I have never tried gin before. It always seemed to me that it smells unpleasant, and should taste like pine needles. But one day a friend brought a bottle of Bombay gin. I tried it and completely changed my attitude to this drink.
Vladislav, a blog subscriber, shared his story.
Why I decided to make my own gin
I really liked the taste and aroma of gin. But here’s the price – it bites a lot. Moreover, I heard enough from familiar stories, how, instead of the original product, they came across fakes several times.
On the Internet, I found several recipes for making gin at home. Before that, I had already tried to make other alcoholic drinks on my own, so I had the experience and the necessary equipment.
The technology of making gin looked easy. And you can buy all the necessary ingredients without any problems on the market. After weighing all the pros and cons, I decided to try to make it myself, which I share with you.
Gin of my make: classic and dyed in blue and purple.
Gin ingredients
To make gin, you need at least two ingredients: alcohol and juniper berries. Instead of alcohol, moonshine or vodka will also work. But juniper can be used only one variety.
Important! In nature, there are more than seventy species of juniper. Most of them have an unpleasant taste, and some are also poisonous. The correct juniper is blue, with three seeds inside, and its leaves look like needles. Never use a raw material you are not sure about!
It is better to buy juniper in the market or in a store where spices are sold by weight. Pharmaceutical berries are also suitable, but their quality leaves much to be desired: they will not give a rich aroma.
The composition of a classic gin looks like this:
- alcohol (moonshine, vodka 40-45%) – 1 liter;
- juniper berries – 25-30 grams;
- fresh lemon and orange zest – 3-5 grams each;
- coriander – 2-3 grams;
- cinnamon sticks – 1-2 grams;
- anise – 1 gram
If something on the list, except juniper, is not at hand, these components can be safely excluded or replaced with something else. In my recipe, for example, I did not use coriander and cinnamon, but instead of anise, I put four stars of star anise.
In general, you can experiment with the composition indefinitely. Some manufacturers mix more than a dozen different ingredients at once – fennel, ginger, pepper, almonds, nutmeg, and so on. But for starters, it’s better to take a simpler recipe.
The cooking process
Some manufacturers insist and distill all the components separately, and then mix the resulting liquids. But this method requires a lot of patience and time.
I followed a simple path – mashed the berries and spices, put everything in a glass jar, filled it with alcohol and put it in the pantry to infuse. I shook the jar once a day, and a week later I started distillation.
Important! Gin cannot be made without distillation. It will be just juniper tincture.
I diluted the resulting infusion with water up to 30 degrees according to an alcohol meter, poured it into a distiller and began to distill over low heat. It is important to use a simple apparatus without columns and dryers in order to preserve the characteristic smell and taste. Otherwise, you will end up with regular vodka.
At the very beginning, as the pros recommend, I selected 20 grams in a separate container. And then he distilled drop by drop until the liquid in the stream began to become cloudy.
It is important to stop the process in time so as not to spoil the product. Therefore, towards the end, I took portions of 50 milliliters, constantly checking the distillate for transparency.
The gin at the exit turned out to be a strength of 70%. I diluted it to 45% with water and, according to the recipe, put it to rest in a dark, cool place for a week.
What result did I get
Of course, the taste of my drink was very vaguely reminiscent of Bombay. But there after all and composition more complex! But my acquaintances, whom I offered to taste the result of my amateur performance, appreciated the product.
They say that it is no worse than a mid-range store-bought gin. I was also satisfied and plan to continue the experiments.
The original gin is always transparent, like a tear. But Bombay, for example, is sold in a blue glass bottle. Therefore, some mistakenly think that this is the drink itself of this color.
And it became interesting for me to experiment with the coloring of the gin. Thai tea is used to give alcohol a blue color. But I didn’t find it, and I didn’t want to order it on the Internet and wait. So I used red cabbage leaves.
50 milliliters of concentrate is enough to color 2 liters of gin blue.
I tightly stuffed the jar with finely chopped cabbage leaves and filled it with 50 milliliters of 96% alcohol. The next day, an ink-colored concentrate was obtained. If you add it to gin, you get a purple drink.
And if you pour a little soda into the concentrate and shake it, it will turn blue. Accordingly, the gin will be blue or blue, depending on the amount of dye.
What do you think, should gin be dyed? Or should it only be transparent?
Dear readers, remember that alcohol abuse harms your body. Take care of yourself!