My Take On Odin's Easy Gin Recipe

[Lawfish]

This is certain to draw the ire of several members here, but I'll post it anyway. I was a gin drinker before I started distilling, so I was eager to learn how to make gin after I got used to fermenting sugar washes and distilling. Odin's recipe starts with 43% neutral. I have found that if I distill my sugar washes to 35% low wines and add about 2 tablespoons of baking soda per gallon and let those sit for a week, I can then add the botanicals to the low wines a couple days before the second distillation. I use fresh juniper berries and a very small amount of coriander and this produces a gin that is divine. Comes off the still at 170 proof and trails down to about 110 before I cut to tails. I then blend that to 95 proof and it is as good as any gin I've ever tasted.

This simply cuts out the second step of distilling low wines before adding the botanicals. Since I leave the botanicals in while distilling, I get the full flavor of them all. I also go more forceful with the juniper and less so with the coriander. I use 1 lb. of juniper berries for 4 gallons of low wines and no more than a tablespoon of coriander, along with several orange peels, all of which goes into the boiler.

[NZChris]

Why did you name the thread 'Odin's easy gin' when it's not about Odin's easy gin?

[kiwi Bruce]

+1 NZ Chris....maybe one of the mods will help you rename it.

Thank you Lawfish for posting...all variations of any recipes are a welcome addition. As the old proverb says "if the shoe fits" What you've done is quite interesting...I'm a gin head also...among other distilling interests...I may have to give this a go !

[NZChris]

I'd rather cut the heads and tails with a spirit run than have them in my gin, thanks. There won't be any Lawfish's Lazy Gin made in my shed

[Saltbush Bill]

I do use the maceration method for gin making , but id rather start with nice clean neutral to begin with.
I don't want to be worrying about making cuts on a gin run.

[Lawfish]

As predicted, the snots on this page criticized rather than reading. If you don't want to make it don't NZ Jerk.

[Kareltje]

We have an expression: Shining with someone else's feathers.
If you are as good as Odin, you don't need it. If you are not, you make just a fool of yourself, not of Odin.

So much for stealing someones name.

As for your method: macerating in low wines makes it necessary to make cuts in the spiritginrun. So you will have to throw away some of the taste of your precious botanicals.
Speaking for myself: I would rather judge the botanical mix on its own merits and not be distracted by heads or tails.
But then: YMMV

[Lawfish]

I don't know where you guys get the idea that there's any tails in my product. I said I cut it at around 110 based on smell and how much coriander flavor I want in my final product. As for heads, I soak the low wines with baking soda for at least 5 days before distilling, and take a full 100 cc foreshots cut on the stripping run, which eliminates what you folks refer to as heads (ethyl acetate and other high alcohols). The only reason I named the thread Odin's Easy Gin is because that's what it's based on.

[Kareltje]

The heads and tails are still in your low wines and from neutral they have been removed. I try to make both cuts with smell and taste, not with measuring glass and thermo- or alcoholmeter. And I find making cuts difficult enough as it is, do not want to make it any harder by extra unwanted taste and smell.

Well, all recipes are based on some other. Most anyway.
You could have attributed to the real thread.

[NZChris]

I don't know where you guys get the idea that there's any tails in my product. I said I cut it at around 110 based on smell and how much coriander flavor I want in my final product. As for heads, I soak the low wines with baking soda for at least 5 days before distilling, and take a full 100 cc foreshots cut on the stripping run, which eliminates what you folks refer to as heads (ethyl acetate and other high alcohols). The only reason I named the thread Odin's Easy Gin is because that's what it's based on.

I'm not aware of any evidence that baking soda eliminates the need for a heads cut on a spirit run. It may reduce the size of the cut, it may make it easier to find, but that is all. Considering how much time, money and effort I put into growing and obtaining my botanicals, it would be silly to take a shortcut and chuck them in my worst alcohol.

I very much doubt you would ever catch Odin using or recommending your method.

[bitter]

+1 to NZChris Odin is very explicit in his instructions and comments to use clean neutral

I have made odins Gin a bunch of times and my worst batch was a batch were the cut were ok on the neutral but not perfect as I like it.. Was pretty tastless but just a hint of heads... (Most people would not detect it) but enough that I am not as happy with that batch as the others I made.

B

[kiwi Bruce]

Dear Lawfish...it may seem to you that your being picked on...and you are...I get it, your a novice...but DON'T LET US PUT YOU OFF ! Whatever you do don't go stomping off to your man cave and never turn to HD again. It may seem like the school of hard knocks with a whole bunch of A-holes as teachers...and we are ! But, although it may not seem like it now, we are trying to help. I know it may seem like "It's better to be pissed off than pissed on" however...if you are going to continue in this hobby you will need to grow into it...and grow used to us, the A-holes teachers. Just remember we were all once novices, and like you we all got piddled on every now and then. Keep plugging away at it...it does, eventually, get better !

[Saltbush Bill]

Using this method the best of the juniper flavours will be thrown out with the fores and heads cuts.
Not trying to be picky or negative, I just see more disadvantages than advantages using this method.
Each to there own, if that is how you like to make gin ....go right ahead.

[Lawfish]

The heads and tails are still in your low wines and from neutral they have been removed. I try to make both cuts with smell and taste, not with measuring glass and thermo- or alcoholmeter. And I find making cuts difficult enough as it is, do not want to make it any harder by extra unwanted taste and smell.

So let me see if I understand. If I take my 4 gallons of low wines and distill them and make a tails cut wherever I deem that to be (usually around 110), then there will be no tails in that distillate. However, if I add botanicals to the same low wines and then distill them and make a tails cut wherever I deem that to be, the resulting distillate will have tails in it? Makes perfect sense.

