Home Distiller

Odin wrote:

FL Brewer wrote:

.

Great advice!

hi, odin,
I wanted to ask you a question
I have read the tread and I have seen that the thing to keep the packaging if it is made of stainless steel (in the boka),
or if the packing is made of copper to remove it,
why this "difference"

SS packing just makes for a smaller, more condensed heads cut. If its copper packing you have, you'll find it rusts on you, changing vapor speeds. And keeping these in check is very, very important when making gin.

Odin.

Odin wrote:SS packing just makes for a smaller, more condensed heads cut. If its copper packing you have, you'll find it rusts on you, changing vapor speeds. And keeping these in check is very, very important when making gin.

Odin.

ok thank you very much, I learned something new,
I did not imagine that copper could rustle by performing a certain type of dististillation

Have Just finished drinking this recipe. Fantastic recipe Odin. Thank you !

2 weeks maceration, and also added some cucumber to the botanicals. Ran it through a T500 with the column in the packing. Drinking perfectly.

Definitely have to clean the column after this to get back to neutral though. The botanical smell post run was quite strong.
Cheers

FizzRolyat wrote:Have Just finished drinking this recipe. Fantastic recipe Odin. Thank you !

2 weeks maceration, and also added some cucumber to the botanicals. Ran it through a T500 with the column in the packing. Drinking perfectly.

Definitely have to clean the column after this to get back to neutral though. The botanical smell post run was quite strong.
Cheers

But if the neutral is to be used for a similar gin....??

Geoff

The Baker wrote:But if the neutral is to be used for a similar gin....??

The Baker wrote:

FizzRolyat wrote:Have Just finished drinking this recipe. Fantastic recipe Odin. Thank you !

2 weeks maceration, and also added some cucumber to the botanicals. Ran it through a T500 with the column in the packing. Drinking perfectly.

Definitely have to clean the column after this to get back to neutral though. The botanical smell post run was quite strong.
Cheers

But if the neutral is to be used for a similar gin....??

Geoff

haha, point taken. If i was making a similar gin then I wouldn't bother, but next run planned is for a bourbon. Hence the clean

I run into a situation which may be of interest to others.

I was in the process of doing a run of gin (based on EG graciously provided by Odin), when a family event forced me to stop in mid work. I had already added my botanicals, but thankfully hadn't added my citrus. My only option was to cork it and come back later to finish.

As it happened... I wasn't able to resume for 3 months (97 days to be precise). I had expected the batch to be a loss due to excessive extraction of flavors, and likely would have been if the citrus had been added.... However.

My observation is that the results still turned out great despite the excessively long maceration. I prepared new citrus peel, added it, and left it for a week. Then ran it as I normally would.

I'm very happy with the results. A testimony to the care and balance built into the recipe by Odin.

Proost.

I have a smallish 3g boiler that requires 1.5g of water in it to keep the heating element submerged. That means the smallest charge I could basically do in it would be around the whole 3 gallons if I was running a wash at around 40 percent.

I was planning to do a small run where I collect a liter at around 42 percent. Using the parent site calculator it seemed like I could do a charge at around 10% with a total volume of around 10 liters and collect around a liter at 42 percent without dilution.

Odins recipe has the botanicals getting steeped at 43%. Could I increase the botanical bill, steep in 43%, then dilute down to 10% after filtering and run it? I know I’ll lose some flavors into the extra water, but would I need to increase the botanicals by a factor of 4 to take into account the extra dilution or should I just try to run a bigger batch to fit my boiler?

MtRainier wrote:...Could I increase the botanical bill, steep in 43%, then dilute down to 10% after filtering and run it?... I know I’ll lose some flavors into the extra water, but would I need to increase the botanicals by a factor of 4 to take into account the extra dilution or should I just try to run a bigger batch to fit my boiler?

Let’s see.... 3 gallon charge at 43%ABV would have approximately 3 x .43 = 1.29 gallons of alcohol (potential).

Now, if you removed the alcohol alone, that would leave you... 3 - 1.29 = 1.71 gallons of water (backset) in the boiler.

But bear in mind that you won’t pull the alcohol out pure, more like 70-80%ABV. So, the amount of the charge pulled would be.... 1.29 / 0.75 (average) = 1.72 gallons.

That would only leave you... 3 - 1.72 = 1.28 gallons in the boiler. Therefore, you’d need to stop before you got it all out. You’ll leave some of your gin in the backset.

Now, suppose you dilute the maceration to 30%ABV, then you’d have a (potential) alcohol charge of... 3 x 0.30 = 0.9 gallons.

But again, you won’t collect the product at 100%, more like 60-70%ABV.

So, the collected volume would be... 0.9 / .65 (average) = 1.38 gallons. And that would leave... 3 - 1.38 = 1.62 gallons of backset in the boiler.

