Odin's Easy Gin

[madspeed]

Not much of a fan of typical store bought gin, but excited to try this out. For those US based, check out the pricing at the Webstaurant Store. Most of their advertised prices are even less than what I had been paying through my wholesale supplier.

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/38519/bulk-spices.html

[Kyled93]

Hey all! I am now on to my 3rd gin run but have a clarifying question on time.... I accidentally didn’t communicate correctly with the SWMBO and started a macerated 75% abv soak this afternoon. However can’t run it until Friday morning. I found this out after about 6 hrs of already completing the macerated soak.

That being said, should I :

A) run it as normal in the pot still with the botanicals and all should be ok?

B) Run as normal in pot still without the botanicals

C) ?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[Expat]

You can do whatever you prefer; But OEG calls for option B. You may also wish to be mindful of the suggested maceration ABV, i.e. 43%.

Watch close for drip and follow the instructions on what and how much to keep.

[Kyled93]

Thanks!

Typically I’ll dilute the mix down to 43-45% abv before the run.

[cayars]

Hey all! I am now on to my 3rd gin run but have a clarifying question on time.... I accidentally didn’t communicate correctly with the SWMBO and started a macerated 75% abv soak this afternoon. However can’t run it until Friday morning. I found this out after about 6 hrs of already completing the macerated soak.

That being said, should I :

A) run it as normal in the pot still with the botanicals and all should be ok?

B) Run as normal in pot still without the botanicals

C) ?

Thanks for the help in advance.

Go back and read the first couple of messages in this thread from Odin.

Basically 2 weeks maceration and remove botanicals and run.
or
Macerate for 12 to 24 hours and leave in botanicals and run.

Maybe you could pull out the botanicals tomorrow (12 to 24 hours) and save them in a sealed jar. Then on Friday put them back in the boiler, thus you still run them in the boiler but you only macerated for 12 to 24 hours as directed.

Hopefully Odin will chime in with his expert opinion on how you might best handle this or correct what I just said.

[NZChris]

It's quite difficult to make bad gin, so don't get hung up on details. When you're ready to run, chuck it all in the pot, add water to the correct abv and turn the heat on.

[Corsaire]

It's quite difficult to make bad gin

Well some of the commercial offerings in this second gin craze are really making an effort...

But still, yeah run it. Make notes. Learn

[NZChris]

It's quite difficult to make bad gin

Well some of the commercial offerings in this second gin craze are really making an effort...

But still, yeah run it. Make notes. Learn

Ha ha, yes. Using badly cut spirit or mismatched ingredients will do it, but that's unlikely if you are doing OEG.

[cayars]

Odin, just wanted to let you know I had a few friends over last weekend watching American football (NFL championship games) on my big screen and I was making cocktails. Lots of different spirits I made but they have no idea I distill (spirits I make are put in commercial bottles so no one is the wiser).

Anyway a couple drink in, I made a round of gin and tonics and got a BIG RESPONSE. WOW, what is this? "Gin and Tonic". How did you make it? 2 oz gin topped with tonic water? This is great! Then per request made a round of gin martinis (I'm a vodka martini guy) and again a giant success and I liked it myself which I normally don't and haven't even tried a gin martini in 10+ years. It was really nice for a change.

This was OEG with a few other botanicals following the x/10 x/100 protocol for a more "balanced/more dimensional" gin and then mixed with a bit more vodka to reduce the louche. Was a big success and nearly everyone said it was the best G&T & gin martini they every had!

Of course it wasn't your recipe but my fine selection of tonic water that made the difference, LOL

While sometimes a pain in the ass, when KUDOS are due I'm the first to say it, so THANK YOUR VERY MUCH for sharing your OEG and iStill videos. I'm trying gin per your iStill videos at 30% boiler charge as well for a bit less dry gin but really appreciate all your info on gin you share with the world.

I've more or less ignored gin for decades, but I'm very much enjoying gin again thanks to YOU and look forward to trying new variation of botanicals. So thank you very much for making this so simple and nearly full proof using a good vodka to start with!!!

