Violentblue's Steamed Gin

[violentblue]

Thought I'd share this even though its more interesting in the "HOW" than the "WHAT"
I decided a while ago that I wanted to add a thumper to may standard Beerkeg Potstill, I have my trusty copper 6 litre Pint-O-Still, which I converted to use as my doubler. I got to thinking, If I want to make a batch of Gin, theres No way I'm going to fire up my 15 gallon boiler for a litre of Gin, besides, it takes a minimum of 2 gallons just to barely cover the element.

So I upgraded my element to 4500W, charged the boiler with 4 gallons of water, connected my Thumper. and into my thumper I loaded 1 litre of 60% neutral and my botanicals.

Started with 1 litre of neutral @ 60%
added
30 juniper berries (dried)
6 tbsp of dried sweet lemon peel
2 stars of star anise
3 tbsp of ground cinnamon (didn't have any sticks)
1 tbsp of sweet basil
1 small piece of dried ginger root (would equal 1/4 tsp if ground)
2 tsp corriander seed
2/3 litre of filtered water.

allowed to soak for 2 hours
and then loaded into my thumper

ran hot and fast
distillate started at 80% and I collected down to 30%, averaged out to 60%
diluted down to 50% and it did not coud.

water was warm from prevous steam cleaning session, but from charging the thumper to finishing collecting took 1/2 hour.
The gin is the smoothest I've ever drank (including storebought) but I do need to tweak the flavour a bit,and possibly soak the botanicals longer.

Changes for next time.

1.5x JUNIPER BERRIES
2/3 LEMON PEEL
3-4x GINGER
2 x SWEET BASIL

had a couple friends try this one, and they both loved it, saying they would have picked this over the storebought.

[schnell]

that's a really good idea.

i've been wanting to do some steam distillations to capture essential oils. this approach might just be the ticket.

[violentblue]

update:

made a new batch with the changes listed above, plus a couple handfulls of scented rice (for sweetness) and a little fresh orange peel.
maserated and soaked overniche and run at half power (aprox 1800w instead of 4500w)

came out very smooth and tasty, but lacking in juniper. I'll double the juniper next time around, but the rice adds a sweetness and nuttyness that is just amazing. WIll be making this one again soon, cause I'll have it drank down in short order.

[snuffy]

The thumper technique is being discussed elsewhere, but this seems the right place to talk about the recipes.

I've been looking around here, at the mothership, and around the web, in my reference books and anywhere I can for gin recipes. I've got to say that gin is one of those situations where the incompleteness of recipes creates a lot of confusion. The more sources I've found, the more confusion.

There are several processes for gin involving maceration, infusion, extracts, distilling with maceration in the boiler, distilling with the botanicals in various places in the vapor stream, extraction with hot and cold alcohol of varying % abv, and combinations of most of the above.

The process(es) used have a big effect on the ratio of ingredients. And based on the one commercial-scale recipe I've found, scale appears to have a big effect as well.

This is most pronounced in how much juniper is used. If the infusion ends up in the final product, less is used because the flavor is very soluble. When distilled, the amount is much more. This follows VB's experience in the preceding posts.

Adding to the confusion are differing units and methods of measurement; differences between fresh, dried and extracted ingredients; ground or whole spices; as well as vague descriptions that don't really lend themselves to any reproducible form of measurement. The most reliable form of measurement is weight, but even then there will be differences depending on moisture content, ground or whole, age, etc.

I have some notes on a few equivalent measures below. It's a start and I encourage others to help out by doing the same. Maybe the information can end up on the wiki as a central reference...

I enlisted a friend who is a Slow Foodie for help on the botanicals. Slow Food is a culinary revitalization movement that's moving away from processed industrial food and making food as close to the source of production as possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Food" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://www.slowfood.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

He is a fanatic about food (and it's a real pleasure to get knees under his table.) In these parts, the best herbs and spices are found at a spice shop that has many fresh and unprocessed spices. He delivered a batch of ingredients and I picked his brain about how best to handle them in a thumper/gin box.

He's of the opinion that using whole spices (no grinding!) and a cold maceration to open up the cells is the best way. The reason for no grinding is that the heat and pressure can cause volatile flavors to be lost or transformed. Since we aren't eating the spices, it doesn't matter that they are in big hunks. Cold maceration because heat is going to cause the aroma to escape.

As he put it, "If you can smell it when you are processing it, those are flavors and aromas you won't taste in the final product. You're smelling them because they are leaving the spices." At the spice shop, you get samples to smell, but the bulk spices are kept tightly sealed to keep them fresh - same rationale.

I just finished measuring everything and putting it to soak for an overnight maceration. Here's the recipe:

112 g whole juniper berries -- still fresh enough that they are still soft and dimpled from a little drying
58 g whole coriander seed -- I had figured on 60g, but my scale and the shop differ
20 g whole anise seed
1.5 g cinnamon (cassia bark) -- it's not in sticks, it's random sizes roughly about the size of one or two thumbnails
3 g whole black cardomom -- evidently there are other types
12 g lemon rind -- it's the yellow skin of half a lemon, cut into slices 1/2" wide. The white inner rind is trimmed off so you can see the yellow and the pores. It's easier to do this than I thought. My friend cautioned me not to use a zester (my original plan) because too much of the oil would be lost.

All of this was handled tenderly, weighed and measured by teaspoon or tablespoon. It all fit into a quart (liter) jar and was covered with 450 ml of 93% abv. The total alcohol being used is about 5 liters when diluted to 50% abv. Currently, it's all 93% as it came over in the hearts from my last run.

