Gin Bitterness - Berries or sharper cuts needed?!

[broon]

Happy New Year All

First post after a long time lurking but here goes. In my gin distilling, I've recently increased juniper concentration from about 12 to 18g per litre of 50% neutral charge. Distillate comes off the still at 85% abv. However, when the output drops to about 82% (c. 55% yield), there's a very astringent, unpleasant bitterness coming through. I did a small test run using just the juniper berries and this is certainly where the bitterness flavour stems from. I didn't crush the juniper berries but did macerate for 12 hours prior to distillation (berries in the pot).

I'm a bit concerned as I expected to be able to run hearts to lower than this (79/80% at least) but doing so taints the gin. The early hearts are great but the bitterness comes on pretty hard and it's nasty!

Could this be a bad batch of berries or do I just need to be tighter when cutting to tails? Is my yield even close to an acceptable range?

Would really appreciate your views. Many thanks.

Broon

[whiskeytango]

Where did you get your berries?

[broon]

Online Company called Speedrange. Stated as Croatian.

[Salishseaorganicliqueurs]

Probably low quality herbs grown with pesticides, try a better supplier. Try any of these sites, we've used all four in the past supplier without any quality issues.

http://www.starwest-botanicals.com

https://www.mountainroseherbs.com

http://sfherb.com

http://www.pacificbotanicals.com

[captnKB]

I'd second salish. https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/is an excellent supplier of high quality organic botanicals

[tl5612]

Croatian juniper is wild. Pesticides are unlikely to be an issue.

Is the answer not in the question? Increase in juniper mass led to increase in bitterness/astringency.

If that is not the case. It would be trial and error until you end up with something you're happy with.

I would probably run the still much slower. But there are lots of variables that could be adjusted.

[Towerguy]

It may be a characteristic of your still, but in my gin, the harsh juniper oils come off first, so I have to take a more generous heads cut.

[Micah Nutt]

We too take a profile heads cut to avoid some of the harsher juniper oils which come out of the still first. We had been using juniper berries sourced from Albania (through My Spice Sage); good juniper aroma and flavor. The last couple of orders (250# total) we placed were sourced from Italy and these berries are significantly inferior; serious size variance, most are shriveled, many mummified but the most drastic difference is that there is almost no juniper flavor and, instead, a bitterness and astringency.

Has anybody else noticed a difference from juniper purchased through My Spice Sage? Juniper berries are harvested, as I recall, in August. Our last shipment was placed in November. It is quite possible that this last years Mediterranean crop is a dud. I've seen the Croatian berries from other vendors. I'm going to get a sample to compare.

[tl5612]

Yes, there is often significant variation from region to region (e.g Croatia v Italy v Macedonia v Bulgaria v Albania v Kosovo...) and year to year.

Large distilleries will blend juniper berries from numerous regions and harvests to replicate their house style - and maintain consistency. Holding around 2 year's worth of berries in stock.

A specialist gin botanical broker will provide a summary of the harvest by region each year - on quality & yield... leading to updated pricing. And provide samples.

[Micah Nutt]

I read a 2013 article on the UK Telegraph about a tree fungus affecting juniper which would greatly blight juniper berries. As juniper berries take 18 months to mature, we could be feeling the results.

[tl5612]

The fungus has not affected commercial juniper producers on the continent (northern Mediterranean).

While it is a problem for UK juniper. British juniper is not (apart from a handful here and there) used commercially. So the Times (and other papers) linking the fungus to gin is tenuous... it's more sensationalist journalism rather than anything else.

It has had no impact on the crops that are likely to end up in gin.

[broon]

Great stuff, appreciate the responses. The berries originally used were small and very dry (and there was a element of bitterness even in the previous less concentrated runs) so I've ordered some samples from other suppliers to run a more meaningful comparison. There may also be a contributory issue with my small test still (never easy to get a feel using small volumes) and I'll certainly tweak the speed of take-off to see if this makes a difference.

Given the small volumes we produce and relatively small amounts of botanics we order, consistency of the juniper may continue to be a bit of a challenge I expect.

All part of the continuing experience, however. Never a dull moment (although there are a few frustrating ones!)

[jeffw]

A specialist gin botanical broker will provide a summary of the harvest by region each year - on quality & yield... leading to updated pricing. And provide samples.

Do you have a specialist gin botanical broker you recommend?

[tl5612]

I am based in Europe... So unfortunately for the US, no.

[crazybean]

Sometimes different Juniper species is sold as communis. Other flaw is that berries are sun dried, they should be shadow dried. Third mistake is that they are picked after first frost.