Gin development help

[NZChris]

If you blend ten equal amounts of essence, they will dilute each other ten times, so make sure you have enough botanicals in each essence to work with.

[Sporacle]

Yeah the plan I to take the Juniper essence out to 1L with my neutral and take notes of the percentages.
Take a 100ml of that and then add the other essences a few mls at a time until I find a point I like.
Then take another 100ml and do a different blend and compare.
Choose the favourite and scale up to the remaining volume of gin base left
Hopefully the Native essence will be enough so I can scale up the base Gin at a future date without having to do any more native essences.
I think I've got my ratios right, will find out shortly

[Bushman]

Yeah the plan I to take the Juniper essence out to 1L with my neutral and take notes of the percentages.
Take a 100ml of that and then add the other essences a few mls at a time until I find a point I like.
Then take another 100ml and do a different blend and compare.
Choose the favourite and scale up to the remaining volume of gin base left
Hopefully the Native essence will be enough so I can scale up the base Gin at a future date without having to do any more native essences.
I think I've got my ratios right, will find out shortly

Sounds like you are doing the right technique to find your flavor profile. Not sure if you saw one of my old posts on Gin. It is information on proportions that I got at the ADI national distillers conference at one of the breakout section. The information was from Corsair Distillery.
https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... 06&t=48221

[Sporacle]

Sounds like you are doing the right technique to find your flavor profile. Not sure if you saw one of my old posts on Gin. It is information on proportions that I got at the ADI national distillers conference at one of the breakout section. The information was from Corsair Distillery.

Thanks for that link, I feel like I'm putting things through the "Complicator" (my brain) at the moment. I figure the more astringent sour essences will blend last and the sweeter ones first to first to try and get the dryness right. Just got to make sure I keep notes and take things slowly taste and not complicate what should be a fairly simple experiment

[NZChris]

Astringent and sour haven't been something that I've had a problem with when distilling gin. Bitter, I have noticed, but only very late and is not included in my gin.

[Sporacle]

Yeah flying blind, I can balance an Asian sauce so I figure I should be able to get the flavour I think
So probably should have done OEG from tried and true so I understand the process, but not me let's try to make a spirit from stuff I don't really know and make a mini still to do it with
This is why I really like doing this stuff, it allows my brain to roam..... and on a serious note if anyone is struggling with their head please reach out to someone (I'm good and have done it and it helps massively)

[Sporacle]

So I have done all my essences,
the Lemon Mrytle was intense super lemony and a bit of bitterness (diluted some and had on ice with soda, very good)
Pepper Berry was exactly that, peppery
Kakadu plum was earthy and with a touch of sweet and citrus sugar
Quandong was a bit weird, hard to describe it was almost a leather smell and a hint of fruitcake, that's the best I can make of it with a dryness on the palate

After doing my calculations the best I can figure working backwards was per litre macerated in 43abv
12g Juniper
1g lemon myrtle
2g Kakadu Plum
0.5g Pepperberry
1g Quandong

Was my finished blend, I will let that sit for a couple of weeks and revisit to see how the flavours combine, atm it is perfectly acceptable it just lacks a bit of roundness, maybe that will come in time with the combination of flavours.

Once it's settled I will retaste and then actually do the maceration in one lot to see if the recipe works

Thanks for all the help

[Saltbush Bill]

No coriander?

[Sporacle]

Valid point got some steeping now and will do an essence in a few days, got a bit caught up with my own plans

[Sporacle]

Ok, so I made a few modifications. First I have a CCVM that I've made a neutral base with as compared to the original version that I ran three times through my pot with cuts each time.

In 500ml I macerated
30 grams Juniper
8 grams Coriander seed
1 gram Kakadu plum
1 gram Quandong
1 gram Pepper Berry
0.2 gram Lemon myrtle

Coarse blend and macerate for 24 hours
Pot still and discard the first 15ml, stopped collecting when I thought it was right (oils started getting pretty prevalent and abv dropped right out)
Reconstituted out to a total volume of around 2 ltrs with my neutral.
A much smoother and much more supple than my last blend, the cut back in the Lemon Mrytle has made the difference I think, plus the addition of the coriander has rounded it a bit