Gin Mare

[Oldvine Zin]

I'm going to attempt to make a Gin Mare recipe tonight.

I've got 4 gals of 80 ABV neutral ish that I made from a HBB sugar head that I diluted down to 40 ABV. Set up my flute with the Carter head and plan on adding this botanical bill:

40 - grams green Sicilian olives
40 - grams orange peel
25 - grams of juniper berry's
10 - grams of cardamom pods
5 - grams lime peel
5 - grams fresh basil leaf
5 - grams fresh rosemary leaf
2.5 - grams fresh thyme leaf

hey if it dosen't turn out I probably can use it as an ingredient in cream sauces for pasta

OVZ

[Oldvine Zin]

Got around to running late last night through 3 am this morning - all that I can say at this point is it's got a lot going on in the nose.
I had to be back at work at 8 am this morning, when I get home tonight I'll do cuts and taste a few samples


OVZ

[Oldvine Zin]

Proofed a glass down to 40 ABV - lots of citrus, a bit of juniper and a slight hint of green olive. Really needs time to integrate, maybe a month or two rest after proofing.


OVZ

[Cabron99]

I'll be waiting for your results!

[OtisT]

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Were all the botanicals in your Carter head, or were some in the boiler?

I was working on my new mini boiler and gin head last night. Getting excited about entering the world of gin and oil extraction. Otis

[Oldvine Zin]

All the botanicals were in the carter head, ended up with a bit over 9 ltr's of 90 ABV. I didn't have to go into work today, my car is under a foot of snow and I live between a couple of hills that the kids turned into a bobsled track So I'm stuck at home with nothing better to do than catch up on some stilling tasks.
First task was to proof down this gin, realized that I was out of distilled water and no chance of making it to the store. Then I remembered the rum that nerdy brewer brought for a tasting a few years ago - proofed with snow. Melted 10 liters of snow from my back yard for a slightly over proofed gin at 50 ABV - tasting good now but I'm going to let the water marry into the alcohol for a couple of months.

[Oldvine Zin]

A few of us tasted a bit of this gin tonight, I think that it is my best gin I have made.
will only get better with time.

OVZ

[OtisT]

We are both obviously on the same trajectory, with all our similar posts on making minis and gin. There are a few others that appear to be doing the same, at least talking about making minis. I feel I’m in good company.

Enjoy your gin tonight. I’ll tip a glass for you.

Otis

[NZChris]

You have three ingredients in there that I haven't tried .... yet

I'm having a brandy based G&T on a hot summer afternoon, an idea I got from a recent thread. It's surprisingly good considering I didn't think grapes would make a good gin base. I would never have thought olives would be a match either, so maybe I should give them a try.

[OtisT]

OVZ. I’m enjoying more of your gin mare now as I look out the window to light snow falling. The gin is warming me nicely.

Through various tastings, I think I can identify all of the ingredients in this but the olive. Basil,was hard to find. There is a distinct lingering flavor that I’m not sure about that could be the olive, but it may also be your grain spirit I’m tasting. The orange is what I notice the most.

I made a straight gin martini with you gin mare last night, bruised, and it was really good. I think I prefer sippin your gin to making a martini with it. That said, what I thought the martini was missing was a bit of olive juice to make it a dirty martini. I think that would be delicious. I’ll have to put olive juice on my shopping list.

Thanks,
Otis

[JumpJet]

I say this with the upmost of respect.... You bastards. Mail me some?

Jump

[OtisT]

I say this with the upmost of respect.... You bastards. Mail me some?

Jump

Or you could try the recipe he posted above. And the cool thing about making gin is that it doesn’t need to rest long to start enjoying. Relative to whiskey, it’s instant gratification.

I’m looking forward to trying out some new recipes myself. OVZs gin has inspired me.

Otis

[JumpJet]

I have tried Oden Gin. It turned out awesome. I will make it till the end of days. And, yup. It was good right off the still!

Jump

[OtisT]

Hi OVZ. I just read an article in this season’s whisky advocate on genever. Mostly history and some cocktail recommendations. There was one paragraph was applicable to making genever that I thought I would share.

Genever. Amount of malt wine to use

I tried PMing this to you, but I could not attach an image to the PM.

Otis

[Maka_me]

How did your Gin Mare turn out after some resting? I'm keen to give this a try. I'm just wondering about the botanical loadings they seem a little light, would you recommend using a heavier loading of the botanicals? Also for your olives, did you leave the seeds in?

[Oldvine Zin]

It's a really light flavored gin but I do like the way it turned out. I think the next time I make this I'll double the basil, thyme, and olives. For the olives I pitted them.