It's going to soak overnight and tomorrow I'll decant off a half pint and reserve it. The rest will go (herbs and everything) into the thumper with the rest of the alcohol. It's already turned a lovely green color, sort of like Chartreuse but not so deep.

Conversions (Tsp = Tablespoon; tsp = teaspoon; 3 tsp = 1 Tsp)
Juniper.............. 1 Tsp = 5g
Coriander........... 1 Tsp = 4g
Anise seed.......... 1 tsp = 4g
Cinnamon........... 1 Tsp = 5g
Black Cardamom.... 1Tsp = 9g

These measurements were done by measuring out 3-5 Tsp until the weight was above 20g to minimize errors.

Now it's off to bed. It's been a long evening. I hope tomorrow's story isn't Gag Me Gin.

[olddog]

My wife returned from an overseas trip and bought a bottle of "Saphire Bombay London Dry Gin", on the botle it states that it contains Angelica, Coriander,Cassia bark, Cubeb berries, Grains of paradise, Almonds, Lemon peel,Liquorice, Juniper berries, and Orris root.
I usually make a 25litre sugar wash, and then put 4 large teaspoons of juniper berries, large slice of orange and lemon peel, 1/2 teaspoon of angelica root, 1/4 of star anise, 1/2 teaspoon of coriander, 1/2 a cinnamon stick, 1/2 a teaspoon of cardamum, and a 1/2 teapoon full of ginger.
I put all of this into a spice/coffee grinder and grind to a coarse mix, I then put this into a bag made from surgical gauze, and then using a specially made clip I suspend the bag in the output of my Keg, this is then distilled with my potstill with thumper.
My wife cannot tell the difference with the commercial product, I am not a gin drinker so I cannot give a personal opinion.

[violentblue]

Snuffy, Thas some very good info, thanks for taking the time to post it.

I did another batch of Gin the other day, turned out much nicer, made the changes I mentioned and I ran it slower. still needs more juniper but I dropped a couple berries into the distillate overnight and it really came out nice. also I added a couple handfulls of Jasmine scented rice which came through as a nutty sweetness in the final distillate.

I'm going to continue to tweak this recipe, but only to take it from good to great, the rice Ginger and basil are nice additions which will stay.

[snuffy]

It isn't Godawful Gin because it isn't gin. But it is Godawful.

The recipe is far too much for that amount of alcohol but there is almost no juniper taste. Some juniper aroma, but it doesn't carry over to the taste. And the reason for no juniper flavor turns out to be that juniper oil is slightly soluble in alcohol and has a boiling point well above water. So steam distillation isn't going to get you the right juniper flavor. I wish I had read up on juniper more before trying this instead of searching afterwords for the cause of this disaster. Only in the aftermath did one of the victims dig up the critical information.

The cuts were no help in blending at all. It only made sense to the palate when it was all blended together. And then it didn't taste like gin. And what it does taste like is far too strong.

A good lesson in what not to do. The "stuff in the thumper" for flavoring may work for other things (I'm going to try fruit for brandy in the future) but it's not for gin.

I'm now making an extraction head like Uncle Remus'.

I'm still hoping it will work with apples. Next time, I'm tasting before I post.....

[olddog]

Hey Snuffy, forget putting it in the thumper, if you use a keg for your boiler, make yourself a ginclip to attach inside the sankey connection of your keg, then suspend a bag of botanicals from the clip. I use dried juniper berries as we cannot get fresh in OZ. The original recipe called for two teaspoons of juniper but the flavour was not strong enough so I doubled it to four. doing it this way produces a first class gin. I think the flavour is improved as suspending the bag in the vapour path produces a bit of reflex, as when I empty the boiler the remaining wash has a gin smell to it.

[violentblue]

gonna retry this with some fresh juniper berries.
the last batch I did was a definate hit. everyone who tried it loved it, and adding a couple berries to the distillate overnight definatly perked up the juniper flavor, buit it did slightly "yellow" the spirit.

Snuffy may not have had a good experience with the thumper gin, but mine came out very soft and smooth, I'll be doing it again real soon.
I wonder if the difference came from actually loading the spirit into the thumper, and filling the boiler with only water (like I did) as compared to just loading the botanicals into the thumper.

[Husker]

VB, if picking fresh berries, what time of year is best? We mostly have red cedars around here (they work, but I don't think as well as the juniper bush), but I have found quite a few nice true juniper bushes. Just wondering if the new berries would be better, or would one want to wait for the darker berries in the fall. I used fall (winter actually) berries from some red cedar last fall. Things turned out ok, but it was no the best gin I had had.

H.

[violentblue]

I'm no expert on juniper or gin, but last time I picked berries it was in the late spring, the bush had dark berries from last year and bright green new berries.
I picked both and used them. but the gin turned out terrible that time. it wasn't the junipers fault, it was the poor quality spirit I was using.

fresh compared to dried juniper does have some slight differences in flavour from my (limited) experience. fresh has a slightly bright, green taste that the dried doesn't this is neither good nor bad, but my preferance is for the more subtle dried juniper flavour.

I'll probably run my recipe as is, with the addition of a couple fresh berries suspended in the thumper head, just to pick up a little more juniper.

[jadohe]

Thanks violentblue. Wrote this long ago but surely the recipe is worth trying. I will give it a go and let you know the outcome. Will need to use dry berries instead. Thanks