Tassel Gin #3

On Friday I got a top-up to my botanical supplies and a couple of nice 70cl bottles in my delivery from Get 'Er Brewed in Northern Ireland. So this afternoon I completed my trilogy of still configurations for creating gin. This time I didn't infuse the botanicals in the neutral spirit and then distill the infusion, as I had done both previous times. Instead I stuffed the botanical mixture in a muslin bag and placed it in the column of the still.

Here are some photos....

My ingredients ready for weighing.

This time I added a bit more angelica and reduced the rose and ginger. I also replaced the cinnamon with cassia bark and added some Grains of Paradise. Here they are mixed and packed into my muslin bag. It was only just big enough!

It was put in the column in the middle of the copper mesh.

The pot was filled with about 1.5l of 37.5% ABV vodka and everything assembled. Off we go...

The distillation process is just the same as before and I stopped collecting when the temperature reached 97 degrees. I discarded the first 30ml or so, keeping a bit more of the light florals that come off first and discarded my last 60ml which was down to 17% ABV and a bit too earthy. That left me, when I blended the rest, with 760ml @ 73% ABV which I diluted down to 40% with filtered water as before.

And this is the result. One 70cl bottle and two 25cl bottles and a bit left over to taste.

I did a taste off against the Bloom gin we had in the cupboard. I prefer mine, so that's all good then. And this was the best of the 3, so I think I'll distill this way in future. Now I just need to get the recipe, amounts and blending right. A little less cardamon next time, I think. But I'll wait for the flavours in this batch to settle and taste again before I decide how to tweak the recipe.