My Gin Journey

[artooks]

Hi Everyone,

Today I had 3 G&T and must say I have find my holy grail, it tastes so good, and makes me feel to drink even more I really recommend this recipe if you want to try out, this one has been the best gin that I have made to date.

[artooks]

Hi Everyone,

After making my very first gin to tweak in the future, I have decided to make another version I decided to call this one "Arto's Gin V2" because this one has additional 4 botanicals, Cassia, Cinnamon, Black Pepper and Cardamon I also dialed down the citrus by %30 to make it a balanced gin, also this time I will not grind the botanicals instead, I will steep the botanicals in %60 ABV Spirit for 14 hours, I will keep the citrus in another erlenmeyer to make it easy to take out for vapor infusion, let's see how this one will turn out. This time, I have 1 liter bottles so I am increasing the volume to 1430 ml so if I receive 572 ml @ 84 ABV I will have 1 liter of final product @ %48 ABV.


Arto's Gin V2

1) Juniper berries: 16 Grams
2) Coriander seeds: 4 Grams
3) Angelica root: 0.8 Grams
4) Liquorice: 0.8 Grams
5) Dry Lemon peel: 0.40 Grams
6) Dry Orange peel: 0.60 Grams
7) Dry Tangerine peel: 0.70 Grams
8 ) Cardamon: 0.10 Grams
9) Cassia: 0.25 Grams
10) Cinnamon: 0.25 Grams
11) Black Pepper: 1 Grams

Total Botanicals per litre: 24.90 Gr / lt

[artooks]

Some images and video from Yesterday's Run.

[artooks]

Beginning of the run.






towards the end of the distillation

[artooks]

Hi Everyone,


I always wanted to make a gin with some ingredients locally available and experiment with different botanicals, so in this recipe, I used, linden tree blossom Dry Sage leaves, and Earl Grey Tea, After trying several times, I really like the idea to grind all the botanicals very finely and leave them at %60 ABV spirit for a few hours, so this is what I did with this recipe, grinded all the botanicals to increase the surface area for the botanicals to be extracted in the %60 ABV spirit, here is the recipe and some images.

Arto's Gin V3

1) Juniper berries: 16 Grams
2) Coriander seeds: 4 Grams
3) Angelica root: 0.8 Grams
4) Dry Lemon peel: 0.37 Grams
5) Dry Orange peel: 0.42 Grams
6) Dry Sage Leaves: 0.5 Grams
7) Lindentree Blossom: 1 Grams
8 ) Earl Grey Tea: 2 Grams

Total Botanicals per litre: 25.09 Gr / lt

[artooks]

Hi Everyone,


After finishing "Arto's Gin V3" my alcohol reserves has depleted this means I need to ferment, strip and finally make a spirit run to make more alcohol, so my experimentations has halted for now on My last gin trial "Arto's Gin V3" I used different botanicals, like earl grey tea, dry sage leaves and linden tree blossom, and as you all know I finely grinded all the botanicals even the dry lemon and orange peels, and then macerated everything in %60 ABV for 4 hours and 23 minutes then diluted to %43 ABV and run it, my god I was calling out my best gin for the "Arto's Gin V1" and was planning to make it in large volumes but now after trying "Arto's Gin V3" this really blew my mind, it is really hard to explain it but will try to do my best, first of all it is a very well balanced gin in every aspect and it has a different brightness that comes from sage, linden tree blossom and earl grey tea, due to my last alcohol I had I diluted my final gin to %45.5 ABV and interestingly after adding ice and tonic over it, it did not touch like my other gins, there was only a slight louch in the final drink you can see for yourself, but must say first the citrus peels hits and afterwards you feel the sage and linden tree which gives an extraordinary freshness to the drink, I think because I finely grinded all the botanicals the louch is very less, of course I cannot prove it but the same thing happened to one of my other gins that I also finely grinded

Very little louching

[Mares]

Nice to read your small scaled experiments. As a newbie, I noticed your maceration times are quite short unlike recommendation of at least 24h (up to 2 weeks). Any reason for this, or you just can't wait for 24h? Longer maceration could release more flavors over time, so you might reach out even different tasting gin compared to the same recipe but macerated for only several ours, this is just my observation.

