My Gin Journey

All things to do with making of gin

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tiramisu
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by tiramisu »

Where did you find good pricing on glassware?
Gin is on my to-do list.
howie
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by howie »

got mine from fleabay, they were the cheapest for decent quality glass lab.(inc at least 1L boiling flask)
Borosilicate Glass 3.3(GG-17)
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/24-40-Joint ... 4201723016
you'll probably need some lab stands as well.
and a heat source (my old camping stove does the job at the moment)
i've upgraded to a 2-neck 5L boiling flask now.
artooks
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Hi Evreyone,


After I finished my spirit run yesterday I have enough spirit for my gin trials, after doing OEG I decided that I really like citrus flavor, therefore in my new recipe I will use it, I also wanted to give this gin a slight dimension, so I decided to use star anise at very low proportions, I will again start with 1229 ml alcohol @35 ABV my ingredients are as follows. Well this time I am also going to vapor infuse them in my glass still with my 500 ml Chromatography Reservoir Flask so I am really excited to try it for the first time, because last time I used a " splash head " which is like a bubbler, this time I grinded all the botanicals in the coffee grinder to increase the surface area since I am vapor infusing all the botanicals, again I will collect 400 ml lets see how this will turn out.



1) Juniper berries: 15 Grams
2) Coriander seeds: 5 Grams
3) Angelica root: 1 Grams
4) Cassia Bark: 0.5 Grams
5) Liquorice: 1.5 Grams
6) Dry Lemon peel: 0.40 Grams
7) Dry Sweet Orange peel: 0.40 Grams
8 ) Dry Bitter Orange peel: 0.40 Grams
9) Cardamom: 0.1 Grams
10) Star Anise: 0.1 Grams


Total Botanicals per litre: 24.4 Gr / lt

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artooks
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

With this recipe, I find out that I love the coriander at a 3:1 ratio with Juniper, as it makes the juniper more forward, also I cut back on cassia as it really has a strong flavor, which I experienced with my last recipe, also with Angelica I cut back to 1 gram sometimes I feel that, even I use it with low amounts it has a distinct flavor which overcomes, but I really like citrus so I used in dry form all three, lemon, sweet and bitter orange. A few word on vapor infusion as on now I started to taste the spirit this is really turning out good, but as I am doing the vapor infusion with a flask above the boiler the alcohol in the boiler gets contaminated because I do not have an off set, I do not know if this is affecting the overall taste, but this is something to consider, here is a video of the run.

artooks
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Hi Everyone,


Another distillation day, today I wanted to try a different recipe with cinnamon and black pepper and everything in the boiler except the tangerine peels and 0 maceration time, so basically I crushed everything in a coffee grinder and chuck them in the boiler so I should say all the botanicals become almost powdered, by doing that I believe I increased the surface area so I hope I will get a good results, I am using 1229 ml @ %35 ABV so here is the new recipe

1) Juniper berries: 15 Grams
2) Coriander seeds: 5 Grams
3) Cinnamon: 0.5 Grams
4) Black Pepper: 1.5 Grams
5) Cardamom: 0.1 Grams
6) Tangerine peel: 3.3 Grams

Total Botanicals per litre: 25.4 Gr / lt

I am wondering how everything in boiler with 0 maceration time will turn out lets see :)

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artooks
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

I love tangerines and I love to use them in my gins, too bad the season is almost ending now for tangerines so today I decided to buy some tangerines and peel them first, then with a knife peel the remaining white pith and dry them in the oven, so I did all that it is a time consuming activity and the yield is not much but still I wanted to do it :) I do not want to get short of tangerines when I want to use then in summer. I peeled almost 12 tangerines once I finished I got skinless tangerines looking at me I asked my wife and daughter if them wanted to eat, they just had 1 :) still had 10 to go so I got the juice out of them strained them and put them in my cream whipper to carbonate them, I always wanted to do it but never get the chance, well this was a great opportunity and I did it, well its the real thing with a lot of fizz inside, really liked it :) back to the subject, once I peeled and cleaned the white pith inside I heated the oven to 80°C ( 176°F) and used a baking sheet and put all the tangerine peels on top of it, after 1 hour and 20 minutes they become crispy and lost quite a lot of weight, they shrank three times their size maybe more :) and I weighed them with my scale only 26.07 grams (0.92 oz) so all these hours went to gain just a little bit tangerine but it was worth it.
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MtRainier
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by MtRainier »