OVZ

[Maka_me]

It's a really light flavored gin but I do like the way it turned out. I think the next time I make this I'll double the basil, thyme, and olives. For the olives I pitted them.

OVZ

Cheers OVZ,

Curiosity got the better of me. So I forged ahead with this before your reply. I will admit when I first read your thread I hadn't heard of Gin Mare, or this concept. I did however find myself quite excited by the botanicals. I was lucky enough to be in a bar and they had a bottle of Gin Mare and I got to give it a sniff. It smells of a strong citrus, which is probably mostly from their maceration process. I've made mine with 10 grams per litre of juniper, 5 grams per litre coriander, 2 grams per litre olives and so on. The batch I made has one whole olive (including seed) and the flesh of another.

I will run it in a couple of hours through my pot still and see how it comes off. At the moment I can really smell the orange, juniper and thyme in that order. Will be interesting to see the flavours off the still and after some rest.

[NZChris]

From descriptions I've read, I suspect the recipe in the OP might be a bit low on juniper, so I've made myself a recipe with about three times the juniper and including coriander.

Olives are getting close to harvest here, so I'll get some to distil as an essence that I can blend to suit my tastes.

[Oldvine Zin]

The small amount of juniper in this recipe was intentional, I didn't want the juniper to overpower all the other flavors.

OVZ

[NZChris]

I noticed that the commercials are distilling most, or all, of the botanicals separately then blending. I'm not going to go to that extreme, but I think I should make a batch of olive essence large enough for future batches as well as for the first run.

It doesn't matter much if I get the balance of anything very wrong on the first run because it's only a bottle's worth of product to get a starting point.

I also noticed that one of them used barley spirit base and I haven't got any, so I'm thinking about putting some barley in a Carter Head for the first run.

[Maka_me]

I see your idea OVZ. I made my version of it with 10 grams per litre of juniper and half that of coriander. I found that the juniper and orange flavours dominate the subtle flavours of the rosemary and thyme. They are still there but very subtle. I think in the next batch I'll increase their loading to see if I can bring them out a little more. I also think the olive is lost in there too. So I feel that needs to be turned up some more to help make that shine

[NZChris]

How much rosemary and thyme did you use Maka?

[Maka_me]

10 g/l juniper
5 g/l coriander
2 g/l Sicilian olives (with seeds, from a brine solution)
0.06 g/l rosemary
0.08 g/l thyme
0.1 g/l orris root
0.02 g/l fennel
0.1 g/l orange peel (fresh)
0.04 g/l lemon peel (fresh)

All were dried unless stated otherwise.

I chose a lot of orange as this was the dominate citrus I could smell in the comercial gin mare

[NZChris]

If a gin is short on a herb, you can boost it by hanging a sprig above the liquor for a day or two. The same might work for olives, I have an SS strainer that I can stand above the liquor in a Mason jar and load with botanicals.

[NZChris]

1000ml GNS from various grain feints @ 43% in leu of barley GNS

12g Juniper berries
6g Coriander
1.2g Cardamom pods
12g pitted Kalamari olives from supermarket
0.13g dried Basil
1.2g fresh Rosemary
1.6g fresh Thyme
0.12g dried Navel orange peel
0.12g dried Mandarine peel
0.12g dried Lemon peel
0.12g dried Tangerine peel
Steeped overnight.

Run with everything in the boiler.
10ml foreshot removed.

Collected 440ml @ 84.5%, made up to 875ml @ 42.5%.
No louche at 42.5%, but louches in Tonic.
Thyme and citrus were strong at the spout at shut down.

My choice of base spirit was a mistake as it had a bit too much flavor. It's still a nice drink, straight and with Tonic, but I'd like to try it with a more neutral base spirit. I can't taste the olives, but the amount of Juniper, herbs and citrus seems about right for my palate.

[NZChris]

I'm sampling a G&T made with the 10ml foreshot and 40ml run off after 'hearts' and I get an after-taste of olives from it.

[NZChris]

Pronunciation:
https://forvo.com/word/gin_mare/

[Oldvine Zin]

Hey Chris curious what flavors the kalamata added? In my part of the world they are overly processed and not sure if I would want to add them to a gin. I used green Castelvetrano olives light and not so much processed

Glad to see others are trying this recipe
OVZ

[NZChris]

I don't think they added much at all. I'll put the word out to see if I can get some fresh ripe olives. If I can get some, I'll make an essence for blending.

[NZChris]

I'm trying it with Fever Tree Indian Tonic Water to see if it makes a difference. It's very nice, but I still can't pick out the olive. It's still very young of course and a couple of weeks might make a difference, but I have my doubts that the olive will magically appear.

I couldn't taste olives in the foreshot or at the end of the run.

If I did another batch tomorrow, I'd double the Kalamata.