One more question I'd like to ask, I noticed you do maceration @ 60%, on the other hand Odin recommends @ 43%, of course other people do at even lower ABV. Any article on the web to read to understand what is the most "proper" %ABV for maceration, just to understand better at what %ABV herbs (and why) release most flavors?

[artooks]

Nice to read your small scaled experiments. As a newbie, I noticed your maceration times are quite short unlike recommendation of at least 24h (up to 2 weeks). Any reason for this, or you just can't wait for 24h? Longer maceration could release more flavors over time, so you might reach out even different tasting gin compared to the same recipe but macerated for only several ours, this is just my observation.




One more question I'd like to ask, I noticed you do maceration @ 60%, on the other hand Odin recommends @ 43%, of course other people do at even lower ABV. Any article on the web to read to understand what is the most "proper" %ABV for maceration, just to understand better at what %ABV herbs (and why) release most flavors?

Thanks Mares, first of all I do not have a fixed maceration time, as I am playing with different maceration times, once I finish the distillation I leave the %45 ABV diluted gin for at least 1 week then I check the end result, I come to the feeling that, short maceration, long maceration or no maceration at all, they all come very close to each other, of course this is my finding but please pay attention that, when I leave it for a shorter time, I generally grind all the botanicals, so to me all these methods work.

Well if you keep reading Odin's thread you will come across a thread where he explains if you do not wish to crush the berries then just leave them @ %60 ABV so this just means that at a higher proof without crushing it will extract more, which at the end both ways will lead you to the same place, just think about maceration as a way to extract the taste and oils of the botanicals, and as far as I remember %43 is the minimum ABV with berries crushed, if you want to do without crushing then you need more proof to compensate for the extraction as all the botanicals are not crushed and require high proof to extract more. I hope I make it clear.

[artooks]

Hi Everyone,

After a long break I started distilling again, I did 2 batches of Shady's Sugar Shine each 30 liters (8 gallons) and after the spirit run I got 3.6 liters ( almost 1 gallon) 93%ABV spirit. As you will remember, I did many experimentations last year, so out of all the recipes, I decided to make a big batch of "Arto's Gin V2"

Arto's Gin V2 ( The Botanical amounts are adjusted for 7.786 lt)

1) Juniper berries: 124.58 Grams
2) Coriander seeds: 31.14 Grams
3) Angelica root: 6.23 Grams
4) Liquorice: 6.23 Grams
5) Dry Lemon peel: 3.11 Grams
6) Dry Orange peel: 4.67 Grams
7) Dry Tangerine peel: 5.45 Grams
8 ) Cardamon: 0.78 Grams
9) Cassia: 1.95 Grams
10) Cinnamon: 1.95 Grams
11) Black Pepper: 7.79 Grams

Total Botanicals: 193.87 Gr / 7.786 litre

What I did was first I diluted the 3,6 liter 93%(ABV) spirit to 60%(ABV) by adding 1.98 liter of water, the main reason to dilute the total spirit to 60%(ABV) is to increase the solvency of the spirit not to crush the botanicals with mortar and pestle, so I just add them in the spirit, this saves me from doing more work, so I just weigh and add all the botanicals in the spirit except the dried peels, I intentionally kept them separate in a different erlenmeyer so I tomorrow, when I distill them, I could easily put them in the vapor path, the smell is absolutely incredible, I really miss it. I will keep them macerated 20-24 hours and slowly distill them, lets see how we will get on with it tomorrow.

[artooks]

[artooks]

[Wyododge]

I will keep them macerated 20-24 hours and slowly distill them, lets see how we will get on with it tomorrow.