BTW, one of the guys saw the Seagram's Gin bottle and called me wanting to know how I made the G&T cause at home his didn't taste anything like mine. I got some explaining to do, LOL

[Odin]

Thanks for the kudo's.

[cayars]

Truly is well deserved as OEG is pretty much full proof if you can read and follow directions.
Again, thank you so much for sharing this with us.

[Wozza]

OK, I've got my neutral after 3 x stripping runs on 15L each of BW wash and then a spirit run all on a 20L pot still. Did my cuts and I was left with 2.8L of heads at 77%. I diluted that with 2.0L of tap water (the water in Sydney is pretty good) and ended up with 4.8L at 48%. I know the recipe calls for 43% but I thought I might need some head space in the 5L demijohn.

Bought my juniper berries from a local store that sells all types of fancy berries and herbs, seeds and grains. Cost me $4 for 60g. And couldn't get mandarins so I bought a half dozen tangerines (for a dollar each!) and the corriander seeds I had in my spice rack (with a few grams I picked from a coriander plant in the garden that had gone to seed).

Lighly ground the coriander seeds and lightly crushed the berries. Hell, I'd never used juniper berries before. The whole kitchen smelt just great. Then peeled the tangerines with a potato peeler to try to get just skin and no pith. Not entirely succesful as almost all the peel had some pith on it but if I scraped at it lightly with a sharp knife then it all came off. And all into the demijohn. And it turned a nice light bronze colour. Looked great. And smelt bloody wonderful. In fact, it smelt so good that after a couple of hours I couldn't resist having a sample. Poured a small amount in a shot glass, put it in the freezer for 10 mims and then added a small amount of tonic. Wow. Instant gin! Couldn't be happier.

Now it's a two week wait followed by a decision to distill it to get it clear (and drier?) or just drink as is. But it smells so strong now that I'm actually concerned it might be too strong after 14 days. I'll post something more when the two weeks is up.

Thank you, Odin!

[Wozza]

So...two weeks up and I strained the botanicals out and poured it into the boiler with an extra 1.5L cold water. I reckoned on distilling 2L and I needed 4L left in the boiler to make sure the element was covered.

Ran it very slowly. Discarded the first 50ml which was quite cloudy and had some particulates floating in it. The run went as follows (all jars are about 400ml):

Jar 1: 79%
Jar 2: 76%
Jar 3: 74%
Jar 4: 66%
Jar 5: 55%
Jar 6: 40%

Jar 6 was a little oily and smelled like tails so I threw that and powered off. All the others were great so I ended up with 2.2L at 68%. I diluted that with tap water and ended up with 3.85L at 42%.

I've saved some of the pre-distilled gin and I tried that back to back with the clean distilled version and a Gordons. The pre-distilled version (with some added water to bring it down from 48%) had the colour of lemon juice. Tasted quite nice but there was a background of orange which is not perceptable in the Gordons. The orange is not unpleasant - just different. But it was quite nice with tonic. The distilled version was crystal clear and the orange background was less pronounced. Quite nice on it's own and very drinkable with tonic. I think it could have used more juniper. The Gordons was more 'ginny' which my untutored palette assumes is the juniper.

To avoid temptation I've put the carboy with the 3.8L in the back of a wardrobe to 'mellow' for 4 weeks. Looking forward to see what changes there might be and I'll report back then. I did a spirit run on a sugar wash yesterday but I might hold on another gin until I see what the first one is like next month so I can adjust as necessary.

For anyone who is interested in the financial side, the materials cost about about $25. And I even worked out the electricity costs across stripping runs, a spirit run and the final run at about $8. So all up it was $33 which is about $6.60 a bottle.

[Expat]

...dupe

[Expat]

Ran it very slowly. Discarded the first 50ml which was quite cloudy and had some particulates floating in it. The run went as follows (all jars are about 400ml):

50mls is too large for a head cut, should be 10mls. You've thrown away quite of bit of the juniper taste I think. Also, it shouldn't be cloudy straight off the still.

For anyone who is interested in the financial side, the materials cost about about $25. And I even worked out the electricity costs across stripping runs, a spirit run and the final run at about $8. So all up it was $33 which is about $6.60 a bottle.

