Odin's Easy Gin

[cayars]

That's good advice on the cinnamon. I think what I'll do is treat this small run as an "essence" run if it's overly cinnamon tasting. Then just mix a bit of this in with my regular OEG to get a bit of cinnamon twang. Should be easy to adjust that way to taste.

[Canuckwoods]

Ran 10l this morning and I couldn't help myself I am drinking some now. It was gin clear in the bottle but over ice it is louching is it just a time thing or does it need more gns at 43% added? The taste is fantastic.
for the 10 l I used
120g juniper
30g coriander
25g lemon peel
15g orange peel
5g lime peel
all fresh no white macerated overnight then the peel in a gin basket for the distillation.

[Canuckwoods]

A quick update after at least 2 hours everything is now louched I'll be adding some diluted GNS in the morning.

[Canuckwoods]

Had to add 30% more to get rid of the louching in the bottles but it will still do it over ice.
I have made this recipe many times but not this large (I was hoping to have some for summer) not sure why it's doing this as I follow the same recipe each time and just scale the botanicals.

[Tummydoc]

I would suspect the louche is from a high level of citrus oils extracted in the vapor path.

[Odin]

Bigger batch = longer run = more oils coming over due to longer extraction time.

Odin.

[Canuckwoods]

So cut back on everything? if so what kind of percentage I have added 30% neutral but needed more so cut back 35% on the botanicals?
Thanks Again Odin

[Canuckwoods]

Or... do I run hotter I ran it like a sprit run should I be running more like a stripping run?

[Odin]

Use more GNS to cut back and when run times get too long, or stop a bit sooner with the collection of hearts.

Odin.

[Saltbush Bill]

The things that cloud gin come through very early and also toward the end of the run in my opinion. Eliminate those and most of the problem is solved. Anything that remains can easily be fixed by adding a little high proof neutral to up the abv. Time stored in glass will also eliminate cloudyness in my experience.

[NZChris]

Getting rid of louche.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=48594&start=600#p7543415

I've never noticed much change over time. I've watched a bottle on a windowsill for several months and all that happened was it was clear when warm and cloudy when cold.

[Saltbush Bill]

Things are different for you Chris....I can assure you that time makes a difference to my gin and I've seen it happen in other peoples gins too. Sometimes it can take several months.
Yes temp can also play a part but not in these cases.

Here is a photo I took some time ago. Two gins, same recipe, one distilled that day, the other distilled several months earlier.
Both started out life cloudy.....a good thing if you like full flavoured gins. In that photo they have been in the same room for a week or more, so I doubt temprature is playing any part.

[NZChris]

I've got a six month oaked OEG experiment going at the moment. Clear today at 41.7% in a shed with wild temperature swings. Not many weeks to go. I'm really looking forward to trying it

I find that if my gins are blended with neutral much beyond their natural louches at 45%, they start to taste more like commercial gins, but minus the headsy flavors.

[NZChris]

The demijohn on the right looks like what I get if I put the foreshot in with the tails. My finished gins at 45% are never that cloudy, except maybe occasionally in a glass with ice and tonic.

[Canuckwoods]

Getting rid of louche.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=48594&start=600#p7543415

I've never noticed much change over time. I've watched a bottle on a windowsill for several months and all that happened was it was clear when warm and cloudy when cold.

Thanks, Chris
I have read this and used it to clear my batch I was wondering on how to adjust my recipe for larger batches. Also, this worked at room temp but with the cold, it will still louch so its hard to do unless both are cold I guess.

[cayars]

Don't know if this will help you in the future or not but, something you can try to avoid louching is to blend your center jars into the demijohn, then take a sample of a few ounces (1/3 to 1/2 wine glass) and proof down to 43%, if still clear put in the fridge for an hour and see if the cooler temps clouds it. If not you can incorporate additional jars. Test by mixing in a percent into your test glass before committing to the demijohn. Just repeat until it starts to cloud. At that point you know where the louching will occur and can avoid it for your blend. If you get a slight cloudiness then adding in more neutral should fix it and raise you back to 44 or 45%. But this will keep you from overdoing it and allow only the slightest neutral addition for the "fix". The lower the temp it louches at the better.

Just experiment on small samples and take your time adding in the jars around your "hearts cuts" and you should be able to avoid any significant louching that a slight neutral additional won't fix (if needed). Works for me.

