Odin's Easy Gin

Refined and tested recipes for all manner of distilled spirits.

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Odin
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

This is an easy gin recipe, Patch! That's why I limit the amount of herbs. This way pretty much anybody can have a go at it, without getting the herbs together being too difficult.

But I do encourage everybody, once they made this easy gin, to try and step up one herb at a time. This recipe will make for a great drink. It can be used with other herbs as well. With demure. More and more, I see professional herbs bills with like 10, 15, 20 ingredients. Rediculous. Five, six, maybe seven should be the max. And only if you feel the above recipe is not (completely) to your liking. Nobody will distinguish between 15 different tates. And too many tastes will just blend into one ... "shitty shade of grey"?

Herbs and fruis skins to add may be lemon zest, grains of paradise, a clove. But there is no real reason for that right here. Let's keep it easy and use Ockham's razor in our own way: only add something if your taste is telling you so. Or when you want to experiment. And if you do, please go one extra ingredient at a time.

Five weeks of ageing gives the taste time to develop. I learned this from my own experiments. After dilution to drinking strength, the gin will reach like 2/3rd of its taste potential in about three days. In five weeks the full 100% is achieved. Later on, I learned that pro vodka distilleries do it like this too. They feel the 5 weeks rest after bottling improves their product. Hey, that's on a vodka!

Regards, Odin.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by thepatchworkdoll »

Hi again Odin
Just finished the run. Collected 15 mls at start (just a tad over your 10) then slowly collected 400mls. Temp at head 92c. Collected a further 30mls and temp a 95c this is where I would normally stop collecting on my Vapour Infusion run. Will I blend this 30mls in or just leave it out. 400 mls collected was 78abv watered down to 45 gave me just under 750mls of a lovely smelling gin. Whats your thoughts on this run.
My usual recipe is as follows
5 litres neutral @ 40%
4 tablespoons juniper berries
4 almonds
A single clove
1/4 of a cassia quill
1 Green cardamom pod
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon dried liquorice root
1/4 teaspoon orris root powder
Zest of a quarter lemon
Lightly grind botanicals and place in gin basket on my pot still.
Chuck out first 20mls.
Colect all up to 95c
Water back down to 42%
Enjoy

Regards
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

Sounds good, even though the herbs bill is a bit more complex.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Beerbrewer »

Bought myself 250gms of dried juniper berries and as luck would have it 20ltrs of birdwatchers to distil next week. Looking forward to trying this one out.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by frozenthunderbolt »

Dont be tempted to double the citrus zest like I did /alternatively dont include lime zest.
On first taste (after dillution) it is a bit 'citrus hot-bitter' and slightly cloudy - too much oil in :roll:
Curse me for being unable to follow instructions!
Where has all the rum gone? . . .

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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

You will get it right next time!

Regards, Odin
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Beerbrewer »

So, did the instructions except I only macerated for three days then I tipped it into the still putting the rest of the herbs etc into a gin basket, ran through collected 400mls of 75%, cut down to 40% and sipping a delightful G&T at this very moment. Gets a ten out of ten from me.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by frozenthunderbolt »

Time time time time time - that was all it needed! Cloudiness is gone, not so "citrus-hot" and flavors balancing out nicely.
Bottled at 40.5% - two white and one with 3 juniper berries in the bottle.
:mrgreen:
I'm SO playing this game again! Torpedoes be damned, MORE JUNIPER!
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Where has all the rum gone? . . .

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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

+1!

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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by elektrosport »

Odin, I owe you an update. A buddy of mine and I did three different gins a while back. 3l of the fine genever recipe from the parent site you recommended me, 3l of your easy gin and 1l of a "mediterranian" gin with added rosemary, thyme and olives.

The genever was amazing, the easy gin an excellent drinks mixer and the mediterranian an interesting twist on the standard gin.

Thank you for all the help and advice that got me down the flavouring path. I guess I find neutral a lot more valuable now..


Cheers,
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

Thanks, Electro! Yeah, that genever recipe is great isn't it? Basic gin (as in this tread) is a great mixer. Not sure I would like the meditaranian style gin though ... Ginebra is Spanish for genever. The Spanish learned to drink it, as did the English, in the Dutch independence war. I don't know much about ginebra, but the modern styles seem to tend towards dry gins rather than mediteranean herbs bills. Ashame in a way.

Regards, Odin.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by sweeps »

That Mediterranean gin sounds intriguing. Would you be willing to share the recipe?
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Mediterranian gin

Post by elektrosport »

Not wanting to hi-jack Odin's thread I'll just provide you a quick sum-up.

I read about a Spanish gin containing rosemary, thyme and olives but we didn't have anything to go by but that info. For 1 liter we just added something like three sprigs of fresh rosemary and probably the same amount fresh thyme (weight-wise) and two black olives - in addition to 20 grams of juniper berries and 8 grams of coriander seed.

Odin may actually be the source of something more specific - as he seems to be the oracle on gin around here. :)

Cheers,
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by sweeps »

Thanks Elektro.

I did some Googling and found some rave reviews for a spanish gin called Mare. In addition to the ingredients you mentioned, it also includes cardamom, basil and citrus peels. Intriguing.

However, ditto on not wanting to hijack Odin's thread. If I do give this a try, I'll start a new thread
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by donpelon »

Just wanted to add my experience making this fine and very easy to replicate recipe. I'm not even a big Gin fan, I can really only take it with tonic, but thoght it would be fun to make:

I had a bunch of feints (heads and tails) left over from various whiskeys that I had been working on (All Bran, Cornflakes and a Single Malt Scotch). I watered these down to 40% and did a nice slow run, taking out a large amount of foreshots and making a tight hearts cut. The copious heads had a sour dairy smell to them. This was all done on a pot still btw. The middle run hearts had a clean, fruity smell and nice grainy, nutty taste. I'm sure this would have ended up a flavorful whiskey if put onto oak.

