Homemade gin diary: Day 1

My birthday was a couple of months ago, and as a present, I received some interesting stuff. Apparently, my family thinks I'm an alcoholic as I developed a predilection for gin and tonic in the past two years, so my recent presents were all alcohol-related. I'm joking, obviously – but nevertheless, they thought of pushing me into the territory of homemade gin.

How I imagine they see me (joking)

How I imagine they see me (joking)

Gin is nothing more than alcohol infused in botanicals, starting with the main ingredient, juniper berries, which are mixed with other seeds and herbs like pepper grains, cardamom, fruits peel and so on – depending on which kind of taste do you like the most. Obviously, the mixture needs to be distilled, and unless you own an alembic it is not possible to do it at home. That's where compound gin, or "bathtub gin" comes in – recalling the good old days of prohibition and illegal distilleries.

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To make your own gin at home, you need vodka, a good quality one, which will be the base of your homemade gin.

The procedure is simple; once you have sterilized a big jar or a bottle, you add two tablespoons of juniper berries and the other botanicals you have chosen, and fill up with vodka. Let it rest for 24 hours in a cold and dark place, then you can add fresh orange or lemon peels for example, and some more botanicals if you want to accentuate certain flavors.

Let it rest again for 24 hours, shaking the mixture at least once – then you can taste it, and if you like the flavor you can filter the gin, removing all the botanicals. After a couple of days, you can filter it again and put it in a bottle.

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Looks simple... We will see...!

I'm going to try to make my homemade gin in these days of quarantine. Tomorrow I will share the botanicals I have selected and the start of this experiment.

Stay tuned!

What do you think?

Have you ever made your own gin?