Zero Alcohol (0% ABV) Gin

[PBD]

Hi All,
I hope that this is the correct place to ask this question. If anybody has any links, documents etc to answer me, then I will be grateful.

So how to make 0% Gin?

OK I know it is not technically Gin, but you know what I mean.

We are looking to add to our collection and researching currently. One user told me to distil out the alcohol. That to me doesn't make sense. Why not macerate the botanicals in water and then use the Still as if creating distilled water?

Has anybody done this successfully and can help?

ps i use a T500.

Dale

[OtisT]

Hi Dale. Full disclosure; I’ve never made 0 ABV gin so anything that follows is just theory.

I have read that some botanical oils can be easily extracted with water (water soluble oils) while others extract better with a solvent, like alcohol. You may be able to make a gin with a water only maceration, but you will likely need to adjust your botanicals bill, increasing the amount of non-water soluble botanicals to find a good balance.

Another issue with water only distillation is that the botanical oil in your product will be brought up to 100 C which can negatively impact some oils. An alcohol distillation happens at a lower temp. If the higher temp of a water boil is bad for your oil, you could try using a vacuum still that will boil at a much lower temperature.

If you are not getting some of the botanicals to come across well with a water only boil, you could try a hybrid approach. Start with a gin made using most of your botanicals in a water maceration. Next, macerate the non-water soluble botanicals in alcohol and make a small batch of concentrated oil for blending with your water distilled gin base. It won’t be alcohol free, but it can be very close.

Just some ideas. I’m interested to see where this goes. Best of luck.

[SouthwestAl]

Adding on to what Otis said, there are a few other challenges with making a 0%, like the mouthfeel that comes from difference in density between alcohol and water. You really need something to give the same feeling as a Gin. most of the zero alcohol Gins I have tried are really botanical syrups or cordials, and the only one close(ish) that I have tried is Tanqueray Zero.

As already mentioned, quite a few botanicals will work in hot water - mostly things that work well in tea, so flowers and some herbal notes. Others like Juniper really won't do much in water at all - they need a solvent to extract the oils - same applies to citrus peel and oil extraction.

It seems a fairly well guarded secret as to how the likes of Tanqueray Zero are made, but I suspect it's some fairly clever science whereby they use a solvent to extract the oils, and then remove any alcohol. I have heard various things from reverse osmosis (used to remove alcohol from wine) to large scale centrifuge filters and rotary evaporators. But the bottom line was that a commercial production uses expensive equipment to make zero-alcohol spirits, that are beyond the means of most comercial distilleries. Yes, you can make a botanical infusion that is NoLo (no or low alcohol) but you will struggle to make something that really feels like a Gin. The low alcohol is an interesting point - some countries allow you to specify a drink as zero alcohol despite having a small amount of alcohol in it (like <0.5%) which does open the door for making super-concentrate extracts with alcohol and then diluting down to the required level.

As a further note - the tendency for NoLo is growing, like it or not, but for most of us, a focus on the 'Low' is perhaps a better approach, for those wanting to reduce alcohol consumption rather than remove it. This can be done with Gins by making a super concentrate that would only use a 10ml shot for a G&T at 40% rather than a 50ml shot, thus reducing the alcohol consumption by 80% in each drink. Think of a 1:4 multishot Gin, but without mixing it with GNS after distilling!

[Renhoekk]

The easiest way to do this at home is to mix a gin flavour base with distilled water, then thicken it to improve mouthfeel (this can be done with things like glucose syrup, xanthan gum, agar).

As others have mentioned, commercial producers have methods to extract the botanical flavours that aren’t easily done at home (if at all).

Distilling botanicals in plain water won’t work very well - key ingreadients like juniper and coriander will taste like stale vegetable water.

[Golly]

SouthwestAl had a lot of good points.

Particularly in regards to making a super concentrated drink rather than a no alcohol drink.

This video goes into the same details regarding water solubility and suggests making a gin extract which you then spray over your glass. The resulting drink would be less than 0.05% alcohol so could be called non alcoholic.

[Demy]

If I were to do something like this I would do this: 1) immerse a large quantity of botanicals in alcohol 2) distillation after filtering it 3) I would insert the created essence with a dropper and add an emulsifier (for example a little sugar syrup). It won't be zero alcohol but very very low....also the drink will be transparent because we used the distilled essence.

[kennstminet]

I had bought and tasted some 0% Gin some time ago here at Germany.
I actually liked it as a substitute for plain water. I like Gin and I did like the taste and flavor of the product.
I drank it at times when I normally not drink any alcohol.
It cannot replace Gin or any other alcoholic drink, that was clear to me.

I will not buy 0% Gin again - just because the price. It is way too expensive flavoured water.
If I would be able to make such flavoured water with my still at home - I would be happy.
Unfortunately, I have not found a report of a trusted person who had successfully made 0% Gin at home.
I hope this topic will help to locate a suitable recipe.

[SouthwestAl]

I had bought and tasted some 0% Gin some time ago here at Germany.
I actually liked it as a substitute for plain water. I like Gin and I did like the taste and flavor of the product.
I drank it at times when I normally not drink any alcohol.
It cannot replace Gin or any other alcoholic drink, that was clear to me.

I will not buy 0% Gin again - just because the price. It is way too expensive flavoured water.
If I would be able to make such flavoured water with my still at home - I would be happy.
Unfortunately, I have not found a report of a trusted person who had successfully made 0% Gin at home.
I hope this topic will help to locate a suitable recipe.

Financially, a good 0% product is beyond the means of all but the big commercial distilleries I suspect, and as you say - most are botanical flavoured water

[SouthwestAl]

SouthwestAl had a lot of good points.

Particularly in regards to making a super concentrated drink rather than a no alcohol drink.

This video goes into the same details regarding water solubility and suggests making a gin extract which you then spray over your glass. The resulting drink would be less than 0.05% alcohol so could be called non alcoholic.

This is a good channel with tips for making extracts! The spray idea was really good - it's the Airline approach for serving passengers who might have reached their booze limit at 37,000 feet, but still ask for more - spray a bit of Gin on top of the tonic!