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Jill The Alembics Lab
ModeratorHi Rochelle
We recommend 1 litre to 35g of botanicals. If you steep them, however, you may want to adjust and use them a bit less. Steeping can draw out richer flavours. 35G per litre is at the high end – it will make well-flavoured gin with a distinct nose. 25-30g per litre will be lighter.
ModeratorHi Veronique, You chose a truly beautiful plant that has one of the lowest essential oil yields. That is why Melissa EO is so expensive to buy. I have also heard that the timing of harvesting and distillation is critical—something that commercial growers come to understand depending on climate and terroir. Using our small tills, we distil Melissa for hydrosol. Not all plants will yield essential oil, and they are better suited to hydrosol distillation.
ModeratorHi Charlie
Now is an excellent time for Kawa Kawa as it’s coming into bud. Since you have a little still, pick the buds and the young leaves, rip them up and push them down into the pot. Just don’t go above the rivet line. Just cover it with hot water, and you will be good to go. If your distillate is murky and coloured, you will know you have overfilled the still, so reduce the amount the next time.
ModeratorHi Veronique
You can distil fresh or dried plant material; however, the quality and composition of the oil will depend on the type of plant distilled. Dry material will yield a different EO than fresh, but if you are distilling for yourself, it’s a great learning exercise. I have a lot of dried German chamomile, so I do distil that and get a lovely blue EO, but the aroma is not as nice as the fresh.
If you distil dried material, try dampening it with water to soften and hydrate it first—but without it getting soggy like a sponge. If you are going to do a hydrodistillation using dried plant material, hydrate by soaking in water for a few hours before distilling.
Chopping is good if it’s practical – very achievable when you are using a small still. By reducing the size of the plant material, you get better surface area contact with the steam and can get a better yield. Always chop just before distilling, as you will lose volatiles as soon as the plant material becomes damaged.
ModeratorHi Christi, If it’s for practice, try starting with about 7 bottles. It might be a slow distillation as it’s a long way for the vapours to travel to the condenser. Why not make a 25L batch of the TPW wash? The recipe is in the notes. Much cheaper than buying all that wine.
ModeratorThe character of the wine you use – aroma and taste will define the end spirit. Gin is made with a neutral spirit, and we recommend 40% vodka if you are not making your own DIY spirit. It doesn’t have a taste or aroma, so the botanicals become the hero and define it as a gin. However! There is no reason why you can’t use other bases and experiment. A spirit distilled from wine will retain the aromatic and taste character of the wine but in a subtle, refined way. I do recommend two distillations, however.
As you can see in the video, the yields are low on a small still. That’s why we recommend larger stills when you want to create spirits from wines or washes.
We are looking forward to creating our next course which will be how to make a neutral spirit.
ModeratorThat was a big gin 🙂 Through the garden, so to speak. I think Jess is correct. Rhubarb and rose petals can be quite astringent and bitter. But I love how you are not afraid to experiment – that’s how we learn. Write everything you do in a journal, the rate you are going you will nail one soon and it will be fabulous, but only if you can repeat it 🙂
ModeratorMm, and a photo of how you have the eucalyptus in the still.
ModeratorHi Helen
Can you send me a photo of the leaves – not all varieties are rich in EO. You can keep the leaves whole, but on a small scale, it is still better to chop them up. I suggest packing them in the still with some twiggy bits. If you imagine hot steam going into them, it may be that they clumped together and formed a plug, not allowing the steam to go through, hence your oily, scummy water. The steam would be condensing and going back into the pot. Pack the leaves with the harder twigy bits to make pathways for the steam to go through.
ModeratorHi Jan
I’ve made several commercial gins using oyster shell. You put it in the pot with the alcohol. Two on a 5L should be fine. The shell adds a dry minerality which also works well with a hint of seaweed.
ModeratorHi Helen
Pleased you are enjoying the courses – the one on alcohol is very much an intro course as there’s quite a lot going on when we are distilling alcohol 🙂
If you are distilling a second time, we recommend you repeat the process, taking out the headshot. In small distillation, the transitions between the different alcohols are blurred, so take more to be on the safe side. On your second distillation you can expect a 20% yield as a guideline and at double the abv which you start out with. So if your abv from your first distillation is 40%, expect 80% on the second distillation. You have some leeway as you make it for perfume and not for consumption.
A 5L still is small for alcohol, but use it to practice and get to know what to expect.
ModeratorHi jackie
Good day for playing with aromatics! They both have citral in common, which is different from limonene, which actually doesn’t have a very strong citrus aroma, whereas citral does. I describe lemon-like scents from plants as herbal citrus. I like to use both as fresh botanicals if you can get them. So, on our blending scale, you would use .5g dried, but if you like the lemony character, go to 1 or even 1.5g. Double it if you are using fresh.
ModeratorHi Jan
We use a sharp vegetable peeler as it’s the best way to get the peel without too much of the albedo (the white pith). As they are quite moist, they must be dried in a warm, dry place. We use these types of dryers: https://herbals.co.nz/products/drying-rack-large with a convection heater to below it. It’s important to have a warm airflow moving through the peels as they are very moist. I prefer this to the commercial dehydrators, which I find overcooked. They will need to be brittle to ensure the moisture has gone. Otherwise, they will go mouldy.
Yes, so the same with any fruit. Remember that a dried aromatic is not the same as a fresh one, so treat them as individuals in their own right.
ModeratorHi Jackie
If you are using 40% it only takes a day for the colour to come out. Then you have a concentrate.
ModeratorHi Steve – no, not at all as long as you are OK with the quality of both.
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