Wow, that's on the expensive side for ingredients. Including power I can make about 5 gallons for that much, most of which would be sugar cost. Are you paying a lot for botanicals?

[The Baker]

Not familiar with distilling gin (yet).
But I had the idea that all the cuts were made in producing the spirit used to make the gin, and so you do not need (after distilling the gin) to put it into separate jars and choose from among them. ????

Geoff

[Expat]

Not familiar with distilling gin (yet).
But I had the idea that all the cuts were made in producing the spirit used to make the gin, and so you do not need (after distilling the gin) to put it into separate jars and choose from among them. ????

Geoff

A small head cut is recommended as the first few mls are very high in botanicals.

[cayars]

OK, I've got my neutral after 3 x stripping runs on 15L each of BW wash and then a spirit run all on a 20L pot still. Did my cuts and I was left with 2.8L of heads at 77%. I diluted that with 2.0L of tap water (the water in Sydney is pretty good) and ended up with 4.8L at 48%. I know the recipe calls for 43% but I thought I might need some head space in the 5L demijohn.

So...two weeks up and I strained the botanicals out and poured it into the boiler with an extra 1.5L cold water.

So you had 4.8L at 48% but then added another 1.5L which would have brought your ABV down to about 36.5%. This will change the style of gin you make. Boiler ABV is sort of important. Refer back to post #1.

Ran it very slowly. Discarded the first 50ml which was quite cloudy and had some particulates floating in it. The run went as follows (all jars are about 400ml):

Why? You threw away a lot of the front-end flavor. Refer back to post #1. 10mL

Jar 1: 79%
Jar 2: 76%
Jar 3: 74%
Jar 4: 66%
Jar 5: 55%
Jar 6: 40%

6 jars at 400mL or 2400mL collected. Based on directions but adjusted for ABV differences you should have only collect 2139mL or put another way you collected over half a jar too much which are the oily backed flavors that will louche up pretty bad. Refer back to post #1.

Jar 6 was a little oily and smelled like tails so I threw that and powered off. All the others were great so I ended up with 2.2L at 68%. I diluted that with tap water and ended up with 3.85L at 42%.

Luckily you threw the last jar away and only slightly over collected into tails. You caught a break on that one. But if you follow Odin's directions of ABV, botanical recipe, time of maceration (you macerated a long time for distilling) and then collected exactly 400mL per liter of boiler charge you just run it, collect and call it a day. It's fail/fool proof as written in op post 1.

I've saved some of the pre-distilled gin and I tried that back to back with the clean distilled version and a Gordons. The pre-distilled version (with some added water to bring it down from 48%) had the colour of lemon juice. Tasted quite nice but there was a background of orange which is not perceptable in the Gordons. The orange is not unpleasant - just different. But it was quite nice with tonic. The distilled version was crystal clear and the orange background was less pronounced. Quite nice on it's own and very drinkable with tonic. I think it could have used more juniper. The Gordons was more 'ginny' which my untutored palette assumes is the juniper.

You lost a lot of the upfront tastes by throwing out 5 times the specified amount of heads which has these upfront juniper and citrus flavors.

Next time try following Odin's recipe to a T so you have something to work from. Pay carefull attention to starting ABV, 10mL dump for the small batch not per liter and then take off exactly 400 mL per 1 liter of macerated botanicals. You'll then have something to compare to the rest of us in this thread. What you created I'm sure is good and less dry then OEG but really isn't the same thing we make following Odin's directions as written.
Try at least one time to run it as specified, that way the whole thread will apply and will make more sense on things done which change taste.

For anyone who is interested in the financial side, the materials cost about about $25. And I even worked out the electricity costs across stripping runs, a spirit run and the final run at about $8. So all up it was $33 which is about $6.60 a bottle.

That's really high. Are you counting the complete costs of all botanicals even if you didn't use them in this batch? Do you have a breakdown of the costs you can list? I'm sure a lot of people can help you reduce costs to 1/3 or 1/4 of your costs.

[Wozza]

Just a general response to each of the posts above (all very helpful).

