Making Your Own Booze

Tomorrow I'm going to have a go at some Elderflower gin. I made an elderflower gin liqueur last year by steeping elderflowers and sugar in gin, but this year I want to do it a bit different and make normal gin with it by sticking the flowers in with the other botanicals at the start.

This is the recipe I'll be using:

Ingredients:

13 g juniper berries.
9 g coriander seeds
7 g elderflower
Whole skin of one tangerine.
1/2 lemon (peeled)
1g Angelica
0.1g Orris root
2 black peppercorns
1 L 40% neutral
1 L water

I've got an elderflower tree so lots of elderflower to play around with.
 
Am now making some more, this time no lemon or orange peel. I've added a couple of cardamom pods and upped the amount of elderflower to 'a shitload'.
 
Old Tom Gin.

A London Dry style gin that I added a little sugar to and then lightly aged with oak chips from a whisky barrel. As you can see it turned the gin a whisky colour. If you go to the cocktail thread you can see I used it in a few cocktails on Friday and it's a really great gin (it's the tall brown bottle). I'll definitely be making this again.

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I also made some rose gin this summer. Nabbed some rose petals from a friends garden who lives down the road and steeped them for short while. Only enough to fill a 500ml bottle as it was an experiment, but it was really nice. I've still got a little left... but not much! I've been drinking it with raspberry lemonade. It's a lovely drink, will definitely make it again next year.

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@Captainfog these are inspiring.

So for the gin-based stuff. Are you making your own with the recipe from above or purchasing a standard as your base? Also what is neutral? Across the pond translation needed.

Also the moroccan tiles in your kitchen are cool
 
My dad and I homebrew when I visit home, but not seriously. Mostly kits from the local shop. Not even all grain at this point. I'd love to move up to all grain but I don't do it frequently enough, nor do I feel like I have the experience necessary to justify buying the extra equipment. Maybe someday. We have a red ale in the fermenter right now. Hoping to have it bottled and carbed by the time we host our first basement party.
 
I really want to start homebrewing. But my wife can't have gluten and is strongly against me making things she can't also benefit from.
 
My dad and I homebrew when I visit home, but not seriously. Mostly kits from the local shop. Not even all grain at this point. I'd love to move up to all grain but I don't do it frequently enough, nor do I feel like I have the experience necessary to justify buying the extra equipment. Maybe someday. We have a red ale in the fermenter right now. Hoping to have it bottled and carbed by the time we host our first basement party.

It's basically the same equipment unless you decide to keg, which I think is worth the investment for the time saving and quality control alone. There are inexpensive mills to grind your grain.

I haven't brewed in several years but I miss the hobby sometimes. It was a lot of fun when I had a brew partner but jobs separated the partnership c'est la vie

If you ever want some solid recipes / clones I can hook you up
 
@Captainfog these are inspiring.

So for the gin-based stuff. Are you making your own with the recipe from above or purchasing a standard as your base? Also what is neutral? Across the pond translation needed.

Also the moroccan tiles in your kitchen are cool

Yep, I'm making everything from scratch. Start with a big tub of water, sugar and yeast!

Neutral spirit is basically vodka. Flavourless alcohol. Lots of booze starts with a neutral spirit that is then flavoured.
 
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