Odin's Easy Gin

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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by FL Brewer »

popeofantelope - I'm pretty sure it's the mandarin pith that's giving the bitterness. I will try another batch with real tangerines, if I can find them, or just the zest of another citrus if I can't. I guess that the lesson is make substitutions to a tried and true recipe at your own risk.

artooks - did your mandarin skins have the white pith attached? If macerating then removing the peels avoids the extraction of the bitter taste, maybe that's another possible solution. How long did you macerate? Did you put the other botanicals in the boiler?
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by artooks »

Hi, as I said I can confirm that I did not experience bitterness, I macerated for 2 weeks with the mandarin skins and the white pith also then I strained them and distill, so I did not boil herbs in the boiler. But as I said the taste is perfect the only thing is the mandarin mellows after 5 week rest but it is still dominant in my taste.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by artooks »

I tried one of the bottles that I distill 2 months ago, the smell is different in a good way now the mandaline flavour has diminsihed and I can actually taste the juniper Berries.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by thepopeofantelope »

Good news. I'll stash the remaining 1.5l for 2 months and try it then. I spent a week on the East coast and visited numerous grocery stores. None carried tangerines.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Lucazzu »

Just made my batch made from neutral spirit from birdwatcher sugar wash! Had only 1lt of spirit at 40%!
I'm so excited! Hope it will turn out awesome as yours!
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by fizzix »

Lucazzu wrote:Just made my batch made from neutral spirit from birdwatcher sugar wash! Had only 1lt of spirit at 40%!
I'm so excited! Hope it will turn out awesome as yours!
As long as you stay strict with the instructions, it'll be perfect. And it does get better with the conditioning rest too. Don't dismiss that!
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Lucazzu »

fizzix wrote:
Lucazzu wrote:Just made my batch made from neutral spirit from birdwatcher sugar wash! Had only 1lt of spirit at 40%!
I'm so excited! Hope it will turn out awesome as yours!
As long as you stay strict with the instructions, it'll be perfect. And it does get better with the conditioning rest too. Don't dismiss that!
Welcome to the Gin Club.
As I did! I was thinking to add some Rosemary to make gin mare style gin but maybe next time ,when I'll something to compare to!
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by FL Brewer »

OK, my batch of Odin's gin is a little over five weeks old. I'm sitting here enjoying a nice G&T right now..... still a little bit of the bitterness from the manderine pith (yeth thir, thereth too much pith in the gin.....), but not enough to be objectionable. Kind of the level of quinine bitterness in the more bitter tonics. I still get the louche when I add ice and/or tonic, which I'm assuming comes from the citrus oils carried over from the peels in the boiler. I like the strong citrus flavor and don't mind the cloudiness, so I'm gonna call that a feature, not a bug. I wouldn't really describe the citrus flavor as too strong; I used three mandarin skins for a 4 liter batch, so I think I'll go back to one per liter.... but like I said, I really like that mandarin flavor.

The recipe is a nice baseline to work from, now that I know what it tastes like when mature, I'm going to make a couple adjustments for my tastes. First, I'm only going to use citrus peel with absolutely no pith. I also am going to boost the juniper a bit and cut down the coriander seeds.... it just slightly reminds me of a terrible Turkish gin I drank where coriander was the dominant flavor, no juniper or citrus notes that I could detect. Anyway, it's still pretty good, but will be even better with less coriander, more juniper, no pith.

Great recipe Odin, I'll like it even more when I get it dialed in to exactly my tastes. I would have had no baseline to even guess the botanical ingredient types or amounts without your recipe. Hell, I probably never would have tried to make a gin if I hadn't come across a recipe labelled "easy". Thanks again for sharing it.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by FL Brewer »

Another thing I forgot to mention..... I did use one roughly 4 inch piece of real cinnamon in my four liter batch, but I can't detect any flavor from it at all. Does anyone have any recommendations for how much cinnamon (or cassia) to use to get just a hint of flavor?
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by thepopeofantelope »

Odin wrote:Use tangerine, because it has much less inside white.

I think it is stated somewhere already.

Just checked it, yes it is posted ... in the original post no less. Use tangerine. The skin. The rest you can eat.