Nice. I like the dried roasted tangerine no-pith idea. Keep us informed how it turns out. OEG calls for the peel of one tangerine, so I'm also interested in what that weighs after you've dried it down like this if you can guess at what a whole tangerine's worth of this would be.
howie
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by howie »

did you see those corn planers for feet?
i know a few on here use them, they take a very thin layer of skin off the fruit with little or no pith.
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

MtRainier wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 4:26 pm Nice. I like the dried roasted tangerine no-pith idea. Keep us informed how it turns out. OEG calls for the peel of one tangerine, so I'm also interested in what that weighs after you've dried it down like this if you can guess at what a whole tangerine's worth of this would be.

Hi,

I. actıually did that :) but forgot to share so 1 tangerine peel is 9 grams as you can see in the picture, if you dry it you. have to use one third of the dry peel so the ratio for fresh vs dry peel is 1:3 for example if you use 1 fresh tangerine peel for OEG it is 9 grams if you dry the peels than you have to use 3 gram because it is much more concentrated. but I use only 3.3 grams fresh tangerine peel and even that is too much :) so for me I will be using only a gram of the dry tangerine peel.

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artooks
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

howie wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 11:07 pm did you see those corn planers for feet?
i know a few on here use them, they take a very thin layer of skin off the fruit with little or no pith.
No I did not see them Howie, thanks for pointing out, I did use a standart vegetable peeler, it takes some time, but its ok, I will check on the corn planars.
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Hi Everyone,


Tomorrow I will be trying a new gin which is similar to Sipsmith that I tried last week, I really liked it so by looking at the botanicals and playing with the botanicals ratio I come up with a recipe, Sipsmith uses steeping so I already put all the botanicals in 717 ml %60 ABV spirit for a 24 hrs maceration the reason that now I am macerating @ %60 ABV spirit is to put all the botanicals without crushing them. so tomorrow I will top it up to 1000 ml and the final ABV charge will be %43 ABV.

1) Juniper berries: 15 Grams
2) Coriander seeds: 4 Grams
3) Angelica root: 0.8 Grams
4) Liquorice: 0.8 Grams
5) Orris Root: 0.15 Grams
6) Ground Almond: 1.5 Grams
7) Cassia Bark: 0.75 Grams
8 ) Cinnamon. : 0.75 Grams
9) Dry Sweet Orange peel: 0.50 Grams
10) Dry Lemon peel: 0.50 Grams


Total Botanicals per litre: 24.75 Gr / lt

Tomorrow morning I will start distilling

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howie
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by howie »

artooks wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 6:16 am Hi Everyone,


Another distillation day, today I wanted to try a different recipe with cinnamon and black pepper and everything in the boiler except the tangerine peels and 0 maceration time, so basically I crushed everything in a coffee grinder and chuck them in the boiler so I should say all the botanicals become almost powdered, by doing that I believe I increased the surface area so I hope I will get a good results, I am using 1229 ml @ %35 ABV so here is the new recipe


I am wondering how everything in boiler with 0 maceration time will turn out lets see :)


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how did this one go with the crushed botanicals?
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

howie wrote: Mon Apr 26, 2021 10:03 pm
artooks wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 6:16 am Hi Everyone,


Another distillation day, today I wanted to try a different recipe with cinnamon and black pepper and everything in the boiler except the tangerine peels and 0 maceration time, so basically I crushed everything in a coffee grinder and chuck them in the boiler so I should say all the botanicals become almost powdered, by doing that I believe I increased the surface area so I hope I will get a good results, I am using 1229 ml @ %35 ABV so here is the new recipe


I am wondering how everything in boiler with 0 maceration time will turn out lets see :)


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how did this one go with the crushed botanicals?


