise seed for your Absinthe and the star anise for your dinner and your gins will improve.
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Saltbush Bill
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by Saltbush Bill »

As mentioned above ,Id be leaving the Star anise and the anise seed out altogether too.
The amount of Grains of paradise your using is rather a lot as well. You could probably knock that back to about 4grams.
Some Orris Root added to the mix as a fixative will help stabilise the flavors as time goes by.
The Booze Pipe
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by The Booze Pipe »

Thanks for the advice I will give it a try on the next round. Everything I do is pot stilled. So yeah, the vodka is neutral.
I'm considering trying a wheat Sugarhead\wheat whisky for the base rather than the Birdwatchers style sugar vodka I'm using now
13.5g/50L keg boiler
copper pot still
modular 3" CCVM copper&stainless w/offset gin head
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by kimbodious »

give Googe's Kale recipe a go for a very clean neutral, I like it better than the TPW/Birdwatchers neutral, cheaper and easier too! - 50grams vitamized kale, 5kg raw sugar, 80g bakers yeast
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by kimbodious »

My gin setup uses two x two inch tees offset from the column. The infusion chamber is even slightly smaller than yours. With an offset gin head I can swap baskets mid-run. The idea is that I can have a heap of the small baskets with different ingredients in each if I choose. I am using 20 mesh stainless steel fabric, purchased from China on eBay to make the baskets. cheers!
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by kimbodious »

An early version of my offset gin head. I have a spacer in the bottom so that the bottom of the basket is at the height of the lowest part of bottom tee inlet. I now have a needle valve and short length of clear hose on the drain spigot
image.jpeg
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The Booze Pipe
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by The Booze Pipe »

I finally got a second run at this vapor infused gin.
5L sugar vodka @77% diluted to 9.5L @ 40%
80g juniper berries
25g coriander
7g Grains of Paradise
4g cardamom
4g orris root
4g Angelica root
3g cassia cinnamon​
3g lime zest peel
3g orange zest peel

Took the advice of leaving out all the anise. So far (as the gin is running out of the still) I miss the flavor of it; but I didn't like it overpowering the first batch either. I wasn't sure how much orris and Angelica to use, so I went with the minimum amount. I used half the amount of Grains of Paradise as well.
13.5g/50L keg boiler
copper pot still
modular 3" CCVM copper&stainless w/offset gin head
The Booze Pipe
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by The Booze Pipe »

The first week this gin wasn't all that great, overpowered by floral notes. But the second week flavors blended and mellowed some. The third week a little more. By the fourth week it was a superb gin! It was very fun to experience the change in flavors. And now it's just about gone.
Still, I miss a touch of anise. The next batch I might toss in a pinch of seed.
13.5g/50L keg boiler
copper pot still
modular 3" CCVM copper&stainless w/offset gin head
Pikey
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by Pikey »

Since you were starting with neutral, I assume you just ran it and did not try to do "cuts" ?
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by The Booze Pipe »

Pikey wrote:Since you were starting with neutral, I assume you just ran it and did not try to do "cuts" ?
I did not make any cuts on the gin run.
13.5g/50L keg boiler
copper pot still
modular 3" CCVM copper&stainless w/offset gin head
The Booze Pipe
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by The Booze Pipe »

Woohoo! I'm pretty excited to be running my third attempt of this gin. My base this time is 10 L @ 40% wheat vodka. Triple stilled it is very smooth and has great flavor.

Botanicals are very similar. I used three grams each of Angelica and orris. No orange peel (didn't have any on hand unfortunately), and added two grams anise seed.
13.5g/50L keg boiler
copper pot still
modular 3" CCVM copper&stainless w/offset gin head
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Danespirit
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by Danespirit »

With only two or three grams per 10 L, the flavor should hardly be noticeable.
They will add to the fragrance of the product, however.
I assume you used the other ingredients as per your recipe..?
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Lawfish
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by Lawfish »

You and I are in the same boat. I don't have a reflux still, so I have to make neutral by double-distilling. Have you tried putting baking soda in the low wines before doing your spirit run? It is very good at converting ethyl acetate to ethanol and getting rid of a lot of the heads.

With regard to the botanical bill, I find coriander to be overpowering in even minute amounts. Perhaps just my preference, but I've gotten to the point that I just put the tiniest amount in, like maybe 3 or 4 grams in a 4.5 gallon batch. The real improvement in flavor for me occurred when I got fresh juniper berries. The dried ones seem to have lost all their oils and don't really add much flavor.

But I don't have a gin head, so I macerate the botanicals for about 3 or 4 days before running the batch with the botanicals in the boiler. Makes a really good gin for my taste.
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bluefish_dist
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by bluefish_dist »

Just got back from England and toured two gin distilleries, one a small craft distilled (Half Hitch) and Beefeater. It was interesting that both did not do vapor infusing, but instead steeped the botanicals and then distilled. That looks much easier to do and it makes good gin.
Half Hitch also did some vacuum distillation of some of the botanicals separately and blended it in at the end. Btw it was quite good, can't say as much for the beefeater.
Both distilleries did not make the neutral that they used and it sounded like the licenses were different between making gin from GNS vs making a base spirit. Beefeater didn't even bottle it, they shipped it off to Scotland for bottling.
Beefeater did have several big plate stills to clean up the base spirit which they claim they no longer use. I would assume that they used to buy GNS and redistilled it to make sure it was clean enough.
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by The Booze Pipe »

Danespirit wrote:With only two or three grams per 10 L, the flavor should hardly be noticeable.
They will add to the fragrance of the product, however.
I assume you used the other ingredients as per your recipe..?
Yes, similar ingredients as last run. The 3 grams of angelica and orris are enough to come through; I don't think the anise seed particularly came through though.
13.5g/50L keg boiler
copper pot still
modular 3" CCVM copper&stainless w/offset gin head
The Booze Pipe
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by The Booze Pipe »

Lawfish wrote:You and I are in the same boat. I don't have a reflux still, so I have to make neutral by double-distilling. Have you tried putting baking soda in the low wines before doing your spirit run? It is very good at converting ethyl acetate to ethanol and getting rid of a lot of the heads.

With regard to the botanical bill, I find coriander to be overpowering in even minute amounts. Perhaps just my preference, but I've gotten to the point that I just put the tiniest amount in, like maybe 3 or 4 grams in a 4.5 gallon batch. The real improvement in flavor for me occurred when I got fresh juniper berries. The dried ones seem to have lost all their oils and don't really add much flavor.

But I don't have a gin head, so I macerate the botanicals for about 3 or 4 days before running the batch with the botanicals in the boiler. Makes a really good gin for my taste.
I haven't tried the baking soda trick. I'll look into it, thanks. I love coriander so that's why I use a lot. Yes, using the best quality ingredients for making gin is the key to great flavors! I find mountainroseherbs.com has the best quality West of the Mississippi
13.5g/50L keg boiler
copper pot still
modular 3" CCVM copper&stainless w/offset gin head
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Jimy Dee
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by Jimy Dee »

Can someone elaborate on the baking soda trick please? Is it hocus pocus or scientifically accurate? If in order, what amounts are appropriate?
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Re: Vapor lane Gin

Post by RedwoodHillBilly »

While calcium bicarbonate (baking soda) works, calcium carbonate tends to work better in my experience. The idea is that if you increase the PH you will run the carboxylic acid + alcohol => ester + water backwards. i.e ester to alcohol + calcium salt. I've found that approx. 30 Grams of CaCo3 is enough to treat 5 gal (US) of feints (or crap likker) to run in my CCVM to make a relatively good neutral.
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