If distilling at 43% is critical then I'll adjust the volume and abv to hit that next time. I use a 5L carboy to macerate the botanicals. If I need 6L in the boiler (to extract 2L) then do you reckon it's Ok to work with around 5L at 52% to macerate and then dilute to 6L at 43%? Or should I macerate more at 43% (which seems to be the obvious solution but it just means two containers - no big deal...). In which case I might go 7 - 8L.

I planned on dumping 10ml but the first runnings were quite cloudy. Didn't expect that. There were no botanicals in the boiler. I swapped jars when it ran clear and that was about 50ml.

I actually collected 2.2L (jars are actually closer to 450ml) and I collected in jars as I'm new to this and I just wanted to keep records of what I'm getting at each stage. Especially for something new like OEG. I wanted to see when the tails kicked in.

I macerated the botanicals for two weeks as per the recipe. And I matched the recipe for ingredients ('cept tangerines weren't available so I used mandarins which are a tangering hybrid).

Cost of all ingredients:

Sugar: $11.20
Yeast: $1.80
Tom. paste: $2.25
Mandarins: $6
Juniper: $3
Coriander: $0.35

Total $24.60 plus approx. $8 for elec. is about $33 for 5 bottles. The sugar is as cheap as I can get it. The mandarins were a rip off at a dollar each for a small one. Oranges are a lot cheaper but taste a lot different. And the costs are pro rata for the quantity stilled.

I've just done a spirit run on a BW wash so if someone has a response to the first point re higher abv for macerating then I'll start another one tomorrow and make sure I only sling the 10ml when I run it.

Thanks guys.

[SaltyStaves]

OK, I've got my neutral after 3 x stripping runs on 15L each of BW wash and then a spirit run all on a 20L pot still. Did my cuts and I was left with 2.8L of heads at 77%. I diluted that with 2.0L of tap water (the water in Sydney is pretty good) and ended up with 4.8L at 48%.

I hope you meant 'Hearts'.

[Wozza]

OK, I've got my neutral after 3 x stripping runs on 15L each of BW wash and then a spirit run all on a 20L pot still. Did my cuts and I was left with 2.8L of heads at 77%. I diluted that with 2.0L of tap water (the water in Sydney is pretty good) and ended up with 4.8L at 48%.

I hope you meant 'Hearts'.

Well spotted. Yeah, my bad. I meant hearts. I noticed it myself a while back but the ability to edit posts seems to dissapear after a while.

[cayars]

Cost of all ingredients:

Sugar: $11.20
Yeast: $1.80
Tom. paste: $2.25
Mandarins: $6
Juniper: $3
Coriander: $0.35

Total $24.60 plus approx. $8 for elec. is about $33 for 5 bottles. The sugar is as cheap as I can get it. The mandarins were a rip off at a dollar each for a small one. Oranges are a lot cheaper but taste a lot different. And the costs are pro rata for the quantity stilled.

I just realized this is probably Australian and not US dollars correct? Is so US dollars would be roughly 2/3 cost.
Couple of possible tips to help you save a few bucks.

Do a read through of the thread and you'll find a chart/list of botanicals that can be added to OEG. Many of the botanicals will have 1/10 and 1/100 measurements compared to the amount of Juniper you use. It's similar to other charts on other sites for gin. Anyway you will see you can use 1/100 citrus zest to juniper. So for a 5 Liter batch I'd use 12*5 grams of Juniper or 60 grams and 0.6 grams of citrus zest (1/2 lemon, 1/2 tangerine or orange). That's far less then one piece of fruit. Since you are using a small amount you can both macerate and add it to the boiler (never burnt for me with direct fired stove top gas still). So that can save you $5. <-- This is a modified version of the op post but uses directions given by Odin and can help you add/modify ingredients. Useful to try after doing a legit EOG batch as per op post. Then you can see how much different it can be changed to your liking/cost savings.

When fermenting scoop up and re-use yeast from a previous ferment or just put down a new batch on top of the old ferment (same type). The bottom of the fermenter will have a ton of yeast (dead and alive). The dead make great nutrients and the still alive or dormant yeast will come right back. There's another $1.80 saving.