Dear Howie,

It has been almost 10 days since I made this gin, I was actually waiting to complete at least 2 weeks but since you have asked, I poured a little bit of this gin to my glass and first smelled, The smell is awesome, you can immediately feel the tangerine mild cinnamon which goes really well together and when I took a small sip I first immediately feel the tangerine then cinnamon and finally in the after taste you feel the mild peppery notes which is really good, so if you ask my personel opinion this gin has really been turned out quite well but I will wait at least 1 more week and give it a try with tonic but, I am sure it will be good as well, so two different things here helped me to achieve this, the first is 0 maceration time and crushing all the botanicals, so in my experience I think crushing all the botanicals with the grinder created more surface so it, somehow compensated for the maceration duration.
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Hi,

Everyone I would like to make a citrus forward gin with actual orange can you please share your thought on how to approach it.
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Bushman
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by Bushman »

Artooks, I like the way you have documented your journey. With oranges for my Grand Marnier and manderine oranges for gin (don’t have access to tangerines) I do the same with drying them in the oven. Not sure where I picked up the technique but here is how I do it with some safety tips:
Directions
Peel the oranges and using a micro planer remove the pith ( white stuff just inside the skin). You can cut it away as well as if you don't get all the pith it's not as bitter as lemon but the micro plane is much easier and really does a nice job of removing it.

Safety warning: If you don’t watch the following process the peels will catch fire in the oven
Place peel white side down on a baking sheet and put under broil until the edges turn dark and just start to look like they are going to burn (when it gets close you have to keep a good eye as they catch fire fast). Turn over and brown the white side.
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Bushman wrote: Tue Apr 27, 2021 5:17 am Artooks, I like the way you have documented your journey. With oranges for my Grand Marnier and manderine oranges for gin (don’t have access to tangerines) I do the same with drying them in the oven. Not sure where I picked up the technique but here is how I do it with some safety tips:
Directions
Peel the oranges and using a micro planer remove the pith ( white stuff just inside the skin). You can cut it away as well as if you don't get all the pith it's not as bitter as lemon but the micro plane is much easier and really does a nice job of removing it.

Safety warning: If you don’t watch the following process the peels will catch fire in the oven
Place peel white side down on a baking sheet and put under broil until the edges turn dark and just start to look like they are going to burn (when it gets close you have to keep a good eye as they catch fire fast). Turn over and brown the white side.
Thank you very much Bushman, I try to share my experience so that maybe it could help someone in some ways, yes I read your gin thread I think it is the same procedure that you mention, well how I do is, when first time doing it, I checked every 10 minutes and find out when they become crispy, usually it takes 1 hour and 20 minutes in the oven at 80°C (176°F) for the peels to become crispy. Thank you very much for the tip I will try that next time.
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Hi Everyone,

Today I also peeled some oranges and dried them in the oven I also weigh the peels before going in the oven and after as well to find out the ratio of weight difference between fresh and dry peels, so the fresh peels weigh 66.15 grams and after they dry out they weigh 20.58 grams so I can say that fresh to dry ratio is 3:1 I also read this in some articles which also mentioned this, but this time these are the real values after my experiment. so this basically means that when I use 3 grams fresh peels I guess I will need to use 1 gram in dry form as it is now much more concentrated, but I really like to make dry peels, so that even in the summer I will be able to make it.

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artooks
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Hi here is a video from my latest gin run.

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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Hi Everyone,

Today I wanted to try to make a fresh gin with the fruit itself in the boiler, this will be quite experimental, as this is not something which is generally used, but since I like the citrus very much I wanted to try to see how this will turn out, here is the recipe.


Fresh Citrus Gin

1) Juniper berries: 15 Grams
2) Coriander seeds: 4 Grams
3) Angelica root: 0.8 Grams
4) Liquorice: 0.8 Grams
5) Fresh Sweet Orange peel: 0.50 Grams
6) Fresh Lemon peel: 0.50 Grams
5) Slice of Sweet Orange: 60 Grams
6) Slice of Lemon peel: 20 Grams

Total Botanicals per litre: 21.60 Gr / lt
Total Slice of Citrus per litre: 80 Gr / lt


Since I wanted to macerate for a shorter duration, I decided to macerate all the botanicals, peels and the slices of lemon and orange @ %60 ABV at 717 ml Spirit, I wanted to keep the maceration shorter as I thought it could have a negative effect on the slices of lemon and orange, as the maceration duration was shorter I also crushed all the botanicals in the coffee grinder, and then I put everything in the boiler for an 80 minute maceration time. As of now the boiler is heating up. With this experiment I will eventually find out how much fresh citrus is needed to do this gin. Especially for this type of experiments this type of small stills is very ideal. The final boiler charge will be %43 ABV.