Excellent thread, in my bookmarks. Very interesting and educational. Thank you. Will you also dilute this maceration to 43% prior to distilling?

[artooks]

I will keep them macerated 20-24 hours and slowly distill them, lets see how we will get on with it tomorrow.

Excellent thread, in my bookmarks. Very interesting and educational. Thank you. Will you also dilute this maceration to 43% prior to distilling?

Yes exactly tomorrow morning I will dilute it to 43% ABV and run it like that, so this will be my boiler charge.

[artooks]

I have just ordered some grapefruit, orange, lemon and tangerines to peel their skins, to dry and increase my stock, as my initial stock is almost depleted, after peeling their skin, I will give the rest to my wife as a gift

[artooks]

I usually make my runs in my mini 3 Gallon boiler, normally I run this boiler with an internal heater, but since I distill my gins with botanicals in the boiler, I converted a 1000 watt hot plate to heat up the boiler from the bottom, in order to do that I disabled the thermostat which was installed, because I have a dedicated power controller to do that, anyway I also cut a piece of aluminum to be the same as the bottom dimensions of the boiler. The main reason for that is the dimensions of the hot plate was way smaller for my needs, with this it sits still and generates a good overall boil. I take out the internal heater and cap it so by doing this, the boiler is %100 percent empty, so the botanicals can float freely.

[howie]

i see you have become a non-grinder lately
how much is this influencing the taste?
your latest mascerations look paler than earlier ground examples.
is there any taste left in the botanicals after distilling when they aren't ground?

[artooks]

i see you have become a non-grinder lately
how much is this influencing the taste?
your latest mascerations look paler than earlier ground examples.
is there any taste left in the botanicals after distilling when they aren't ground?

Hi Howie,

İf you look at my previous distilling post " Arto's Gin V2" in this thread, you will see that this recipe, was made without grinding the botanicals, but don't forget that I did macerate them in %60 ABV alcohol, the solvency is much higher, during my research I find out that, most of the gin makers do it this way, probably to reduce labor I guess, I am distilling it I write at the moment, I will let you know, how it went, but, in my first experimentation many people liked this gin over the others, I also really liked it.

[artooks]

Hi Everyone,


Today I wake up early to prepare my still for my gin run, first I take out the dry peels that has been macerated separately in an erlenmeyen, I pour the liquid on my main Jar and then take out all the peels, I then pour my macerated botanicals and %60 ABV alcohol mix in my 3 Gallon Boiler, and top it up with 2206 ml water to reach %43 ABV, I gave it a good stir, and close and sealed the lid., since I am planning to vapor infuse the macerated dry peels, I used a PTFE screened seal where the column attaches, by doing that I am able to keep the peels in the vapor path. I started distilling early around 07:30 am it took 65 minutes to see the first drops, I then collected around 10 ml and discarded the first juniper oils, it really smells awesome at this stage, my vapor readings is 78.8°C, I then started collecting the gin at 08:40, the distillate is coming at %89 ABV, I am still going on as I write this, only a liter remaining to collect. I started with 7786 ml @ %43 ABV so I am planning to collect 3114 ml. will update later on.

[artooks]

[Saltbush Bill]

I then collected around 10 ml and discarded the first juniper oils,

I cant understand why some people say those first oils come from citrus and smell of citrus.......they must be using a shit ton of the stuff, "think Yummy taught me that scientific measurement"
The first small cut I make always smells of Juniper more than anything else, citrus doesn't show until further into the run.

[artooks]

I then collected around 10 ml and discarded the first juniper oils,

I cant understand why some people say those first oils come from citrus and smell of citrus.......they must be using a shit ton of the stuff, "think Yummy taught me that scientific measurement"
The first small cut I make always smells of Juniper more than anything else, citrus doesn't show until further into the run.

Hi Bill,

No there is definitely not a hint of citrus smell, but a very nice Juniper oil smell, in this recipe I also put all the dry peels in the vapor path, but no citrus peel smell.

