The nose on the gin degrades over time.

[ODW]

Hi,

Is there any advice that the folks here can give to keep the nose on the gin? What I mean is that the nose seems to degrade overtime for the gin I am making. I use spruce tips and in the first few days the pine/citrusy characteristics are all there. give it a week and it all but disappears. The palate still has intense spruce flavors so I am not worried about that but the nose is just flat.

I know a lot of this depends on the botanicals so I am asking a more general question. Has any of you run into the problem of your gin being flat on the nose but great on the palate. How did you solve it? 

Thanks in advance.

[Kindred Spirits]

What other botanicals do you use in your recipe? Most gins that suffer from the loss of flavor or smell over time do not have enough "fixative" or flavor binding botanicals like angelica and orris root.

[ODW]

Hi,

I have juniper, angelica root, lemon peels, spruce tips, bay leaves and cardamom.

the angelica root is there. is the proportion the issue? we have 2% angelica root. is this too low?

[Kindred Spirits]

2% in terms of the overall botanical bill? That might be a bit low considering it is the only fixative botanical. I typically have it around 4-5% and in conjunction with other botanicals that help bind flavors. 

[ODW]

yes, 2% of overall botanical bill. I will try upping the angelica and see how this works out.

[Kindred Spirits]

Sounds like a plan, you might want to look into adding some coriander as well

[Silk City Distillers]

Consider oxidation/reaction of pinene as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Α-Pinene

In the atmosphere α-pinene undergoes reactions with ozone, the hydroxyl radical or the NO₃ radical,^{[9][full citation needed]} leading to low-volatility species which partly condense on existing aerosols, thereby generating secondary organic aerosols. This has been shown in numerous laboratory experiments for the mono- and sesquiterpenes.^[10][11] Products of α-pinene which have been identified explicitly are pinonaldehyde, norpinonaldehyde, pinic acid, pinonic acid and pinalic acid.

Given that you indicate that the flavor profile is still (mostly) correct, it sounds more like you are seeing pinene react and form low-volatility compounds.  Interesting that there is so much research on just how efficient this oxidation reaction is:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21172-w

Reduce exposure to air, reduce exposure to light, reduce splashing, pouring, pumping, mixing.  Essentially, do everything to reduce exposure to air, mixing in a way that introduces air, reduce the time sitting in tanks (that are not purged with inert gasses like nitrogen), purge bottles with nitrogen, keep tanks and liquid cool to prevent evaporation, store bottles cool (only a temporary measure), etc.

 

 

[Silk City Distillers]

Alternatively, consider vacuum distilling additional spruce tips, keeping only the first fraction (top note, highest volatility), and using that to increase the concentration of the most volatile part of the botanical (recognizing that you will eventually lose it, as well).

 

 

[Patent5]

We find that gin stored in plastic (HDPE) loses its freshness (the nose) much quicker than in in a stainless steel container.  I'm not sure of the science on this but have talked to at least one other distiller who had the same issue.

[Silk City Distillers]

Oh that’s easy, HDPE is oxygen permeable.

Closure type and headspace is a big factor as well.

 

[dramboozled]

I'd try orris root. I find the flavor a bit more neutral than angelica so if you need to up the amount for fixative reasons there's a bit more room.