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artooks
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

A short video from the run




I tasted the coming distillate, maybe it is too early to say something about this, but this really could be the best gin that I have made to date.
The first thing that I have felt is the absolute freshness of the citrus slices, that have dominated and changes the overall taste in a very good way also using 60 grams orange slice to 20 grams lemon slice they have balanced the spirit in such a good way that it is not sour have a slight sweetness that you feel but overall the taste is unlike any gin, so good that I want to drink right off the PC : ) Now wondering how it will turn out when I dilute it to % 48 ABV.
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Saltbush Bill
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Might louche real easy with all those citrus oils.
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Saltbush Bill wrote: Wed Apr 28, 2021 9:39 am Might louche real easy with all those citrus oils.
Hi,

I already diluted it after the run, there is no louch I can confirm.
I would like to mention that I only used 1 gram of peel the rest is 60 grams orange and 20 grams lemon so there is not much skin to expose more oils.
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Ok thanks.... :thumbup: Welcome
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Hi Everyone,


Today I wanted to do another gin trial with my dried lemon and orange, it will be a simple recipe, I will crush all the botanicals with coffee grinder to expose more surface for the short maceration duration, I macerated in 718 ml %60 ABV Spirit for only 2 hour , I am sure it will be a good gin here is the recipe.

Orlem Gin

1) Juniper berries: 16 Grams
2) Coriander seeds: 4 Grams
3) Angelica root: 0.8 Grams
4) Cardamon: 0.20 Grams
5) Orris Root: 0,20 Grams
6) Dry Lemon peel: 0.50 Grams
7) Dry Orange peel: 0.50 Grams

Total Botanicals per litre: 22.20 Gr / lt

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artooks
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

As of this moment I am distilling and I think I may have used the Cardamon too much I guess, Tasting the distillate and it looks like cardamon is overpowering.
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Hi,

Would like to update on the gin that I distilled yesterday, As you know I commented that the Cardamon was overpowering the overall taste, but luckily today the cardamon taste has mellowed out and Juniper and Citrus taste started to come out, so all I can say is that they have somehow balanced, it is really interesting to see how the taste changes and evolves in a very short time, but I would definitely use 0.10 grams per liter next time, that would be more than enough but the rest is ok. This turned out quite a good gin, I will try it with tonic tonight.
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Hi Everyone,

After I got my glass still, I had the chance to experiment on many different recipes, and tried different maceration durations, with crushed and whole botanicals, also learned about the ratios and their weight on the recipe, learned what I like tried vapor infusion and botanicals in the boiler now I decided to make my very own recipe that I will tweak along the way, I really like citrus peels lemon, orange and tangerine, I also dried all these three : ) and I really like juniper forward gin, so this time the approach will be as follows, I will put all the botanicals in the coffee grinder except the citrus peels, and this time crush very fine almost like a ground mix, I will macerate these very finely crushed botanicals in 718 ml %60 ABV Spirit for only 1 hour and 18 minutes because they are very finely chopped they have more surface to be exposed, which is the reason why I macerate for 1 hour and 18 minutes, I also macerate the citrus peels in another erlenmeyer flash because I want to vapor infuse the peels so it will be very easy for me to take them out and separate them from the rest and put them above the boiler in the "Chromatography Reservoir Flask" which I use to vapor infuse. so all the botanicals except the citrus peel will be boiler infused and the citrus peels will be vapor infused, here is the recipe.

Arto's Gin

1) Juniper berries: 16 Grams
2) Coriander seeds: 4 Grams
3) Angelica root: 0.8 Grams
4) Liquorice: 0.8 Grams
5) Dry Lemon peel: 0.60 Grams
6) Dry Orange peel: 0.90 Grams
7) Dry Tangerine peel: 1 Grams

Total Botanicals per litre: 24.10 Gr / lt

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artooks
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

A few images from the beginning of the run.



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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

After 24 hours I tasted this gin must say the smell is Awesome, I really like the citrusy flavor, also because I finely grinded the botanicals, the piney aroma of the Juniper is also there. I should give at least 2 weeks but it looks like I really find what I am looking for, it also has a slight hotness coming from the liquorice, which gives a good mouthfeel, what I will do is I will tweak the ratios of the botanicals even further to optimize it to my liking.
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Re: My Gin Journey

Post by artooks »

Here is a video from yesterdays run.

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