Hardly any party mixed drink goes into the glass quicker than the good old gin and tonic. A good sip of juniper schnapps, topped up with fizzy tonic, with a slice of lemon (or cucumber) and a handful of ice cubes. It’s a hit at every party. You don’t have to be a professional bartender to serve your guests a refreshing “GT.” A standard gin from the supermarket and a few bottles of tonic are enough for a fun evening. The more sophisticated fans of the schnapps with the distinctive, slightly needle-like juniper aroma, however, prefer to tinker with the spirit itself. You can tell that this isn’t rocket science from the fact that the shelves in the supermarkets are practically bursting at the seams with so-called craft gins are bottled into stylish bottles by hobby distillers in smaller distilleries from the Black Forest to the island of Rügen.
In this article you will find out how you can create your own juniper schnapps in just a few days, what ingredients, tools and botanicals you need and what else you should consider when macerating. You can find a 2023 Gin Test with eight different creations here.
To make gin yourself, you don’t need a still or other professional equipment. In contrast to fruit brandies, the alcohol in gin is not obtained through distillation, but is mixed in ready-made. Clear and preferably tasteless spirits such as vodka or Korn are suitable for this. The gin can also be made with spirits, also known as ethanol or prima spirit. Spirits usually have an alcohol content of at least 95 percent. You can find out why this is important below.
1. The preparation
2. The approach
Instead of vodka, gin can also be made with pure alcohol (ethanol). However, this must be diluted in order to achieve an alcohol level of just over 40 percent by volume, which is typical for gin. To do this, use one of the numerous alcohol calculators on the Internet. You feed them the alcohol value of the ethanol, the desired alcohol value of the gin and the amount of liquid before or after dilution. The calculator now determines the amount of water with which the ethanol must be diluted.
An example: Your ethanol has an alcohol content of 95% vol and the gin should have 43% vol after maceration. In total you want to make one liter of gin. The result: Measure 450 milliliters of alcohol in a measuring cup and mix the ethanol with 550 milliliters of water. Your gin later has an alcohol content of 43%vol. The advantage of the slightly more complex mixing: you can determine the alcohol content of your gin yourself. If you work with vodka there is nothing wrong with it.
For anyone whose shopping list of ingredients for home-made gin is too long, we have good news. There are practical gin building sets that contain everything a gin lover’s heart desires. From botanicals to bottles and a funnel to self-adhesive labels. You only have to get the alcohol yourself for the slightly more convenient version of gin maceration.
Sources: Food
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