Odin.
I cruised the NorCal fruit stands and only found mandarins. They must be a more profitable crop. After another business trip, I finally found tangerines! I bought several pounds, peeled them and froze the peels in a mason jar. The taste and smell of the rind oils is so much more orange and softer than sumtras or cuties. The flesh is not as sweet as mandarins but more flavorful. Mandarins are closer to oranges. I'm retrying the recipe this weekend.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by FL Brewer »

Pope - same thing here, I'm in Florida, I can drive ten minutes and get to citrus groves, and I can't find real tangerines! I reluctantly substituted mandarins because I figured they were the closest thing, but they are not a good substitute unless you remove all the pith.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by PirateGin »

I have followed this as a basic recipe with good success, do not over crush the coriander and it can even be reduced a tad, I tend to add more juniper and have experimented with more lemon peel and added grapefruit peel in the basket to mimic an Italian Malfy Gin, I use a sharp potato peeler and avoid the white pith. I have found it needs two months to settle and mellow. Next i am going to try seville oranges.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Lucazzu »

In my opinion he's using tangerine because of the bite taste of the oranges! I'm going to think that leaving the orange peel in warm water over the night will remove that bite taste from 'em!
Just in my opinion!
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Lucazzu »

Hi guys!
Today I've just distilled my gin!
Smell awesome ! I'm not going to sip it right now , I'll wait some weeks meanwhile I've another 1lt of bw neutral that I'm going to macerate with junipers!

I was thinking , what about distilling a bought alcohol like everclear?
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by thepopeofantelope »

Lucazzu wrote:Hi guys!
Today I've just distilled my gin!
Smell awesome ! I'm not going to sip it right now , I'll wait some weeks meanwhile I've another 1lt of bw neutral that I'm going to macerate with junipers!

I was thinking , what about distilling a bought alcohol like everclear?
I spent the last year learning to to build an run a CCVM and make cuts. It is quite time consuming to process 30 gallons of kale wash for the sole purpose of making gin. Recently I contacted Trader Joe's corporate and asked if their house brand vodka, Vodka of the Gods, was made from GNS as the label states and if they know how the supplier distills it. Their response was corn-based GNS definitely not from a pot still. I cut my hearts to 40% and did a comparison there is a very minor taste difference but one is not better/worse than the other. My gin recipes all start with 200ml of 50%. I use a $10 bottle of 1.75l TJ vodka and strengthen with my precious hearts. Everyone loves my gin. If they want a bottle I pull out 200ml of macerating botanicals, distill it, and dilute it in an hour and split it with them. Sure it felt like cheating the first couple of times but my sole goal was to learn cool stuff from a new project making gin. Much thanks to the forum contributors.

Update: Being efficient(lazy) I grind all dried botanicals in a spice grinder until fine.I add them with whole juniper berries to a blender with the vodka and puree for a minute. No more mess with crushing juniper berries - nasty tarish oils. Pour into container to macerate with citrus peels so they can be removed before the boil.

Update: My gin recipes start with 2l of %50 no 200ml. It is diluted before distilling with 400ml of water.
Last edited by thepopeofantelope on Sun Feb 25, 2018 8:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by 999delta »

Another newbie trying his first Gin. Big thanks to Olin and all contributors. I started out about a mouth ago with 10L of HBB gumball that was made into neutrals and proofed down to 43%. Only changes I made was using 3/4 of mandarins ( scraped all of whites out with the back of a spoon ) and 14 grams of fennel seed. Crushed berries in gal bag with a hammer and ran seeds through roller mill at .020. After 10 days of macerating I read some posts about the mandarins being to strong of a taste so I removed them and let rest go for 5 more days. Discarded 15ml and keep 4l at 82%. Very intense flavor after proofing down to 45%, but thought this will work with tonic. It has been in gal jugs for 16 days. Last night I thought I give it a taste and about peed myself it was so good, no tonic needed. Thanks again for sharing!
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by fizzix »

999delta wrote:Another newbie trying his first Gin. Big thanks to Olin and all contributors. I started out about a mouth ago with 10L of HBB gumball that was made into neutrals and proofed down to 43%. Only changes I made was using 3/4 of mandarins ( scraped all of whites out with the back of a spoon ) and 14 grams of fennel seed. Crushed berries in gal bag with a hammer and ran seeds through roller mill at .020. After 10 days of macerating I read some posts about the mandarins being to strong of a taste so I removed them and let rest go for 5 more days. Discarded 15ml and keep 4l at 82%. Very intense flavor after proofing down to 45%, but thought this will work with tonic. It has been in gal jugs for 16 days. Last night I thought I give it a taste and about peed myself it was so good, no tonic needed. Thanks again for sharing!
Congratulations 999delta! This gin just makes me happy.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Lucazzu »

thepopeofantelope wrote:
Lucazzu wrote:Hi guys!
Today I've just distilled my gin!
Smell awesome ! I'm not going to sip it right now , I'll wait some weeks meanwhile I've another 1lt of bw neutral that I'm going to macerate with junipers!

