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You could macerate overnight which will give you a bolder flavour or if you want something lighter and delicate not at all. Its great to have a small still and do small batches and experiement. Take notes each time of what you did and then add tasting notes. That why you can adjust each time and make the perfect blend 🙂
Hi Helene – so glad you enjoyed the course! The hose doesn’t come into contact with the distillate – so any type will do. We use fountain pumps, clear flexible plastic hoses you can buy at hardware stores or wherever you find plumbing supplies. You could also ask them about submersible fountain pumps. If you’re having problems sourcing them where you live we have these to purchase on our sister site
Hi again Chris – For a gin distillation like the one in our course (with an appliance still) the spirit will come out of the still at around 80% ABV (that’s 160 proof) so yes, you do dilute it with water before drinking — it’s called proofing. There’s an online calculator in the course notes that’s easy to use. Let us know if you have trouble with the dilution.
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If you’re working with very high ABV neutral spirit at the beginning of this process, then yes, you will also need to water that down before putting it into the pot and running a gin distillation. You can make (and buy) neutral spirit with an ABV in the 90% range, which needs to be proofed back (meaning watered down) to 40% before putting it in the pot. We advise never going higher than that 40% starting ABV for a spirit distillation for safety reasons. Higher ABV alcohol is very flamable and can be a hazard.Hi Chris – thanks for your lovely feedback, so pleased you are enjoying our courses. I think Im always harping on about guidelines. You are right about your fresh rose, the x 3 just doesn’t work for soft petals that already hold a lot of water in their plant matrix. Less is better for rose and the wet sponge technique. good starting place until you find the right balance.
My theory with Rose is, as long as there is enough water for it not to burn, that’s enough.We will be running a course on zero ABV beverages (currently in the works). You can start by using your hydrosols as the spirit replacement and finding nice complimentary mixers.
If you put all the plant matter in the pot with the alcohol and water, do you get burning at the bottom of the pot during the distillation? .
If it doesn’t burn does that mean I can use a maceration technique to make gin and distill with the botanicals in the pot without fear of it burning ?As you are only taking 400ml of max, its unlikely you will get a burn. You can always suspend your more sticky botanicals, such as fresh citrus peel in a muslin bag. Avoid using powdered plant material as this is likely to burn.
If you are macerating all your botanicals, I would suggest putting the lighter ones in a muslin bag – citrus, leafy material and any finer materials. Robust botanicals like the roots and seeds like to dance around freely in the spirit.
Guido Mase has written a wonderful book called DIY bitters. He has detailed guidelines on how much plant material to spirit to use – you may find it helpful.
(Replying to Wembley2012)—Scaling up can be tricky. The most efficient way is to do a sacrificial run using the minimum of NS possible. You will then know if the botanical load is too much, creating cloudiness. If it is cloudy, you can always redistil and use it for other purposes. Is the 100lt a pot still?
