Making Gin

Gin is a delicious beverage. As a result of getting a gin making botanicals kit for my birthday I started to make my own gin. Homemade gin is delicious. Gin derives from a Dutch beverage, called Jenever, but is a quintissentially English strong spirit drink. It is traditionally served as a gin and tonic, or as a martini (which my dad used to make the best of in Ontario). Homemade gin is delicious, so here is a directory of all the homemade gins I have made.

Instructions for making gin - read this first, unless you want to blow yourself up, make yourself blind, or be arrested.

2018-12-14

Base: Vodka

Botanicals: Juniper, Coriander, Angelica

So, I hadn't made any gin for a while and I noticed that my juniper was starting to look a bit, well, dodgy. So I made a big batch of gin, using just the 3 basic gin botanicals, and lots of them.

So what does it taste like? Well I figure that the vodka has successfully pickled away any dodginess, along with the filtering, to make this gin excellent.

It's actually quite light, and clean, tastes basically like a normal straightforward gin, instead of a silliness. It's pretty good, definitely drinkable!

2018-07-27

Base: Vodka

Botanicals: Juniper, Coriander, Licorice, Cocoa, Chipotle Chilli, Lime

I was in Hotel Chocolate, which is a British premium chocolate shop and spied some rather interesting looking cocoa gin. So instead of buying some, as a gin maker, I decided to make some, and ended up with this cocoa gin myself. I've also added chipotle chilli and lime, which are delightful flavours which complement the cocoa.

This is quite a rich gin and the chipotle really stands out. The cocoa and the lime stand out considerably less, but nevertheless bolster the flavour of the gin. It is certainly a tasty, if spicy gin.

2018-06-11

Base: Vodka

Botanicals: Juniper, Coriander, Angelica, Black Pepper, Green Pepper, Pink Pepper

A simple gin this one is, made from the classic juniper, coriander and angelica botanticals. To it black, green and pink peppercorns were added, which give a delicious peppery taste.

This gin is marvelous, it is fragrant, and relatively light, and it doesn't have silly out of place flavours that make it taste not gin like.

2018-05-26

Base: Vodka

Botanicals: Juniper, Cardamom, Black Pepper, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Mace

Apart from the juniper, this gin is made from botanicals that come from Sri Lanka. I have a friend from Sri Lanka who my girlfriend went to visit and bought these botanicals while she was there. So this is a Sri Lanka inspired gin. The juniper isn't Sri Lanka, but is left in here in order to make this gin actually, well, gin, and coriander is omitted, which makes this not a typically British gin.

And it is utterly delicious, it is spicy, but not hot (being as it has no chilli), is highly fragrant, and makes an excellent gin and tonic.

2018-05-08

Base: Plum Brandy

Botanicals: Juniper, Coriander, Angelica, Cassia Bark, Mutmeg, Mace

I had a bottle of very old, not very good plum brandy that was a hand me down from an elderly relative who had a large collection of booze he was downsizing, so as I had recently spent an afternoon in Serbia, which was a delightful place, I decided to see if this plum brandy was an acceptable substitute for the Serbian Slivovitz, which I had foolishly not picked up, due to not having access to checked luggage (due to customs rules) and not understanding how Belgrade's airport security and duty free worked.

Unfortunately, this plum brandy was not an acceptable substitute, so I tried drinking it, and it was meh, maybe it was old, maybe it was rubbish, either way, it wasn't very good. So I decided to make some gin out of it

And it makes quite a nice gin! As well as the classic trio of botanicals, I used nutmeg, mace (which is the outside of nutmeg, not pepper spray), and cinnamon, which are the classic spices in an English plum pudding. These spices were all from Sri Lanka too. It tastes giney, with the hint of plum at the end, and makes an acceptable gin and tonic.

Maybe I'll have to loot some other bad alcohols to convert to gin!

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