NZChris wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 10:32 pm
If you want a noticeable olive presence, you might have to make an essence to experiment with. I see I noted earlier that that is the way the commercial distillers do it. I expect it's safe to assume that they do what they do because they're not stupid.
The point it comes through in the distillation is probably later than where we'd typically cut for a mixed botanical gin, so that makes sense to distill it separately.
I have around a cup of leftover brine from the jar of olives and I thought about distilling it to use for proofing, but my micro worm-tub has a broken solder joint.
Nowhere in my distilling notes do I say I noticed olive, so I have no idea where it comes over. There are some very intense flavors coming over late in the distillation, so olive might have been hidden in there. The only way to find out where olive comes over will be to run with olives only in a good neutral.
That said, the Waldorf G&T Gin Mare cocktail that we like has enough olive flavor already without olive having to be strong in the Gin Mare off the still.
SaltyStaves wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 8:52 pm
Will be interested to see how it develops in the bottle. Really like the finish and I hope some of the citrus settles down.
Well the citrus has calmed down (the orange was a bit much). Unfortunately the herbs and saltiness have also diminished. I like it, but I preferred it when it was new and punchy.
I'll do an inverse of the botanical bill next time. Less citrus, more herbs and a bit more Juniper. Also, a shitload more olives.
Was at the local liquor store today and spotted a little 10cl bottle of Gin Mare. No way I was prepared to pay for a full size bottle for research purposes, but this was perfect.
I added a drop of water to mine to get it down for a fairer comparison. After putting them head to head, I'm very happy with my first effort.
The commercial one has much more orange/mandarin than mine and its a variety of orange I'm not familiar with. Mine has more lemon. Thyme and Rosemary would be on par. The olives however.... which was something I bitched about earlier in this thread (i.e. not enough) were far stronger in mine. In the commercial one, the olives are coming through about as loud as the other herbs, whereas in mine, its a very noticeable salty smokey, mouth-coating flavour.
I still haven't tasted a commercial Gin Mare, but my attempt is very nice, regardless. I stumbled on my bottle last week and had a couple and was so impressed that I bought some more olives.
My run was made at a 2*essence strength and there is still a good amount of essence that can be made up.
I am going to try to make a variation of Gin Mare, I want to know about your experience on how much Thyme, Basil, Rosemary and Olive amounts per liter is going to make this gin balanced, can you please share your experience ?
Going through the cellar I spotted a gallon jar labeled snow proofed gin, well it was my gin mare from a few years ago. Wow it made the wife happy, all is good!
