I’m off the booze at the moment, but still half a bottle of gin tempts me. It lurks in the cupboard daring me to fancy alcohol again. And I will, but not yet. Instead I’ll write about That’s Nice, the special bottle of gin that keeps calling to me. It’s home made you see.

A dear friend organised a gin making workshop for us late last year. It’s a thing these days, a byproduct of the fad for boutique gins and beers. High ticket workshops are a revenue generator and there’s also the chance of additional sales to a captive audience. In our workshop at the Greensand Ridge Distillery near Tonbridge in Kent, there were four people and only one of us (me of course) shelled out for additional booze. The apple brandy tasted amazing at the time, but that was probably the juniper effect.

To make gin, you start of with 400 ml of duty paid grain alcohol, 600 ml of water and botanicals. At our workshop we selected from a rather tired looking array of possibilities stored in large mason jars on shelves. We could choose from such additions as hops, but the ones on display were from the last millenium. Fortunately my hop-growing friend had brought her own. Other possibilities were aniseed, peppers, mint, juniper berries, antediluvial chocolate chips, coriander seeds, lemon, lime and orange peels and many more for adding to the grain alcohol. Ideally all the ingredients should be fresh and of the best quality, but you probably wouldn’t notice if they were not. Gin for its fans, is very seductive especially if you have made it yourself, so who would notice if the lime peel’s a bit tired?

You boil 400ml of ethanol in a little munchkin sized still with the botanicals added in carefully measured proportions. We chose lemon peel, lime peel, fresh hops, juniper, pink peppercorns, coriander, cubeb (a type of pepper), angelica and liquorice root. You’re essentially redistilling the grain alcohol with the selected flavourings, so how much of each you add is important for the end result. And botantical quantities are an important trade secret. Naturally I forgot to write down our proportions, but we were juniper berry heavy as I remember.

In years gone by, gin was a mixture rather than a distillation of grain alcohol and botanicals. Mixtures were probably tasty but would’ve lacked subtlety and depth. The method we used in the workshop was redistillation (hence the name distilled gin) rather than mixing. We wanted our gin to be juniper heavy because we wanted something that tasted of gin and not just our own personal magic, which might’ve been yuck. We definitely did not want something that smacked of tinned fruit cocktail on the turn. 

The booze boils in its little receptable and a condensing unit slowly shifts the steam into another container. The condensing unit is kept cool with the addition of water to its external surface. This is important because if you let the temperature or the pressure get too high, you risk botanical collapse which potentially creates harmful stuff out of the oils as they break down. This you do not want, so you have to go slow.

As the alcohol (75% proof) and the added botanicals boil, the steam rises and condenses into the main body of the still, from which you sample the booze from time to time. You can buy the little stills which are made by Al Ambiq and are available for beer as well as gin making. The still isn’t so much the challenge as getting the ethanol is as it’s controlled, but you can still buy it.

Once all the alcohol has wended its way through the condenser, the next step is to water it down with pure water so as not to mess up the flavours. You also have to keep tasting it to be sure it tastes as you want it, as if it might not. And you measure the alcohol content and add water until it’s at am acceptable level. We stopped adding water at around 45% proof. Actually that’s a distraction. You add water until the volume is no more than 400ml. This is the cut-off point. Duty apparently has to be paid on alcohol volumes of more than 400ml. Our host had already paid duty for the original ethanol, so no sense in running the risk of a double charge.

We had a lovely time tasting our gin, having previously been sipping at what was supposed to be a tonic and ice mix, with added berries and bay leaves. But it left us slightly warm and a little giggly and wondering when and where we would be having our lunch. Having slowly driven away from Greensand Ridge, we found a farm gate off of a quiet lane which we duly blocked. Sitting silent and content with our sandwiches, we understood that there is nothing quite like the scent of juniper on the breath of a Saturday morning. 

PS If you want to know how gin is made in oceanic quantities, check this out: https://www.bostonapothecary.com/distillery-practice-gin/