Help with the Gin

[tugboatbilly]

so i attempted to do a simple juniper gin from a sugar wash. it was a miserable failure!! bitter!

during distillation i packed the column with copper mesh and had a handful of juniper berries and a couple citrus rinds in between the upper and lower mesh packing. the

initial distillate come off with a hint of juniper. in an attempt to increase the juniper flavor i added some berries to the 160 pf liquor and let it sit for a few days. not only

did the liquor turn a light murky brown.....it was BITTER! i proofed it down to around 90 pf and attempted to make a gin and tonic.......two sips and i dumped it out.

looking for some help over here!

[ShineRunner]

From the tried and true: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 14&t=48668

[still_stirrin]

Flying by the seat of your pants, tugboat?

As suggested, read up on the process and ingredients in the Tried & True recipe forum. Odin's recipe (and process) is most excellent....even a beginner can do it!

And I use Rad's All Bran recipe (sugar wash) as the basis to produce a clean neutral with which to make the gin maceration.

I know if you follow the T&T you'll be rewarded with a tasty gin.

Cheers.
ss

edit: save your nasty stuff and add it to the boiler when you rerun your final spirit run. You can save it (somewhat).

[Danespirit]

Good advice from the two guys..!
+1 Ss
A miserable Gin, can be saved with another run.
Or..you refrain from adding too much Juniper berries on top of what's already in and use the failed attempt to make a Gin essence.
You can add it little by little into your next batch of Gin or into clean neutral.

and a couple citrus rinds in between the upper and lower mesh packing

That may very well be the cause of the bitterness..! If you're not careful and remove everything of the white stuff inside the peel, it will leach bitter oils into your spirits.
Especially if you "cook" it in your homemade "Gin basket", you have created between the packing material.

Tip: Every time I want to use peel from citrus fruits, I slice it into small strips and use a very sharp knife to shave off all the pith...and I mean EVERYTHING.
I let it dry for a couple of days before I put it into a closed container, if I wouldn't it would get moldy.
It leaves me with a hard and dry shell, I can break off in adequate pieces.

[Pikey]

I find a cheap potato peeler skims the zest off the tangerines (satsumas) well. I read most of the "juniper" is in "Heads" so you may need to look there and blend some back ?

If you're macerating after distillation, alcohol picks up some flavours VERY fast - try just one or two berries and taste frequently.

Do keep us informed

[The Booze Pipe]

I dig the simple recipe! I suggest using a good quality coriander in place of the fresh citrus peel (for the vapor infused method) it will give you great complex citrus flavors without any bitterness.
If you want to try saving what you have, you might try redistiling the whole kit. Your spirit will come out clear and hopefully with more agreable flavors.

[tugboatbilly]

Awesome! thanks for the great replies.

i was flying by the seat of my pants indeed......

i re distilled the bag gin and it's sitting there in a jug....about 190 pf. i didn't try to see about the flavor yet, it may be drinkable as is but i think i'll start from scratch and

let ya know how we do on the second go round.

thanks all!

[Bushman]

Here is also some good information on suggested proportions to add.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=48221

[jimsgins]

If you are wanting to be a bit more experimental but still within the remit of a beginners orthodoxy, this page on the mother site (http://homedistiller.org/flavor/gin" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow) has an excellent guide about 3/4 of the way down on what proportions of ingredients you should start with which, after nearly 10 gin batches, I still refer to when playing with blends. But do just macerate in neutral, you dont need a gin basket and certainly shouldn't be putting things in the column unless you're experienced enough to know what you're doing.

[The Baker]

I dig the simple recipe! I suggest using a good quality coriander in place of the fresh citrus peel (for the vapor infused method) it will give you great complex citrus flavors without any bitterness.
If you want to try saving what you have, you might try redistiling the whole kit. Your spirit will come out clear and hopefully with more agreable flavors.

By Coriander do you mean the seeds?

I have an idea that in America you call the green plant Cilantro and the seeds Coriander (seeds).
In Australia we more often call the green plant Coriander and the seeds, Coriander seeds....

Thanks,
Geoff

[sparky marky]

I dig the simple recipe! I suggest using a good quality coriander in place of the fresh citrus peel (for the vapor infused method) it will give you great complex citrus flavors without any bitterness.
If you want to try saving what you have, you might try redistiling the whole kit. Your spirit will come out clear and hopefully with more agreable flavors.

By Coriander do you mean the seeds?

