Home Made Gin: Tips?

@RianC, you are just doing infusions with your vodka, right?

I've never messed around with this myself, though my sister does some infusions occasionally, though usually not with a vodka base. I think that she is more likely to modify a pre-existing gin. This project is mostly experiment and trial and error.

If I were doing the experimenting I would probably use black pepper and lemon rind, in addition to those you mention. Why black pepper? I was amazed when I tried Ophir Gin which is heavily black peppered. I would also enjoy making home made sloe gin, if I could get a source of the sloes, aka blackthorn fruit, or prunus spinosa. I have very much enjoyed some of the commercial sloe gin which I have tried.

@Victor - Thanks! Yes, just some infusing. The black pepper is a good idea as is the peel. I'm sure she'll have her own ideas as well but always good to at least sound/look like you know what you're doing ;)

I'm guessing a 24 hour period is enough for the herbs to infuse? Would you/has she cracked the pepper, juniper etc before steeping - seems an either or but you'd get more flavour, I presume, from cracking them slightly, but would it then be too much? Trial and error, as you say . . .

@RianC, most of the people with whom I have spoken who infuse do so for much longer periods than 24 hours. Typically people will leave the infusion alone for a week, often two weeks. You can of course always sample what you have infusing and adjust course, so there is no real pressure or deadline.

I think that @Nock has done a few infusions. He is in Scotland right now, on Islay today, I think, so he probably won't respond immediately.

My only experience was making sloe gin (using gin as the base) and that steeps for months! What a cool gift idea though. There is almost no end to the possible botanically you could use. I think half the fun would be sampling it at regular time intervals to check on its progress. I have heard of people using a sous vie (spelling?) machine to speed up the process too. All the best with it

@Hewie - Thanks! I think she'll be made up to be honest.

Yes, maybe leave it for 24 hrs, check, and then go from there I guess? Cracking the herbs would no doubt speed the process up. We have quite a few herbs in the 'garden', sage, thyme, bay and such.

My suggestion will be to make a 'traditional' one with the bought herbs and then go for a 'garden' gin (maybe with some juniper) . . . hang on, whose the present for again?

Could you infuse pine needles? I'm guessing that would be OK and could give an unusual note to it?

@RianC We have a gin here in Quebec call Thuya (Cedar) and it tastes as if they plunge the whole tree into the alcohol. So I think you can use a few pine needles. I would also use cucumber (probably with mint, coriander and black pepper) but that's just me. Have fun with it.

@RianC What a fun and thoughtful experiment, I would definitely steep longer than 24hrs and sample regularly until you are happy with the taste (for scientific purposes only!)

If you like the experiment, I can suggest trying to infuse small quantities of different botanicals separately (in mason jars for example) to then blend them together to your tastes. It's more work but you get to control the balance of each elements and also makes for fun discoveries.

I often used to make a kind of gin & tonic with spruce beer & tonic water it's quite tasty, the conifer thing works well with gin.

@Robert99 you've mentionned Thuya gin before, I will have to look into it.

@Robert99 - Thanks! That gin sounds most intriguing! Now I think about it more, I'm sure she had a gin at xmas that had been infused with pine needles, and myrrh come to think of it. I imagine the possibilities are pretty endless . . .

Cheese gin, anyone?

@cricklewood - Thanks! If she gets the bug,which I think she will, (I have a feeling her Mum will follow suit as well) that sounds like a good way of proceeding!

@cricklewood Thuya is a bit extreme. If you like extreme gin, there's the Dandy Gin which is too sweet and with a ton of pepper, I am surprised the gin is not black. Thuya is good, Dandy is not palatable IMHO.

Attempting to make some Nocino. Yes, I know it's supposed to be done with unripe green walnuts, but it's fall, so they aren't available, so I'm using shelled walnut pieces and black walnut bitters.

@YakLord Good luck. Here is my version and black as the day it went in the bottle. I like it but it’s definitely mellowing over the years. Just had a nip now and most of the bitterness has been rounded off. Be interested to see what yours turns out like. Let us know.

Ps I know the label is misspelled

@Timp Did you use green walnuts?

@YakLord yes I did. Steeped in high strength vodka in direct sunlight for eight to ten weeks I think, until it turned black, then walnuts removed, two sticks of cinnamon added, some sugar and left alone for a year or so. Can’t remember when I bottled it…

Sorry for the long “Yes”