Gin vs Juniper Schnapps

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 10:08 pm

I made a little gin a while ago and after the 2nd distillation I found the flavor and smell to be... tame... compared to the maceration. I have a bit of shine macerating on some juniper and some other stuff and it smells like heaven. I just can't see myself running this back through the still and clip its balls like that. It's got such a whiff and a punch and dammit I like it this way.

I guess it's not gin. Juniper schnapps? What do you call shine + juniper + a little Fiji water @100 proof?

watershed1 · Post by **watershed1** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:28 pm

For some reason I can't login. - or at least it logs me out as soon as I change pages.

It's probably closest to Genever - a Dutch spirit normaly made with malt/grain spirit and flavoured with little else other than juniper. Comes in a variety of ages/colours ranging from plain white to malt whisky.

Uncle Remus · Post by **Uncle Remus** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:07 pm

I made some gin with fresh juniper berries and other botanicals. I put a basket with the berries and stuff in the column below the condensor so the warm distillate could trickle through. The first gallon was green and cloudy from the oils in the botanicals. The second gallon was clear with a wonderfull gin/pine forest smell. I poured the first gallon (the green stuff) back in the still and ran it through again. This time it came nice and clean still with lots of flavour (as it ran through the basket of herbs again). Now this distillate was close to 95% av.

I then blended the 2 gallons. Cut them with water to about 45% av. The gin was still a bit to junipery for my taste so I added a couple gallons of some finished neutral spirit. The gin is excellent.

Juniper berries are strong, I'm sure you can run it through again and still have lots of flavour left.

knuklehead · Post by **knuklehead** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 4:04 pm

@ Uncle Remus, what kind of still are you using. I'm just trying to get a picture of "in the column below the condenser". I am not a huge fan of Gin, I prefer Vodka Martini's to Gin Martini's but my wife loves Gin and has been bugging me to make some. I've got an NS reflux and I was thinking of putting the berries in a tea ball and hanging that in the column just below the take off tee but above the reflux line so that only vapour would pass through the berries. The vapor should still pick up the flavor but all the color would drip off the berries and down the column.

Uncle Remus · Post by **Uncle Remus** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:26 pm

Sorry a valved reflux with a off set lyn arm. I put a basket, which is really just a piece of ss screen bent into a cup shape, below the tee under the condensor and right above the output valve. I dump in the berries and other spices on top of the screen. This was my first try making gin, but it turned out good, I'm not much of a gin drinker myself either but I'm learning to like it. My wife loves it which is a good thing.

I started with 2 gallons of neutral spirit made from a turbo wash that was about 85-88% av. and ran this through the botanicals.

knuklehead · Post by **knuklehead** » Thu Dec 01, 2005 9:11 pm

@ Uncle Remus, how much and where did you get your juniper berries and other botanicals? I think I would like to give gin a go. BTW I have the same still design as you do NS reflux.

Uncle Remus · Post by **Uncle Remus** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 7:08 am

I got this off the home distiller sight one recipe of many; 2 tblsp of juniper berries, 1 tsp corriander seed, 1 tsp anise seed, a couple of pieces of lemon rind and a piece of cinnamon stick about an inch long. I couldn't find other ingredients such an angelica root and orris root, it also called for cardamon pods but all I could find was ground cardamon so I skipped that too.

Juniper bushes grow everywhere around here so the berries were easy to come by.