[Odin]

Nope. Not a good approach, Cayars. Blending heads and tails contaminated jars into hearts should only be done from a TASTE perspective only. Not as a means to prevent louching. As explained before over and over, louching is not bad. It just means too many taste oils given the solvency power of the final drink. The way I want you guys to solve this is via adding more vodka/gns/neutral.

So cuts and blending to flavor, then add neutral until you just prevented louching, which gives you the fullest bodied gin possible. If you want a lighter version, add more neutral.

And Cayars please do not give me that "we agree to disagree"-crap you have been posting in other threads I started, because I am not sharing my opinion, but the hard facts of how drinks in general and gin especially is made. Learned from developing 250 professional gin recipes (and counting).

Regards, Odin.

[cayars]

I assumed the person would taste the product and like the results of the heads or tails addition before worrying about how it affects louching. I just threw out a method they could use to see if it would louch or not by more additions of heads/tails and to see how much additional neutral it would take to "fix" it in a sample.

I certainly don't disagree with your approach at all and I've gotten great results following your directions in the op post by just adding neutral if needed.

[Tummydoc]

Why not just learn to love the louche? Tell your friends this is what "natural" gin does, not the artificial, highly processed commercial gin. Heck, I might even say that the louche is where all the healthy vitamins are located

[Corsaire]

Embrace the louche. There's a phrase I can live with.

[Canuckwoods]

Thanks, Odin
I will have to make some more neutral but will let you know how it goes
Or I may just live with the wonderful anti-oxidizing vitamin and mineral-rich Louch

[NZChris]

Use your imagination. If you made it in the mountains, call it something like Misty Mountian Gin.

I won't be calling any of mine Cayar's Difficult Gin that's for sure.

[cayars]

Use your imagination. If you made it in the mountains, call it something like Misty Mountian Gin.

I won't be calling any of mine Cayar's Difficult Gin that's for sure.

"Several month cloudy windowsill Gin"?

I really don't see why anyone would think it's a big deal to test for cold or additional water to see how this will affect the louching (if the louching bothers you). Regardless how it looks in the bottle as soon as you add an ice cube it will both chill the drink and lower it's proof as the ice melts which may cause louching in the glass. I'd rather know up front with a simple test while blending. This is a pretty common thing and not unique to gin in anyway. Any moderately oil spirit can do this even whiskeys.

Same with chilling it slightly then mixing in neutrals if needed. Otherwise you can end up with windowsill gin where it's clear when warmer and cloudy when colder.

[NZChris]

If you like overthought gin, here's my Sunset Gin.
The layers are different ABVs.
It stayed the same, with very little mixing, for several months until it was shaken before use.
Louches appeared and disappeared with the temperature.
Color is Saffron.

Sunset-gin.jpg (7.72 KiB) Viewed 4146 times

[cayars]

NZChris, putting aside BS tic for tac, I think that's pretty cool looking!
I got to tell you I'd probably purchase something like that on a store shelf just to see what it would be like. Kind of intriguing.

Do you have any idea what each of those layers is? Or how each of those layer taste?
Any idea where the brown colors are coming from in a gin?

[Fivey]

He did say cayars - different ABVs (that he added bit by bit) and the colour is from saffron (that he added).

[NZChris]

The layers range from 18% at the bottom to 70% at the top. I never tasted any of the layers and there wouldn't have been many that were worth drinking on their own.

What you can't see in that pic is tiny beads of colored oils constantly moving around in a spiral where they float on the top of layer three or four, (counting from the top).

I'd hardly call it an Easy Gin, but they were fun to make and to watch. The bottles were filled from high ABV to low using a copper funnel that reaches the bottom of the bottle.

[itsskin]

Why do we use 43% to macerate? Would it be better to do it in 92%-96% and after dilute with water before distillation? Thinking behind - the stronger it is - the better solvent it becomes = more flavor extraction.

[Corsaire]

I'm thinking overextraction. I think Odin did a lot of testing before putting this recipe out.
Doesn't stop you from doing your own tests, and please report your findings in your own thread
I've bought my brother a small gin still as that's his poison. The more info I can give him the better!

[Odin]

The problem I have with louching is that some flavor oils come out of solution sooner than others, creating an unbalance in the flavor. But if you like what you are drinking, I don't really see the problem on a personal level. On another note, take that louched gin, add a bit of neutral, and see the haze lift. You now have a maximum taste saturated gin. That's something wonderful in itsself, especially with all the artificial and/or filtered shite out there ...

Odin.