So, if you dilute to 30%ABV to run, you should be able to run without “dry firing” your boiler. But the product off still will be a slightly lower purity. And the additional dilution will reduce the flavor profile somewhat. But you should still be able to produce a drinkable gin.

The limiting factor of your boiler is the necessary charge size to keep the element covered. As a result, you must learn how to do the math and then pay attention to the product (volumes) to keep from dry firing your element. When things are this close...it gets tricky. So you’ll have to learn your system and how to use it safely.

Good luck. Be safe, responsible, and discrete.
ss

You can multiply the botanicals several times. You can dilute to 10% and run it. It isn't Odin's Easy Gin though.

You don't say how your still is designed and where you intend to put the botanicals for the run, but there are several ways it won't work and I won't be making you a list of them.

So what tiny boilers are folks using to do their 1L runs of Odin's Easy Gin?

still_stirrin wrote:

MtRainier wrote:...Could I increase the botanical bill, steep in 43%, then dilute down to 10% after filtering and run it?... I know I’ll lose some flavors into the extra water, but would I need to increase the botanicals by a factor of 4 to take into account the extra dilution or should I just try to run a bigger batch to fit my boiler?

Let’s see.... 3 gallon charge at 43%ABV would have approximately 3 x .43 = 1.29 gallons of alcohol (potential).

Now, if you removed the alcohol alone, that would leave you... 3 - 1.29 = 1.71 gallons of water (backset) in the boiler.

But bear in mind that you won’t pull the alcohol out pure, more like 70-80%ABV. So, the amount of the charge pulled would be.... 1.29 / 0.75 (average) = 1.72 gallons.

That would only leave you... 3 - 1.72 = 1.28 gallons in the boiler. Therefore, you’d need to stop before you got it all out. You’ll leave some of your gin in the backset.

Now, suppose you dilute the maceration to 30%ABV, then you’d have a (potential) alcohol charge of... 3 x 0.30 = 0.9 gallons.

But again, you won’t collect the product at 100%, more like 60-70%ABV.

So, the collected volume would be... 0.9 / .65 (average) = 1.38 gallons. And that would leave... 3 - 1.38 = 1.62 gallons of backset in the boiler.

So, if you dilute to 30%ABV to run, you should be able to run without “dry firing” your boiler. But the product off still will be a slightly lower purity. And the additional dilution will reduce the flavor profile somewhat. But you should still be able to produce a drinkable gin.

The limiting factor of your boiler is the necessary charge size to keep the element covered. As a result, you must learn how to do the math and then pay attention to the product (volumes) to keep from dry firing your element. When things are this close...it gets tricky. So you’ll have to learn your system and how to use it safely.

Good luck. Be safe, responsible, and discrete.
ss

Thanks for all that discussion, SS. It's good to see it reasoned out like that. I had been planning to keep close math on what had come out and what had gone in.

This boiler doesn't seem all that useful, frankly, given how much water has to stay in it. If it was magnetic I could put it on my induction cooker, but it has a rolled bottom edge, so it wouldn't be in contact with the surface anyway. If I used gas, I guess it would work ok. I could get a Cadco burner and modify it for variable power to run it, but 1L of charge will just barely get the bottom damp.

MtRainier wrote: Could I increase the botanical bill, steep in 43%, then dilute down to 10% after filtering and run it?

Little bit of advise from an old fart...make a "bench mark" for yourself:- keep as close to Odin's original as you can and this will set you up with an up or down standard as to what you do next. Without the bench mark to refer back to your just pissing in the wind. After you have a bench mark you can go wild, you know what you've done differently and if it's an improvement or not...you can take it or leave it, it's just an old farts advise...Kiwi

MtRainier wrote:So what tiny boilers are folks using to do their 1L runs of Odin's Easy Gin?

I have a still I made specifically for running gin. It's a 16 quart stock pot with a 1-1/2" diameter riser to a shotgun product condenser. I use a specially modified hotplate to heat it.

Typically, I make 2 liters at a time. I run the botanicals in the boiler and put the citrus in the riser. I use Odin's recipe sized for 2 liters. I collect the spirit as per Odin's prescription. It makes a delicious gin every time.
ss

kiwi Bruce wrote:Little bit of advise from an old fart...make a "bench mark" for yourself:- keep as close to Odin's original as you can and this will set you up with an up or down standard as to what you do next. Without the bench mark to refer back to your just pissing in the wind. After you have a bench mark you can go wild, you know what you've done differently and if it's an improvement or not...you can take it or leave it, it's just an old farts advise...Kiwi

Good advice. Now just have to figure out the equipment to do it.

still_stirrin wrote:I use a specially modified hotplate to heat it.
ss

I've seen your Cadco instructions. I already built a kit to control the heating element (with pot and variable SSR). Maybe I'll just disable the on-board temp control on a Cadco or similar and plug it in to my heating element control and be ready to go.