I was thinking , what about distilling a bought alcohol like everclear?
I spent the last year learning to to build an run a CCVM and make cuts. It is quite time consuming to process 30 gallons of kale wash for the sole purpose of making gin. Recently I contacted Trader Joe's corporate and asked if their house brand vodka, Vodka of the Gods, was made from GNS as the label states and if they know how the supplier distills it. Their response was corn-based GNS definitely not from a pot still. I cut my hearts to 40% and did a comparison there is a very minor taste difference but one is not better/worse than the other. My gin recipes all start with 200ml of 50%. I use a $10 bottle of 1.75l TJ vodka and strengthen with my precious hearts. Everyone loves my gin. If they want a bottle I pull out 200ml of macerating botanicals, distill it, and dilute it in an hour and split it with them. Sure it felt like cheating the first couple of times but my sole goal was to learn cool stuff from a new project making gin. Much thanks to the forum contributors.

Update: Being efficient(lazy) I grind all dried botanicals in a spice grinder until fine.I add them with whole juniper berries to a blender with the vodka and puree for a minute. No more mess with crushing juniper berries - nasty tarish oils. Pour into container to macerate with citrus peels so they can be removed before the boil.
That's awesome popeo! I think I'll try something like your recipe!

It's not cheating it's only your way in my opinion!

Anyway, since I'm Italian, it's quite difficult for me to understand everything!

What do you mean saying "pull 200ml of macerating botanical and distill it"?

You make 200ml of 50% macerate and then distill it and blend with vodka?

In this way , will the flavor be too low? I mean, only 200ml of distilled botanicals in 1.75lt vodka?

I'm really interested on doing it in your way!
Hoping in your reply soon
Cheers!
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by thepopeofantelope »

Lucazzu, I was off by a factor of 10 I should have read my notes. I've learned from years of brewing always take notes.

I start with a 1.75l of bottle of vodka and add neutral(about %80) to raise it to %50. It is approximately 2 liters. I fill the blender about 2/3s with %50 and the botanicals, puree, then add it with the remaining %50 to a gallon jar. I make 2-3 of these and let them macerate. I haven't noticed a difference between 1 day or 1 week. Things that make a difference are boiling citrus peels.

I have 2 jars macerating now(different recipes) for over a week and will distill them with friends sometime soon. I pour a contents of the gallon jar and 400ml of water into the boiler, removing all citrus peels and distill. Per Odin's instructions, I dump the first mls and collect 800ml. This is diluted to %43-45 and 750ml is given away.

All my recipes are based on these volumes of liquids.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by FL Brewer »

Lucazzu wrote: Today I've just distilled my gin!
Smell awesome ! I'm not going to sip it right now , I'll wait some weeks meanwhile I've another 1lt of bw neutral that I'm going to macerate with junipers!
Lucazzu - do give it a try.... take a sip every week so you can see how it develops....
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Odin »

FL Brewer wrote:
Lucazzu wrote: Today I've just distilled my gin!
Smell awesome ! I'm not going to sip it right now , I'll wait some weeks meanwhile I've another 1lt of bw neutral that I'm going to macerate with junipers!
Lucazzu - do give it a try.... take a sip every week so you can see how it develops....
Great advice!
"Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself." by Buddhist filosofer Daisaku Ikeda.
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Lucazzu »

Yeah! I Just sipped it!
Just found that I've a lot of that tangerine taste but I love it! Really like bombay!
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Lukehghs »

Hini have a couple questions. I’m new to this sorry if they dumb questions.
So you don’t add any extra water to the still on the second distillation?
And is there a minimum amount I would want to put in a 13 gallon keg pot still? I mean if I put one litre of this in it would that still be ok?
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by FL Brewer »

Lucazzu wrote:
I was thinking , what about distilling a bought alcohol like everclear?
Lucazzu - forgot to mention when I replied to your post a couple weeks ago.... any neutral spirit should work, I used store bought generic Everclear equivalant because I don't (yet) have a good column still to make neutrals.

