Grinding Juniper Berries

[adamOVD]

Do you grind or crush your juniper and other botanicals you macerate? Have you noticed a substantial difference in flavor if you have tried both grinding and not? Thanks.

[Glenlyon]

I don't grind the juniper cones because I would worry about too much astringent flavors being released. I tend to just macerate them for a few days. I notice after about 3 or 4 days they develop a slightly sweeter aroma and that's when I like to move the process along.

[paulNL]

*DON'T* grind 'm, ever. Crushing can be done but the result won't be reproducable. You can save on juniper (at the expensive of having to wait 1 or more days) by macerating as Glenlyon suggested. I don't.

[adamOVD]

Awesome. Thanks guys. 

[indyspirits]

We crush using corona mill that we motorized with an el cheapo HF electric drill. It effectively "rolls and smooshes" them as you would if you pinched them between your fingers. Gap between plates is about 3/16"  Highly reproducible.  Astringency comes from the pip which never (that we've seen) is split / ground.  Here's a handful I just did.

[LaChascona]

About 3 months ago I was experimenting with getting more flavor out of my Juniper. I did a run (200 liters) with Juniper berries ground up with a food processor. Because I had never read anything about it, I had no idea and yes, I came out super astringent. 

I had an empty stainless barrel so I just put it in and sealed it up, thinking that I would do something with it later on. I realized the astringency after I had proofed it so it's been sitting in there sealed at 45% abv.

Reading this thread made me think of it.... Do you think its better to redistill it? or do you think that if I just leave it open, that astringency will dissipate and eventually go away? 

Also, someone mentioned somewhere about possible pesticides being the cause of astringency. If that was the case, which I doubt, but you never know.... Would you ever be able to distill that out safely? How could you know for sure?

Thanks in advance, if anyone has an opinion....

[Xander]

I've heard various definitions of maceration over the years, from "leave untouched and just soak" to "crush very lightly (e.g. to break the skin) and soak".

Which one do most of you veterans use?

[Tim C]

We don't crush ours at all.  Just maceration and Gin basket loading.  I do crush coriander and a few other ingredients depending on the recipe.

[Popeye8]

I think the best is to macerate milled botanicals and then separate them and put everything at gin basket.

Still testing which one is better to macerate separately from the others, any idea?

[Hope Springs Distillery]

I am looking for some other advice, and found this thread -- so here is some very late to the party advice.  DO NOT GRIND.  I freeze mine, and I believe it breaks down the interior cell walls.  Then macerate for about 48 hours. 

 

[Popeye8]

You are referring only for juniper berries right? Maybe starting from fresh berries? Or you freeze them dry?

[Hope Springs Distillery]

We freeze them dry.  Then we pack them into mesh bags and macerate in the still.  I don't use my gin basket, I just leave them in the still while I distill.

[whiskeytango]

We rough grind them. Never ever had anyone say our gin was astringent. but idk 

[LuckyGuy]

I've done many different ways.    Ground and macerated.  Whole and macerated.   Ground and in the column.  Whole and in the column. 

Honestly, I'm not sure it mattered a lot.   That said, I did find out from all the different types of run that I don't really like coriander.

[Cosmic.Distiller]

23 hours ago, LuckyGuy said:

I've done many different ways.    Ground and macerated.  Whole and macerated.   Ground and in the column.  Whole and in the column. 

Honestly, I'm not sure it mattered a lot.   That said, I did find out from all the different types of run that I don't really like coriander.

Have you tried Indian Coriander?

[Gus]

We used to gently split the juniper berries as to not disrupt the kernel. We got more of the piney, resinous flavour by doing this, but the mill would start to gum up when splitting larger quantities which would give inconsistent amounts of splitting/grinding so we no longer do this.

[LuckyGuy]

On 8/20/2022 at 7:57 PM, Cosmic.Distiller said:

Have you tried Indian Coriander?

I have not.   Supplier you can suggest?