Easier to make a small pot still dedicated to making gin.
A medium sized stainless pot / saucepan with a small pot head attached, a few hours work to build and your ready to go.
Run it on a small gas stove.

Saltbush Bill wrote:Easier to make a small pot still dedicated to making gin.
A medium sized stainless pot / saucepan with a small pot head attached, a few hours work to build and your ready to go.
Run it on a small gas stove.

Small gas stove would be the ticket with this current 3g pot, maybe. It's the 3g one from MileHi which looked really nice online and seemed about perfect for small runs with flavor. Truthfully, it is nice after replacing the silicone gasket with that expanded PTFE valve-stem packing that others have posted, but it has this quirk of having the heating element really high up the side wall instead of on the bottom.

Whats to stop you from not using the element and putting it on a stove?

That's just what I am going to do. I don't have a gas stove in kitchen. It's a radiant one they cycles on and off, but I will modify an electric burner and stick the boiler on it. If that doesn't work for some reason I will get a small gas cooker like you suggested.

I made up the infusion per Odins instructions. I put together a 2L batch and will collect 800ml after the initial discard.

My tangerines come with warnings on the bag about being coated in wax. I washed them with soap and rinsed before peeling and adding the peels.

Anyone do anything special to them before adding them to the infusion?

MtRainier wrote: My tangerines come with warnings on the bag about being coated in wax. I washed them with soap and rinsed before peeling and adding the peels.

Anyone do anything special to them before adding them to the infusion?

Dunno about special, but personally I prefer to chop the Peel up reasonably small, 1/2" by 1/2" so that it's not a pain to get back out of my carboys. A good wash and scrub with clean water is recommended for any fruit before maceration, heaven only knows what kinda crap it's got on it.

OK. I did tear it up into small pieces for that reason when I put it in there with the juniper and coriander. Gave it a good wash to start.

What the heck was Jimbo infusing on the first page of this post cause his is solid green? After a few hours mine is kind of brown and transparent with juniper berries mostly floating. Smells good, though.

MtRainier wrote:What the heck was Jimbo infusing on the first page of this post cause his is solid green? After a few hours mine is kind of brown and transparent with juniper berries mostly floating. Smells good, though.

No clue, none of my gins have ever had a green color to them, usually medium to dark red brown and tasty smelling of course. To my eyes it looks more like an absinthe.

Expat wrote:Dunno about special, but personally I prefer to chop the Peel up reasonably small, 1/2" by 1/2" so that it's not a pain to get back out of my carboys. A good wash and scrub with clean water is recommended for any fruit before maceration, heaven only knows what kinda crap it's got on it.

I leave my peel whole so that it's easy to find to put in the gin basket.

I've never used waxed fruit peel. I don't know if there are any disadvantages to using it and I'm happy to let someone else go first.

The OEG bill is a great starting point but I use whatever citrus is locally available and, so far, have only found one to be disagreeable, even then, only if it is overused. If you are doing small batches, any disasters will be small ones and can usually be blended into future batches.

I've never washed or scrubbed anything for gin and don't see a reason to. The abv of an OEG steep will kill any bugs in seconds and I avoid buying fruit that may have been sprayed with chemical nasties.

Sound advice, NZ. Thanks for sharing.

Odin.

NZChris wrote: I leave my peel whole so that it's easy to find to put in the gin basket.

Chris, I had missed this comment. Do you pull and put in the gin basket for extraction enhancement purposes or to get them out of the boiler so it won't burn or what? Do you leave the rest of the botanicals in the boiler rather than basket?

MtRainier wrote:

NZChris wrote: I leave my peel whole so that it's easy to find to put in the gin basket.

Chris, I had missed this comment. Do you pull and put in the gin basket for extraction enhancement purposes or to get them out of the boiler so it won't burn or what? Do you leave the rest of the botanicals in the boiler rather than basket?

I prefer the results from having the peel in the basket, but if you haven't got one, it won't mean you'll make bad gin.

Nothing will burn until you run the pot dry.

For OEG I put the rest of the botanicals in the boiler. That said, I seldom use his method any more and mostly make varieties of NZChris' Much More Complicated Gins with a choice of still configurations.

Thanks for the info.

I am doing a straight OEG for the first try and will leave everything in the boil, but just got a 4" carter head in the mail today, so I'll try a variety of things in the vapor path once I see what the OEG tastes like. It's heavy as heck. I should have gotten a 2" one, I think, with the small botanical quantities I'm going to be using. I could also do it less complicated and just put it on a screen above the boiler, maybe.