BTW, the flavor continues to develop even after five weeks. The bitterness in my batch continues to fade (either that, or I'm getting used to it).
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by redfrog »

best gin i ever tasted, seriously
made my first try with feints from pugi's rum (6L) and cornflakes (2L - made a very conservative heart cut here in order to keep some good stuff in the feint jar), all of them rounding up to 65% giving around 12L diluted with spring water at 43%. Macerated for 24 hours. took out the tangerine skins and stuck a few pieces in the column. the cut were a bit tricky (guess thats why the recipe is using hearts) so again went ultra conservative. Ended up with about 2L of finished product at 45%

the citrus taste and smell were a bit overwhelming for the first week or so but turned magical for the next 3 weeks. Now im at the 4 week mark with only about a cup left. The citrus tatse def faded, leaving space for the juniper. Maybe its because of the rum feints but the heavy citrus taste was very enjoyable and i kinda miss it, but a single slice of lemon or lime added to your drink brings it right back up

amazing stuff really, cant wait to have enough feints again and have another go at it

cheers guys
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Lukehghs »

I’m only new to distilling so not sure if this is a dumb question. But do I need to add any more water to the still before boiling or is that small amount ok in a 50 litre still?
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by still_stirrin »

Lukehghs wrote:I’m only new to distilling so not sure if this is a dumb question. But do I need to add any more water to the still before boiling or is that small amount ok in a 50 litre still?
This is asked and answered in the novice forum. Here’s a link: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=70258
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Nunyo »

As a gin lover who plans on trying this recipe, I have a question. I’ve read that the ingredients in making the gin tend to leave a lasting aroma in the still that can carry over into subsequent distillations and leave a flavor impression on future spirits. Have you guys found that to be the case and if so, what are you doing/using to clean the still after running a batch of gin?
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

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slief wrote:As a gin lover who plans on trying this recipe, I have a question. I’ve read that the ingredients in making the gin tend to leave a lasting aroma in the still that can carry over into subsequent distillations and leave a flavor impression on future spirits. Have you guys found that to be the case and if so, what are you doing/using to clean the still after running a batch of gin?
It looks like three of us will get a plated still (PM me if you know of a good Australian supplier!)
Anyway, should I get a gin basket for it OR should I get a gin basket (whatever) for my old faithful pot still. Which I will do if there are difficulties getting rid of the gin smell in the pretty new still.

Your opinions are important (yeah, okay, 'please do not terminate this call, your opinion is important to us' and hang on for another ten minutes...)

Thanks, though.

Geoff
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Re: Odin's Easy Gin

Post by Nunyo »

The Baker wrote:
slief wrote:As a gin lover who plans on trying this recipe, I have a question. I’ve read that the ingredients in making the gin tend to leave a lasting aroma in the still that can carry over into subsequent distillations and leave a flavor impression on future spirits. Have you guys found that to be the case and if so, what are you doing/using to clean the still after running a batch of gin?
It looks like three of us will get a plated still (PM me if you know of a good Australian supplier!)
Anyway, should I get a gin basket for it OR should I get a gin basket (whatever) for my old faithful pot still. Which I will do if there are difficulties getting rid of the gin smell in the pretty new still.

Your opinions are important (yeah, okay, 'please do not terminate this call, your opinion is important to us' and hang on for another ten minutes...)

Thanks, though.

Geoff
I’d love to be able to advise you but I’m new to this hobby myself as you might have guessed from my question or newness to this site. I just finished setting up my 4” modular 6 bubble plate flute. Being a gin lover, I opted to get a gin basket as well just so I had it on hand. The fact that it was called a gin basket was all I needed to hear. This was before reading this thread.

I’m sure breaking the still down and giving the parts a soak in water with citric acid would eliminate the left over aroma if that’s even an issue. That or some mild PRW cleaner. I’ve devised a clean in place (CIP) solution for my flute setup which may also come in handy if the aroma is an issue. It consists of an external pump with tubing and 2” tri clamp ferrules on the intake and output of the pumps hoses. The input will connect to the 2” drain ball valve on my boiler and the output will connect to my condenser. I can put water or cleaning solution in my boiler and flush the still in reverse which will come in handy since the bubble plates won’t fully drain after distilling.

With regards to the aroma tainting future distillations, I am looking forward to what others have to say on that subject.
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