Making Gin with Tom

Let’s have a go at making your own Gin at home!

Tom’s Disclaimer:

One thing to note though as we are not distilling your gin won’t be perfectly clear. But it’ll still taste like gin, which is the important bit. The colour of your gin will depend on the botanicals you use, but is generally going to have a yellow or amber-orange hue.

What you’ll need

• A glass receptacle to infuse your spirit in. large glass kilner jar

• 70cl bottle of base spirit (use a good vodka)

• Juniper For 70cl of vodka you want to use around 25-35g

• Botanicals – let your imagination run wild.

• Sieve

• Jug

• Kitchen scales

Simple base recipe

Juniper berries 25-35g

Coriander seed 8-10g

Cardamon pods 3-5g

Orange peel1-2g

Lemon peel 1-2g

Method:

• Weigh out your botanicals

• Put your botanicals into a clean sterile jar, not your fresh citrus peel

• Top with vodka

• Leave for 24hrs to infuse

• Have a taste, it should be starting to taste of juniper

• Add any remaining botanicals to the mix. If there’s a particular flavour you want more of, it’s time to add a bit more of that botanical, but remember that juniper is king when it comes to gin!

• Leave to steep for a further 12-24hrs, agitating the mixture at least once

• Taste, and once you are happy (longer does not mean better, beware of over infusing) filter out the botanicals

• If there is still some sediment you can use a coffee filter to filter this out more effectively

• Leave the liquid to sit for a couple of days. Re-filter out any sediment that settles

• Re-bottle your gin in a clean bottle and enjoy