Forget the Tom Paste as that's an expensive way to make neutral. It's easy but not needed. Small bit of DAP or similar will do the job for pennies. Search this on the forum "DAP". You can buy this in 50 pound bags or smaller as it's used in a lot of things including construction.

Your sugar costs seem pretty high but I don't know what sugar costs in AUS. I know I need roughly 13.7 pounds of sugar to make 5L of finished Vodka so my costs are a lot less than yours. I purchase 25 pound bags for $9.00 at Walmart. That would be similar to $12 AUS so check on bulk bags of sugar. Maybe check a local bakery and see if they will order a bag or three for you.

The yeast, tom paste and fruit saving will be $9 bucks easily saved. Maybe re-check your electric costs as well as they seem high, but again I have no idea what electric costs in AUS.

If you like gin and think you'll be making it often, consider building a small 4 to 5 liter (1 gallon) still (maybe stove top). It's great to be able to make 1 liter batch and test different botanicals or make a quick batch of gin when ever you want rather quickly. That may help lower costs a bit as well.

[Wozza]

Cost of all ingredients:

Sugar: $11.20
Yeast: $1.80
Tom. paste: $2.25
Mandarins: $6
Juniper: $3
Coriander: $0.35

Total $24.60 plus approx. $8 for elec. is about $33 for 5 bottles. The sugar is as cheap as I can get it. The mandarins were a rip off at a dollar each for a small one. Oranges are a lot cheaper but taste a lot different. And the costs are pro rata for the quantity stilled.

I just realized this is probably Australian and not US dollars correct? Is so US dollars would be roughly 2/3 cost.
Couple of possible tips to help you save a few bucks.

Thanks for the reply Cayars.

Yeah, Aussie dollars. So your sugar price isn't too far off mine. But I've been using probably too much for a wash. Using BW's recipe originally which was 3.4kg for a 15L wash. I've cut that down to 3.0 kg on suggestions that I should stress the yeast less and not aim for maximum abv. That will help costs a little.

And Roger that on the DAP. I've planned on getting some this last week or so. The tom paste will be kept for my pizzas and spag boll. Always did feel odd adding it.

And I think there was too much 'orangey' flavour in any case. I'd gladly swap 6 tangerines for a mixture of orange and lemon zest.

The yeast I'm not worried about. I never was keen on using 'old' yeast when brewing except if it was a speciality. And some of them were pricey...But using the left overs as more nutrient is a good idea if I do back to back ferments.

The electricity is based on a 2.4kW element and $0.27/kWh.

Off to do my cuts on yesterday's spirit run now. I think I'll only have enough at 43% for another 5L maceration and as I said above I need 6L in the boiler. So I may do an all feints run tomorrow and get it up closer to 7L.

And my next still is going to be a bok. I've got most of the materials. Just need to get off my arse and start building it. A mini still? Maybe sometime down the track.

And hey, as it stands at the moment, if my gin is cheaper than my tonic then I can't complain too much...

[cayars]

And hey, as it stands at the moment, if my gin is cheaper than my tonic then I can't complain too much...

Ouch, Tonic water at Walmart is $0.77 US per liter or about $1 AUS. That's gotta hurt!
See if you can source cinchona bark locally. If so I can give you a recipe for a really good DIY tonic water. You'll need about 30 grams per liter.
PM me if interested so we don't take this thread more off course with tonic water.

Let's get back to OEG.

[Wozza]

The quality stuff is over $9 a litre. But a pm on it's way...

[The Baker]

The bark in Australia from one internet supplier is nearly $38 Australia per kilo and you can buy 250 g, didn't check that price.

Geoff

[Alex_Minsk]

Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for the great information.
But I still have one question:
I did the maceration (24 hours), now I pour all the herbs into the tank (no dilution, 43 degrees left).
In which mode should the distillation be done in this case - potstill or using a reinforcing column and reflux condenser?

[cayars]

The answer lies in post one.

[TDick]

The answer lies in post one.

+1

Due respect Alex,

Read Til You Bleed.gif (24.78 KiB) Viewed 4207 times

[Archee72]

I have had favourable reply’s from the recipients of this gin recipe I followed, thanks Odin!!!