Gin at home from moonshine: recipe, recommendations and secrets

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Lovers of high-quality strong alcohol cannot always afford it: excises, duties and taxes sometimes make the price of such a valuable drink sky-high. However, our people are dexterous and resourceful. Interested people are quite accessible gin at home from moonshine. Its recipe can be mastered not only by experienced moonshiners, but also by those who simply buy a home-made alcoholic drink. A little patience, a little skill - and you can enjoy a drink that is not much different from the original.

Dispelling the Myths: The Story of the Gin

Somehow there was an opinion that gin is an alcohol of English origin. Meanwhile, the British simply borrowed the idea. The pioneers were the Dutch, who tried to fight the plague with gin back in the 12th century.

The year of the official "discovery" of gin is considered to be 1650, in which the doctor de La Bois patented it asdiuretic. After a couple of decades, the drink was already used for completely different purposes and was named genever for its smell, from “juniper” in French. The British troops, who were an ally of Holland in those years, instantly appreciated the merits of gin and called it an elixir of courage. They brought the recipe home, where the British quickly developed home-brewing, changing the original name into, in fact, gin. And by the middle of the 18th century, it was already monopolized by the state and was considered the national drink.

Gin at home from moonshine: recipe and source requirements

Remember that homemade alcohol has a specific smell and includes absolutely unnecessary oils. Therefore, moonshine must certainly be double distillation. Moreover, before the second one, it is necessarily cleaned - with soda, potassium permanganate, proteins, milk or charcoal of your choice.

Make sure that the manufacturer has not forgotten to remove the so-called heads with tails - they are superfluous in the future genie. It would also be good to dilute moonshine with water up to 30 percent before re-distillation. Excess liquid will be removed, and the connection, which is quite strong, with fusel oils will be greatly weakened.

Moonshine after the second pass through the apparatus must be very strong, not less than 80 revolutions. Before further manipulations, it will need to be diluted to the desired degree.

And one more important observation: before making gin at home, pour juniper berries into small cloth bagsand keep them for a few days somewhere in a dry room. Gin specialists assure that the fruits acquire a more seasoned and brighter aroma.

Juniper tincture

One of the easiest ways to make gin from moonshine is to age the berries in alcohol, as is done with other ingredients for tinctures. The taste of the drink will be very close to the original Jenever. For half a liter of 50-degree moonshine, about ten juniper berries are taken; for a better absorption of the aroma, they are crushed or pushed, after which they are poured with a base and infused for two weeks. From a spoonful of sugar and a triple volume of water, syrup is boiled until bubbles appear. The gin is filtered, combined with syrup and aged for a minimum of three days. Then you can start celebrating or wait for the next parade date.

Not lazy: proper home genever

However, if you are interested in real gin at home from moonshine, the recipe recommends including berries in moonshine from the very beginning of its manufacture. It will take a kilogram of fruits - selected, ripe and fresh. They warm up well and are poured with a liter of heated water, half a glass of sugar and a spoon with a slide of dry yeast are also poured here. The container is placed under a water seal for a week or 10 days. At the end of fermentation, the mash passes through the still twice, with purification and leaving only the "body" of the gin. If desired, it can be further insisted, but it is at this stage that it has a classic taste and smell.

Homemade Beefeater

You can turn moonshine into gin in the middle of the process. 10 liters of good, purified, double-distilled home-made vodka are taken in 50 revolutions. In a container with moonshine are placed:

1. Juniper fruits, fresh, without marriage, mashed, - 200 grams.
2. Cinnamon - a broken piece of your choice or an incomplete tablespoon.
3. Coriander powder - about two tablespoons.
4. Freshly grated zest from one lemon (about a spoon).
5. Fennel, anise, hyssop, licorice - a small spoonful, maybe incomplete.

The bottle is loosely covered and placed for two or three weeks in the dark. Temperature - room.

The next step is to dilute the workpiece to a strength of 20 percent. Moonshine is pouring into the water! Secondary distillation is carried out with the discharge of "pervak" and "tail". The final stage is a weekly settling and filtering.

The most important thing is cocktails

Gin, degrees in which fluctuate between 37, 5 and 47 revolutions, is included in the list of the strongest drinks. "Heavier" will be unless pure alcohol and undiluted moonshine. Therefore, gin is an alcohol rarely consumed in its pure form. In addition, the sharp taste and smell of the drink are not very conducive to drinking without pleasant additions. In addition to the well-known combination with tonic, gin at home from moonshine, the recipe of which you choose, can be put into very interesting cocktails:

1. Arno: A stack of gin, peach liqueur and dry vermouth plus ice.
2. "SusieWong ": gin, fresh lemon juice, tangerine liqueur - 20 milliliters each. Shaken with a shaker, poured into a glass and topped off with 20 g of brut.
3. "Alexander": 30 ml each of homemade gin, heavy cream and coffee liqueur. Pass through a shaker with a pinch of nutmeg and ice.

Happy feast!