Home made gin

Putting older posts here. Going to try to keep the novice forum pruned about 90 days work. The 'good' old stuff is going to be put into appropriate forums.

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Count Chcula
Novice
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Joined: Fri May 01, 2009 10:21 am

Home made gin

Post by Count Chcula »

Hello all,

I searched around the forums a bit but had no luck so sorry in advance if this has already been covered.

I am new to this whole distilling business and am wanting to get in on the game. How possible is it to distill gin? In my mind it seems simple enough however I am guessing its going to a be lot lot lot harder than what I think.

After doing a bit of research I guess i will need:

- Some white grain spirit (where on earth do you get this from?)
- Some botanics to flavour the white grain spirit with
- Assorted chemisty bits and bobs to collect the gin goodness once it is heated up (do minature stills exist out of brewing companies?)

Am i far off? Is this a pie in the sky idea? I would prefer not to just buy some gin and then flavour it that way as thats a bit lame and surely would be more expensive?

Any thoughts on this idea would be very much welcome.
eternalfrost
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Re: Home made gin

Post by eternalfrost »

gin is made with neutral spirit (see reflux stills)

this is then soaked in botanicals then redistilled in a pot still
or the neutral is redistilled in a pot with botanicals suspended in the vapor
or the neutral is redistilled in a pot and the botanicals are put in a basket just under the final output


its all covered on the forum and the main site
HookLine
retired
Posts: 5628
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 8:38 am
Location: OzLand

Re: Home made gin

Post by HookLine »

Use this HD specific Google search phrase:

site:http://homedistiller.org/forum [insert your search terms here]

For example:

site:http://homedistiller.org/forum tequila

or

site:http://homedistiller.org/forum "fruit mash"

It works very well, way better than the forum's internal search engine. It allows you to do phrase specific searches (the ones inside quotation marks, as in the second example above), which are much more accurate.
Be safe.
Be discreet.
And have fun.
olddog
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Re: Home made gin

Post by olddog »

Imake gin using a sugar wash, and then hanging a bag of botanicals in the neck of my keg with my gin clip, I used "Sandhusker" recipe, but I doubled the amount of juniper berries as we can only get dried berries in OZ. The final result turned out great as good or better than commercial gin.
OLD DOG LEARNING NEW TRICKS ......
Dnderhead
Angel's Share
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Location: up north

Re: Home made gin

Post by Dnderhead »

Old Dog, dont make gin my self but how about one of these? you can git different sizes (for tea)mite be better than bag?
http://pivo.northernbrewer.com/nbstore/ ... &x=24&y=12" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
olddog
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Re: Home made gin

Post by olddog »

The bag I use is made from surgical gauze which lets the steam penetrate well.
OLD DOG LEARNING NEW TRICKS ......
FeralPig
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Location: Dixie

Re: Home made gin

Post by FeralPig »

olddog wrote:Imake gin using a sugar wash, and then hanging a bag of botanicals in the neck of my keg with my gin clip, I used "Sandhusker" recipe, but I doubled the amount of juniper berries as we can only get dried berries in OZ. The final result turned out great as good or better than commercial gin.

This might be a silly question...Juniper berries...are they the same as these little greenish blue berries growing all over the creeping Juniper plants that grow all through many landscapes (including the slope behind my home)? Are they that common? Or is it some special Juniper?
This is so much fun it ought to be illegal..wait..never mind.

51" LM and a 24" Pot still with 62" Liebig with turbulator and spiral coolant swirler thingy. Both running on an unmodified keg with Tri-clover clamp attachment.
Dnderhead
Angel's Share
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Location: up north

Re: Home made gin

Post by Dnderhead »

that's them.
olddog
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Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 6:16 pm
Location: WEST OZ

Re: Home made gin

Post by olddog »

Squeeze one of the berries, if it smells similar to gin, you have got them
OLD DOG LEARNING NEW TRICKS ......
punkin
Master of Distillation
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Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:36 pm
Location: Northern NSW Oz Trail Ya

Re: Home made gin

Post by punkin »

Of course they brought forth Juniper berries, they're bloody Juniper bushes

Click above for Juniper info from Monty Python :mrgreen:







HowShallWeFuckOffOhMasterPunkin 8)
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