DTS

I'm doing some research, with the idea to write a short paper, into Juniper varieties such as: Common Juniper - juniperus communis Western Juniper - juniperus occidentalis Sierra Juniper - juniperus occidentalis australis Utah Juniper - juniperus osteosperma Rocky Mountain Juniper - juniperus scopulorum Does anyone use (or know a distiller that uses) a variety of juniper other than communis? Many thanks, DTS

Ah some good info Bluestar, thanks for that. Have you ever looked at creating an Old Tom Gin?

I like the idea of your base, Adnams a brewer in East England make their own base from the same ingredients as their beer but they use a different fermentation temperature (than when making beer) to remove more sugar. Some gins I know distill their botanicals in NGS and then blend a little new make at the end - to add a little extra flavour. For Orris Root substitute I'd use Angleica Root or Jasmine. I know Caoruun ( a Scottish Gin uses Dandelion). Regarding the muddiness of the botanicals, what sort of flavour profile are you going for spicy/floral/citrus/savoury/herbal? My suggestion would probably to go down the herbal root. Another suggestion might be have a recipe with less botanicals.

For what it's worth my session - (On Gin) was written up for the distiller Magazine

I cant't think of any reason why you would need to filter it, I would have thought the colour issue you have could be resolved through your distilling procedure. Is it colour for the whole run or just part of it? An alternative would be to suspend your botanicals in a muslin bag inside the still but don't have any pre-maceration in the spirit - this should help with some of the more delicate flavours. Are you suing any particularly delicate botanicals such as flowers?

Specifically I'm referring to powdered liquorice root which at least two UK Old Tom Gins use to sweeten their gin although it is noticeably more subtle than cane sugar. I agree on the anise being sweet but all the liquorice distillates I have are sweet too, powdered liquorice root when tasted is also pretty sweet which is why British all used to sell the roots to chew on. I'm pretty sure that liquorice means "sweet root". It's an interesting contradiction and I'm keen to know more, are you talking about licorice root? - Glycyrrhiza glabra I like the idea of an anise old tom though.

Hey Brian, There seem to be essential 3 styles of Old Tom - all have greater botanical intensity then normal gin. 1) Sugar sweetened 2) Botanical sweetened (liquorice) 3) Ould Tom Gin (think Ransom or Downslope) - a sort of gin/old tom/jenever combination. For the first one the Gordon's Old Tom Gin just used to be their regular gin with cane sugar added (they even advertised the fact). As a botanical base I would look at: Base Juniper Coriander Seed Angelica Root Liquorice Using 40-50% more than in a normal gin. and then your modifier; could be floral like lavender or something could be spice like cinnamon/cassia etc. Hope this helps.

I like both but I think for me the sweet spot is the middle ground; Junipero, Rehorst, Warner Edwards, BIG Gin - pretty classic but with a nice twist.

For gin sold in the EU the juniper can, theoretically, only be Juniperus Communis for Gin, Dstillied Gin and London (Dry) gin: "Gin is a juniper-flavoured spirit drink produced by flavouring organoleptically suitable ethyl alcohol of agricultural origin with juniper berries (Juniperus communis L.)." For some reason "Juniper flavoured spirit drinks" can have (Juniperus communis L. and/or Juniperus oxicedrus L.) Would they be able to enforce such a rule? Doubtful - could you also get round it by adding a handful of communis and classifying the other juniper as another botanical, maybe? source: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:039:0016:0054:EN:PDF I think this a pretty stupid rule. Other than communis I like occidentalis

Just to throw in my two cents. I've never come across a gin where the botanicals are added to the wash. There are some gins that just macerate botanicals but then they all use NGS.

Certainly experimentation to use different spirits bases when making gin; it's make it tricky because essentially you have a whole new dimension of flavour to get right. And if you just want to taste the botanicals then NGS is the way to go. As Artisan Still Design mentioned there are gins that use rice spirit there are also apple, pear, grape, potato, honey, whey, 7 grain, oats, millet based gins out there. If you want your Classic Style of Gin I'd stick with NGS if you want something a bit more Contemporary (modern/new western) then either NGS or new-make can work. Regarding the botanicals the cheat sheet selection looks good, fresh, rather than dried. citrus adds quite a nice character: there are a few more thoughts here: http://distilling.uberflip.com/t/63864 on pages 45-46.

I've seen spent grain being sold, mostly for animal feed. With botanicals composting seems to be a popular option but I think most of it is given/bartered away rather than being sold. I suppose if you have a limited quantities of spent botanicals it may not be worth try to sell it - hence the popularity for give-away or barter. Not a bad way tog et some local goodwill.