First crack at Gin

[Washashore]

Hey all, I'm trying my first Gin. I'm following Old Dog's recipe (without the Orris root, since I can't get it here). Any last minute advice? I'm stripping, now, spirit run on Sunday.

[beelah]

I used similar recipe but what I did was to make a gin essence by macerating, diluting to 40% and then running 4l in my air still ....only thing I use it for now....ended up with a very nice highly aromatic essence at about 75% abv which I then add to some neutral...add as much or as little as you like...make it stonger to lighter...this way you don't have to have a whole run devoted to gin, instead you still can use your white dog straight, with no flavour, you can have gin, or any other flavoured drink you may want. Not sure how big a run you usually do, but I usually collect 5 gallons to do a spirit run, and from that I get around 3 gallons of drinkable product...that will last me for several months...I also like to vary what I drink, not always white dog, or gin but also whiskey...just my two cents

[Washashore]

I'm stripping 25 gallons. I currently have 5 gallons of low wines and am expecting one more before retiring for the night. Thanks Beelah, but I'm pretty set on leaving the herbs in the vapor path as Old Dog was firm about the best results coming from the vapor path and not macerating. His Dutch wife was very pleased and said the outcome was very close to Bombay Saphire, which is what I'm shooting for. I might try maceration next if this doesn't work out so well.

[Sloanick]

How did it turn out?
I'm thinking of macerating to make up a bunch of essence I can just add to my neutral any time

[Washashore]

It came out REALLY good. However, I didn't have enough juniper berries but I ran it anyways (could have used twice as much). The dominant flavors were the citrus rinds from the clementines I used, and more so, the star anise. It came out tasting more like sambuca than gin, so I made a bunch of espresso and did an infusion (similar to espresso-laced vodka). I also made a bunch of dark roast coffee for a slightly different twist. Some I flavored with an amaretto knock off I made with a neutral a while back (just using vanilla and almond extracts). It all tastes fantastic, I'm very happy with the results.

[Durace11]

I had great results macerating in my strip runs and then collecting the herbs in a grain bag and placing that in the gin basket when running it. Stuff came out really floral and tasty. My base was half gerber wash and half some fruit wine wash that ended up too acidic for me to drink.

The herbs I used were:
dried juniper berries
fresh rosemary
coriander seeds
fennel seeds
cardamon pods
orange zest
lemon zest
lime zest
ceylon cinnamon bark
food grade lavender
black pepper
allspice berries
bay leaves

[Sloanick]

I was too lazy to even do the second distillation and I have just started drinking the maceration that was done at 65% and watered down to 40%now.
everyone loves it!
I can see room for improvment, but for now it is doing the trick!
eventually I will vapor infuse but for now I want to make a few different things and don't want to commit a whole batch to gin