How to develop your own recipes for gin. I wanted to make 2 types of gin, a citrus gin and a spicy gin. But how to go about that? There are some ratios of ingredients that may help, but its really up to your own tastes.
You need to think about which botanicals you want. The following link is a good guide to simple botanicals and gives COMMERCIAL gin examples highlighting each botanical:
https://spiritsbeacon.com/guides/spirits/understanding-gin-botanicals
We develop using 1 litre recipes and upscale them with simple maths.
To make any gin you need a base spirit at around 40-45% ABV - I used 400mls of GNS at 95% ABV and proofed it down to one litre at 40% ABV to macerate my botanicals. If you don't have GNS you could buy a litre of vodka, but where's the fun in that!
So "ESSENTIAL BOTANICAS" : You need Juniper Berries, to make it taste like gin, coriander seeds are also considered essential (I personally keep it light on coriander). The final important ingredient in this group is either Orris Root or Angelica Root, either can be used as a fixative to help the botanical flavours remain in the gin over time and not rapidly diminish.
After that have fun with whatever other botanicals you use.
Some useful ratios, courtesy of howie on the home distillers forum:
The total amount of botanicals used is about 20-35 grams/litre. If we take the dominant botanical juniper as 'x', the proportions of the botanicals used is
x = Juniper berry
x/2 = coriander
x/10 = angelica, cassia, cinnamon, liquorice, bitter almond, grains of paradise, cubeb berries
x/100 = bitter & sweet orange peel, lemon peel, ginger orris root, cardamon, nutmeg, savoury, chamomile
It is said these ratios will result in a more balanced gin. But like I said, do what floats your own boat, eg. if you want a ginger forward gin, use more ginger.
Here are the 2 recipes I used:
CITRUS GIN
Juniper 20g
Corriander 2.5g
Orris Root 1/4 teaspoon
Grapefruit Peel 4cm
Lime Peel 4cm
Honey 1/4 teaspoon
Mint Tiny Pinch
Rose Petals 1g
Black Peppercorn 1 peppercorn
Aniseed 3 seeds
Dried Mango 2cm
Ground Almonds 1/4 teaspoon
SPICY GIN
Juniper 20g
Corriander 3g
Orris Root 1/4 teaspoon
Lemon Peel 4cm
Honey 1/2 teaspoon
Vanilla Pod 3mm
Rosemary 0.75g
Tarragon 0.3g
Rose Petals 1g
Black Peppercorn 3 peppercorns
Cardamom 3 pods
Cumin tiny pinch
Apple small slice
Walnut 1 nut
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