I have an idea that in America you call the green plant Cilantro and the seeds Coriander (seeds).
In Australia we more often call the green plant Coriander and the seeds, Coriander seeds....

Thanks,
Geoff

I think they probably call it cilantro in the states because of their links to Spanish speaking countries to the south. Most other English speaking countries know it as coriander herb and coriander seed.

The seed is probably the second most common gin ingredient and gives a nice light lemon citrus flavour. I sometimes use the leaf as well for a herby/grassy flavour in a spring summer style gin.

I just made a 5L batch this week that casts off a lot of commonly used gin ingredients and focusses on light fruity floral flavours:

juniper 10g
Coriander seed 7g
Orange zest 5g
Grapefruit zest 5g
Fresh dill leaf 10g
Orris root 5g
Fresh Coriander leaf 4g
Raspberries 12g
Blueberries 40g
Fresh Basil leaf 5g
Dried Rose petals 2g
Lemongrass 3g

Shaken with ice lemon juice and violet syrup this gin makes a Parma violet martini that's blowing my mind

[The Baker]

Thanks Sparky.

Geoff

[The Booze Pipe]

I dig the simple recipe! I suggest using a good quality coriander in place of the fresh citrus peel (for the vapor infused method) it will give you great complex citrus flavors without any bitterness.
If you want to try saving what you have, you might try redistiling the whole kit. Your spirit will come out clear and hopefully with more agreable flavors.

By Coriander do you mean the seeds?

I have an idea that in America you call the green plant Cilantro and the seeds Coriander (seeds).
In Australia we more often call the green plant Coriander and the seeds, Coriander seeds....

Thanks,
Geoff

I think they probably call it cilantro in the states because of their links to Spanish speaking countries to the south. Most other English speaking countries know it as coriander herb and coriander seed.

The seed is probably the second most common gin ingredient and gives a nice light lemon citrus flavour.

Correct'amundo! In my region of the states we refer to the plant\leaves as cilantro (you either love it or hate it) the dried seeds are refered to as coriander.
It's very easy to grow, and fun to harvest your very own seed to make into gin.
Plant the cilantro in Spring, the plant will bolt during the hot summer and then go to seed, let them dry on the plant before harvesting.
Two plants would produce enough seed for a few small batches.

[tugboatbilly]

it's been a few months since i first posted this. i ended up re distilling the off flavored spirits and ended up with a nice mellow citrus ginny flavored booze. several of my tasting guinea pigs really enjoyed it as well......so although it may have been a technical fuck up everything turned out delicious in the end. i will however go down the more tried and true gin path for my next batches. in the mean time i've been doing some pretty awesome whiskey and rums.

cheers!

[BloodMoses]

By no means an expert but gin is my strong point (only 14 months into the craft so still weaker than most). With that being said, I started with Odin's recipe as, like most people say, it is a pretty full proof process to making a good little gin. Once I had that down I started changing things little by little to match my taste.

[Tennessee_Spirits]

Thanks to Odin I have a good gin base. Everyone who taste it likes it with reservations that tell me it is not the best gin but a good gin. What a great place to start!
I sampled some gins again and decided a London Dry version like Tanqueray would be good to emulate. I don't mean copy because I don't have their source of botanicals or their technique. And I like gin a little more citrus than that famous product from Scotland.
So I made a second batch of Odin's and assembled the gin basket still with mostly parts from AliExpress and amazon. I added a return from the bottom of the gin basket to the boiler. During the run I periodically opened that valve. This allows extraction of the basket to stay in the system. As the gin basket loses its flavor during the run the boiler picks up some of this flavor.
So how much Angelica root and how much Liquorice root? The best I could come up with was between 1:10 and 1:100 compared to the juniper. I had weighed out 5% of the juniper of each supplemental.
I started to run the batch and the Liquorice became overpowering of the other citrus and coriander flavors so I stopped the still after a liter and removed the gin basket and started it up again. I continued to sample the output about ever 1/2 liter and put the basket in and out to give the total product the best blend I was capable of as a neophyte gin maker. What fun!
So the distillate that came out an average of 180 proof I added to a glass demijohn of 4 gallons and I blended and proofed to 90 and sampled and it was pretty close to what I was looking for. I ended up with 12 liters, enough to use and give away for probably a year.
I plan next time to go for 3% for Angelica and Liquorice and put them in separate baskets. I made notes on everything as I don't trust my memory.