[artooks]

Hi Everyone,


After 5 hours and 6 minutes, my Gin run has completed, I got 3,114 ml Gin @ %89 ABV which is a good yield, the vapor reading at the time of finish was 80.2 and the alcohol meter was showing %89, actually it has not moved since the beginning, quite consistent, I tasted the spirit before shutting it off, It smelled awesome, I felt, juniper, citrus peel and cardamom, actually cardamom was slightly overpowering, but I experienced this before, it mellows out in 3 days, I will check but I am sure of it. This time I used my distilled water, which I distilled in my mini still, let us see how much difference it will make, but as far as I know, minerals take place in the water and they also absorb alcohol, which normally they shoıld not be there at first place, I did measure my water with a tds meter, it was around 258 I think, after distilling it went down to 4 or 5 something like that lets see how it will turn out. Before I diluted my gin with the distilled water, I checked the temperature of both of them, and they were around 21 degrees celcius, so no problem, I remember one time I diluted my spirit with cold water I could never get rid of the touch, this was "Raki" a Turkish Anise based spirit, I always did the same recipe the only thing different was. the temperature of the dilution water, but anyway now, "Arto's Gin V2" will rest for the next 5 weeks.
After distillation has finished, I take out the spent dried orange, lemon and orange peels and took a picture for you to see how a dried peel, could become after it spends 5 hours in the vapor path. I also added the spent botanical picture as well, and finally, cleaning and hanging everything, I feel like I have finished a marathon

[artooks]

[richard1]

Interesting recipe your 3rd one.

What part I am not quite in agreement with is your pepper corn quantity / ratio which is extremely high.. 7.79 g (1g/l @43%). I would have dropped it to 1.2g (0.16 g/l @43%)

The big question is ..... how does the it finally taste

[artooks]

Interesting recipe your 3rd one.

What part I am not quite in agreement with is your pepper corn quantity / ratio which is extremely high.. 7.79 g (1g/l @43%). I would have dropped it to 1.2g (0.16 g/l @43%)

The big question is ..... how does the it finally taste

Hi Richard,

I did this recipe before, and this was my favorite recipe, not only because I liked it, many people whom I gave this along with my other gins liked it quite a lot, but at the time I did was a small 2 liter batch, now I made a big batch, but after diluting it, I tasted and liked a lot, it tastes great I am sure it will taste much better in 2 weeks time. then I will let you know.

[artooks]

Interesting recipe your 3rd one.

What part I am not quite in agreement with is your pepper corn quantity / ratio which is extremely high.. 7.79 g (1g/l @43%). I would have dropped it to 1.2g (0.16 g/l @43%)

The big question is ..... how does the it finally taste

You made me doubt after you wrote this to me , so I went and tasted it again, it tastes really good even though the gin is very young at the moment.

[artooks]

in 48 hours the gin smells great, first day when I dilute the gin with distilled water, there was a strong cardamom and citrus flavor that I smelled but now that has gone and the juniper smell starts to show itself. each day the gin gets better in 2 weeks time, it will be better.

[richard1]

Brilliant

[artooks]

Hi Everyone,

Its almost nearly the end of tangerine season, my stocks from last year are almost near depletion, so I bought 10 tangerines, washed them, gave them a good rub with alcohol and started to peel them and then I also removed the remaining white pith with a knife took me 2 hours from start to finish, it really takes a lot of time, but it is worthed, even it takes a long time, it is good to know that you did it at first place, then I put them on top of an baking sheet at 80°C ( 176°F) and in 80 minutes they are ready so in total it takes 3 hours and 20 minutes to get 27.53 grams of dry tangerine peel one thing which is interesting is how the fresh and dry weight ratio differs, last year it was (3):(1) and this year I weighed all the peels before I put them in the oven they were 98.38 grams in total and 80 minutes in the oven they shrank to 27.53 grams so the ratio is (3.57):(1) the following days I have to do this for lemon, orange and grapefruit.

[artooks]