As for the baking soda:

http://homedistiller.org/distill/dtw/strip" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

After a week with baking soda, I cannot detect the slightest hint of heads in my low wines, nor in my distillate. I realize there are probably some in there, but it's a matter of preference. I can't smell or taste it, so for me why bother with a second 3-hour spirit run when I can cut out that step. That was the point of my post.

As for what Odin would do, where did anyone get the idea that I thought any of my process would be something he would do? I explained up front that this was a modification of his process that I have found works to eliminate the middle step of a second spirit run. That's all.

[Lawfish]

Kiwi Bruce:

I understand that discussion and suggestions are helpful. I've been distilling for almost 2 years now and I've read practically everything posted on this site and the parent site. That's why I prefaced my post with the recognition that what I was about to say would go against the dogma that clearly pervades this site. And my prediction was born out. Constructive criticism is fine, but calling my method "Lawfish's Lazy Gin" is just being nasty (to use the least objectionable adjective I can conjure). I am a partner in a major law firm and have a family of 4, so if I can save 3 hours of basement time by using baking soda to eliminate heads, that's a game-changer for me. My time is precious. NZ guy calls it lazy. I call it efficient.

Let me be clear for the record. I don't bottle anything that hasn't been distilled twice. My whiskey is made using cracked corn via the pintoshine method, then stripped, then run carefully in a spirit run, then put on oak at 120 proof. Currently, if I were to bottle any whiskey, it would be 5 months old at this point, but I probably won't touch any of that for several more months. What I have tasted thus far is very good, but young.

Otherwise, I make vodka and gin, both via a sugar wash, stripping run, a week with baking soda, then a spirit run. For my nose and tongue, I cannot detect any heads after baking soda has been properly used. Others may have more sensitive palates than I do, but to say that what I am doing is wrong is incorrect. What I'm doing may not be what some of the real purists on this board do, but I'm sure there are others out there who find it hard to detect heads after the use of baking soda.

I appreciate your comments, AND your polite tone.

[MichiganCornhusker]

As for what Odin would do, where did anyone get the idea that I thought any of my process would be something he would do?

Um, you did title the thread "Odin's Easy Gin"

[Lawfish]

If I could possibly edit that subject line I would, but I can't. I figured that was a perfectly appropriate title to discuss a variation on his recipe. If I didn't do that, I figured someone would accuse me of trying to take credit for a recipe that was not mine to begin with. Damned if you do and damned if you don't on this board.

[Pikey]

..............As for the baking soda:

http://homedistiller.org/distill/dtw/strip" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow .......

Beautifully crafted

[Tater]

Title changed . Play nice

[kiwi Bruce]

Thank you Tater...and we will...try...to play nice.

[Saltbush Bill]

http://homedistiller.org/distill/dtw/strip" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Ive used that method more than once and on a few different still types.
It does not go anywhere near eliminating all of the fores and heads.
The best Ive noticed is that it "might" make the heads cut a little smaller.

[Lawfish]

Thanks for the title edit mods.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Damned if you do and damned if you don't on this board.

Sorry, wasn't trying to bust yer balls, Lawfish, I just think you did a disservice to your own process by comparing it to Odin's.

As I read it, you are offering up a bone simple method for making a potstill version of gin.
I don't mind lots of flavor in my spirits, and I can't make a real neutral to start with anyway, so I'm gonna try this, I'll let you know how it turns out. Except I'm going to call it "Jiffy Jin" when it's done so nobody can tell me it's wrong.

[Lawfish]

Thanks, Michigan Cornhusker. Yeah, I don't have a reflux still and no real interest in building one. For me, this makes a very flavorful gin that has gotten very positive reviews from all who have tasted it. Jiffy Jin is a good name. I'lll call it that. Now to experiment with the botanicals.

[NZChris]

.... so I'm gonna try this ....

I recommend you try this in a small batch, not for your whole next year's supply of gin. The lack of a heads cut from a spirit run to make the neutral might not wreck the flavor, but it leaves in the heads components that give you a banging headache in the morning.

[Kareltje]

The heads and tails are still in your low wines and from neutral they have been removed. I try to make both cuts with smell and taste, not with measuring glass and thermo- or alcoholmeter. And I find making cuts difficult enough as it is, do not want to make it any harder by extra unwanted taste and smell.

So let me see if I understand. If I take my 4 gallons of low wines and distill them and make a tails cut wherever I deem that to be (usually around 110), then there will be no tails in that distillate. However, if I add botanicals to the same low wines and then distill them and make a tails cut wherever I deem that to be, the resulting distillate will have tails in it? Makes perfect sense.

You did not understand!
When one puts botanicals in low wines, they are mixed with heads and tails too, and the smells will influence each other.
When one puts botanicals in a neutral, they are not mixed with heads and tails, so the smells of the botanicals can be easier appreciated on their own merits.
Of course, it goes without saying, that in both endproducts there are no heads and tails.

And, as someone else said, at the temperatures of the heads and the tails there might be some interesting tastes and smells of the botanicals. And you miss them when you throw them away with the cuts.

But of course you should make your drinks the way you like them.

[NZChris]

Of course, it goes without saying, that in both endproducts there are no heads and tails.

Not necessarily.

If you use Odin's cut off point, there is still about 18% abv in the boiler, so very little tails should have come over, but when using low wines for a base spirit, heads is a choice. The distiller has to choose to either cut for heads and lose some early flavors, or save the flavors by leaving the heads in.

Adding bicarb doesn't mean you can get away without doing a heads cut.

http://homedistiller.org/distill/dtw/strip

Ive used that method more than once and on a few different still types.
It does not go anywhere near eliminating all of the fores and heads.
The best Ive noticed is that it "might" make the heads cut a little smaller.