Home Distiller

Pot boiler with shotgun condenser (no thumper) gin
_________________________

If I was to start with 4 gallons of sugar wash and use the maceration method to add the botanicals (to the final spirit run) does this amount of dry botanicals look about right to you for your basic London Dry Gin

The reason I am asking is that from reading on the internet, the amounts of botanicals (especially juniper is all over the place).

Again, this will be used to flavor what starts out as 4 gallons of sugar wash and these macerated botanicals will be added to the pot in the final spirit run.

Dried Juniper Berries
3/4 cup (60 grams)

Coriander Seeds
1/4 cup

Angelica Root
1 tsp

Cardamon Pods
2 tsp

Not enough coriander imo, Juniper is the dominate in gin, coriander is almost always the next highest in amount, in some cases half the weight/ amount of the Juniper.

Thank you Bill ...

I like to taste the juniper in gin ... I am hoping the amount I show above is about right. Of course, with too much juniper, I guess you could make the gin pretty much undrinkable.

I also plan on infusing the very outer part of 1/2 of an orange peel in that final spirit run too. I am thinking about 1/2 of an orange peel should be enough not to overpower it with orange flavor.

From your question, I suspect that you might be confused as to how to do the distillations.

i have gone through a few of my recipes, and although i will say first that my gins are forward tasting, but these are the ranges for those botanicals.
also, that these are for mascerating in 40% twice distilled ffv neutral (ie already stripped and already spirit run)
like NZ chris, i'm not sure exactly what you are trying to achieve, refering to your mention of 4 galls of sugar wash.
if mascerating in 40% neutral and following the basic odin amounts for 15L/4 gall
juniper 180gm
coriander 45gm
i regularly do 3l or 4l batches only, but if i scaled some of my ingredients up to 15L....
juniper 225 - 240gms
coriander 112 - 120gms

the other 2 x botanicals, cardomom & angelica are only used in conjunction with many other botanicals in my gins.
but here are the ranges for 15L
cardomom 2.25gm - 3.6gm
angelica 22gm - 30gm

have you heard of the X, X/2, X/10, X/100 formulae?
angelica is in the x/10
cardamom is in the x/100
where X is the amount of juniper
it's a good starting point.

Turbo6ta wrote: ↑Wed Mar 26, 2025 7:21 pm Pot boiler with shotgun condenser (no thumper) gin
_________________________

If I was to start with 4 gallons of sugar wash and use the maceration method to add the botanicals (to the final spirit run) does this amount of dry botanicals look about right to you for your basic London Dry Gin

The reason I am asking is that from reading on the internet, the amounts of botanicals (especially juniper is all over the place).

Again, this will be used to flavor what starts out as 4 gallons of sugar wash and these macerated botanicals will be added to the pot in the final spirit run.

Dried Juniper Berries
1.5 cups (120 grams)

Coriander Seeds
2 tsp (7 grams)

Angelica Root
2 tsp (5 grams)

Cardamon Pods
8 pods (7 grams)

Just to clarify this, since you have written it twice and even underlined it.

4 gallons of sugar wash is what you're starting with, you are going to strip this in the pot first yes?

I started this thread 11 years ago. You might find it helpful.
viewtopic.php?t=48221

MooseMan wrote: ↑Wed Mar 26, 2025 11:41 pm 4 gallons of sugar wash is what you're starting with, you are going to strip this in the pot first yes?

I guess my post was confusing ...

1. My plan is to ferment 4 gallons of water with sugar, EC-1118 yeast and Fermaid K and let it ferment.

2. I will then do a stripping run (without any flavorings) in my pot still. Once finished, I will add water to decrease the ABV to 40%

3. Then I will do the 1st spirit run on this unflavored 40% alcohol.

4. Next is to add the botanicals to about 2 cups of 40% ABV vodka and macerate for a couple of days.

5. I will then mix these macerated botanicals in the pot along with the alcohol from the 1st spirit run

6. Once the botanicals and alcolol are mixed in the pot, I will do my 2nd and last spirit run
___________________________

3 distilling runs total = 1 stripping run + 2 spirit runs (with the macerated botanicals added to the last spirit run)

Turbo6ta wrote: ↑Thu Mar 27, 2025 6:42 am

MooseMan wrote: ↑Wed Mar 26, 2025 11:41 pm 4 gallons of sugar wash is what you're starting with, you are going to strip this in the pot first yes?

I guess my post was confusing ...

1. My plan is to ferment 4 gallons of water with sugar, EC-1118 yeast and Fermaid K and let it ferment.

2. I will then do a stripping run (without any flavorings) in my pot still. Once finished, I will add water to decrease the ABV to 40%

3. Then I will do the 1st spirit run on this unflavored 40% alcohol.

4. Next is to add the botanicals to about 2 cups of 40% ABV vodka and macerate for a couple of days.

5. I will then mix these macerated botanicals in the pot along with the alcohol from the 1st spirit run

6. Once the botanicals and alcolol are mixed in the pot, I will do my 2nd and last spirit run
___________________________

3 distilling runs total = 1 stripping run + 2 spirit runs (with the macerated botanicals added to the last spirit run)

Thanks for clarifying that.

It's far better to talk about specific volumes of "Neutral" when doing this as recipes are then repeatable.

For example if you go with Odins easy gin recipe, (Or indeed pretty much any that you'll find on HD) you would start with 1L of 40% ABV and add an exact amount in grams to it if each botanical.
So for every litre you are distilling, you know how much to add.

An example of one of the gin recipes from my notes, based on Odins easy gin recipe-

G22

2l batch macerated 20hrs at 40%

28g juniper
8g coriander
10g satsuma
Zest of half lemon
1 leg Star Anise
0.8g Angelica
0.2g Orris

Moose ... Thank you sir

BTW ... This is a photo of my first 'starter' still I just put together from parts from a couple of different sources.

Just a 5 gallon pot with a 6-tube 'shotgun' condenser ... Hope to get my first batch of gin started very soon ... Gotta start somewhere

Turbo6ta wrote: ↑Thu Mar 27, 2025 10:35 am BTW ... This is a photo of my first 'starter' still I just put together from parts from a couple of different sources.

Just a 5 gallon pot with a 6-tube 'shotgun' condenser ... Hope to get my first batch of gin started very soon ... Gotta start somewhere

Man, that came out nice, that looks to be a great starter set. You're probably going to want to add one more 45° bend at the end to help with pooling in the cap, with the way it sits it'll collect enough product in the cap to smear.

Rusty

Thank you Rusty for the heads-up on the 45 degree

Neat home audio system too.