However, the 2L of 75%Abv that I ended up with I wanted to use to make a Gin. It seemed that the older style Genever recipes used a malty whiskey to make their product, so I didn't think it would do any harm to make a Gin with a less than neutral base. So, I threw in:

2 heaping TBSP of dried Juniper berries.
2 heaping tsp of coriander seeds
The rind of a whole lemon (yellow part only- I used a potato peeler to do this).
a large sprig of fresh rosemary from the garden.

This I macerated for five days. It smelled damn pungent and almost like a Lemoncello when I opened the jar (it also had taken on a yellowish color). I then went ahead and re-watered this all down to 40%Abv, coming out to a 3.5L still charge. Since the recipe calls for 400ml from a 1L charge of 43%, I figured I should get about 1200-1400ml of usable product from 3.5L.

Just because I'm still pretty green at this, and (after discarding the first 20ml) I decided to separate the shine coming off into small jars and air the cuts out for 24 hours for my own practice. I ended up with 7 jars with 200ml in each. Startig at about 80% and going down to 70% in the last jar.

It was interesting to note that each jar down the line had different flavor profiles. The first had a very strong carmelized, sugary lemon taste to it. This didn't smell or taste particulary good to me and I debated if I would keep it. Jars 2 and 3 had a weaker citrus profile and more herbal/botanical smell that I associated most with a good dry gin. Jars 3,4 &5 were pretty neutral/everclear smelling. Jar 6 had some more juniper/herbal notes coming back in, (also a keeper). Jar 7 also had some nice Gin profile, but also some stronger, bitter notes that did not taste or smell pleasing. I decided to keep 1-6 and hoped the strong Lemoncello-like Jar #1 would not ruin the rest of the jars.

I combined 1-6 and watered down to about 41%. Ended up with 3x 750 bottles of Gin, just as Odin's recipe said it would. As it turned out the strong lemon profile of the first jar did not overpower the rest, just added its own character to the mix. Made some G&T's with the old man (who's a Brit). They turned out pretty good, he just said I should use less Juniper next time. But since this was only a day old, we'll see if a few weeks of freezer aging doesn't mellow/balance things out a bit. He's a huge fan of Gin Martini's (which I can't stand), so I'll let him be the judge!
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Jimbo »

Thanks Odin, looks excellent, and I happen to have all the ingrediants, even a tangerine at home. Looks like Ill be dusting off my propane burner to fire my small still. Ill macerate and distill on the gra..., um, seeds. LOL

Quick question, the whole tangerine skin or should I use a zester and just add the zest only? Last time I used a whole orange skin in a batch (much larger than 1L) , it practically came out like Grand Marnier. But that was macerated and drank (spiced rum), so Ill take your word for it that stillin calms down those flavors some?

Cheers and thanks.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

The whole tangerine skin will be fine, Jimbo! Great write-up Donpelon! Just give it some rest. And if taste is still too big, cut it down with some neutral and give it another few days of rest.

Glad to see this recipe take up some pace!

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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by NZChris »

I put another one of these through my mini-pot yesterday. Smells very nice, haven't tasted it yet. Used up the last of my 'neutral' so I won't be doing another for a while :esad:
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Jimbo »

Ok Odini, she's steepin. 1 gal vodka at 40%, 40gr juniper, 12 gr coriander seed, zest of 2 tangerines.

Ill report back 5 weeks after I run it. Ive always liked a good G&T. Havent had one in a while. Looking forward to this.

Thanks.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

You will like this one even without the T, Jimbo!

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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Jimbo »

haha, TOUCHÉ Od :thumbup:
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

Jim,

Just reread your post ... please try to up the abv a little bit. 42% maybe 43%. Not kidding you. Especially fruit skin extraction is better at a little bit above 40%

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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Jimbo »

ok will do. Ill top up that gallon with some 73% vodka I have. I do plan to distill on the herbs too
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Expat »

Odin, Great thread, thank you :clap: :)

Would the quantities for the basic recipe be applicable with a vapor infusion method, if not, what would you suggest?
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

No, vapour infusion is another beast all together, ExpattLad.

Jimbo, if you will run with herbs in the boiler, no need to macerate for a prolongued period of time. With herbs in the boiler, just macerate 24 hours. So ... I think you are good to go!

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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by NZChris »

If you have some kind of gin basket, Jimbo, chuck the skins in it and go. My first Odin's Easy Gin, was made in about an hour from reading his post, including going to the supermarket to buy coriander seeds and Tonic Water, and the whole batch got wolfed down by the family well before the five weeks were up.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

That's the spirit, NZ! And you seem to have the same problem I do. Whenever I make gin/genever, it is finished so darn fast. Consumed, I mean. Just today I am thinking: I should make a new batch! And quickly so, becuase I have been out of stock for months now. Increadible. To busy with other, less important things, probably.

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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by NZChris »

The family doesn't know about the batch I made last week, Odin.

I haven't even tasted it myself.

A month to go. :D
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Rivver »

Odin I live in an area where Juniper berries are abundant right off the tree. Can these be used, and if so, do they need to dry or any other special treatment?
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

Make sure which family they are. Virginiana is okay. Comunis is great. Others may be (very) poisonous. If you find the right ones, just use them as fresh as possible.

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