All my friends know about one of my crazy crushes – gin. And still, it’s not a woman’s drink at all. Previously, my husband and I bought it from friends who brought alcohol from duty free, but over time this shop closed.
The usual store-bought gin is expensive, and the cheap one is tasteless, we rarely go to bars. It was then that the husband suggested starting to make a drink at home. I didn’t expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised in the end. I share with you.
This story was sent by my subscriber Anastasia I.
Prepare
To get started, I had to search literally the entire Internet. Many recipes were offered with different types of gin, recipes for its preparation and ingredients.
Moreover, there are a lot of recipes and advice, and I am far from making alcohol.
It also turned out that we needed barrels, a distillation apparatus, and there were at least five technologies.
When I was about to give up, I called my father, who immediately told me to go to their dacha with the ingredients with my mother.
Ingredients
I bought 100 grams of juniper, two oranges, two lemons, a pack of coriander, cinnamon, fennel, anise and cumin.
Despite the fact that it was not in the recipes, I took grated ginger, because I love it very much. I warn you right away, you can’t buy juniper in the supermarket. I had to follow him to the pharmacy.
As for the main thing – alcohol, we didn’t make it ourselves, we bought refined moonshine on oatmeal from friends. With this, I advise you not to take risks, buy only from trusted people or do it yourself.
Production
Manufacturing is not a fast process. That is, to start in the morning, and in the evening to drink a cocktail, sitting by the fireplace will not work. I didn’t find out about this either and was disappointed.
At first we decided not to do too much – about 1,5 liters to try with my husband and parents.
We put 80 grams of juniper into a liter jar of moonshine, closed it with a lid and hid it in the cellar. Remove the zest from the lemon and orange. The zest was mixed with all the purchased spices and ground ginger.
Spices were added in four teaspoons. The resulting mixture was poured with moonshine and also hidden in the cellar. You need to insist the mixture for five days.
This was done by parents who moved to the country for the summer, since the tincture had to be mixed every day, spices and juniper were slightly crushed with a spoon so that the smell and taste appeared more actively.
Five days later, my husband and I came back. The resulting tinctures had to be expressed. We did it through gauze. After decanting, each of the tinctures turned out a little less than a liter.
We poured them into a two-liter jar, it came out about 1,7 liters. The difference to two was diluted with water. The water must be clean and not hot. We diluted with water, the temperature of which is about 25 degrees, before filtering it.
Then the tincture was poured into the moonshine still at an average heating temperature. I was very afraid that this would remove the smell, but no, everything is in order. We drained the first thirty milliliters, we were afraid that there would be something harmful.
The last 70 milliliters also had to be drained, because the alcohol was already unclear. The output was 1,3 liters. Up to 1,5 diluted with cold filtered water to slightly reduce the strength.
As it turned out, you can’t drink it immediately from under the apparatus either. We all met in five days.
Result
I liked the result. The gin came out fragrant, tasting a little different from the store. It’s most likely dry. Drinking it just with lime is a little hard, but with cocktails I went with a bang. Especially to me, a lover of sourness.
For the same lovers, I recommend mixing it with an Extra Dry Martini (green), blue Schweppes or tonic. If something sweeter tastes, then cherry juice, Sicilian orange juice or Schweppes Mojito.
My husband liked the gin and in its purest form. He drinks it with lime, lemon and just at dinner. And we liked the process. We are thinking about buying equipment and making whiskey.
Have you ever made homemade alcohol? Tell us about your experience!