How Gin is Made

Gin for me starts with a story combined with an artistic hand and a creative mind determining what to infuse in their product. The passion behind it often comes through in a good gin. Aromas and flavors of juniper berries, fresh lemon zest, ginger roots, and many other delicious botanicals rise from a copper still and into the bottle. Another batch of gin is born. I'm Jeff. I just retired from the military, sold everything I own, and now I'm traveling around the world to learn from brewers, winemakers, distillers, and tell their story. This is my journey of beer, wine, and spirits. Ten years ago now we started the company. We was me and my colleague Daniel and we had not the faintest clue what we were doing in the beginning. We were passionate and concerning producing something and plenty of times we spent before the bar, not behind, and this were quite nice lessons. A second, I would say, always ingredient of this was we were not very confident with our jobs. They were well paid. I was in the pharmacy, he was in the television sector, and we both didn't like it. We were lucky enough that we were the early birds. We started when gin was no topic in Germany. It was not very sexy, but this was our big luck. We had time to develop. We could slowly become professionals. One major problem in the beginning was how to finance the whole thing. Of course, we did everything by our hands. We were the cheapest worker you can imagine, but there are some things you have a minimal investment, especially the pot still itself. We got a very good price because it came from an old factory. Our gin contains certain ingredients. Of course, the basis of every gin is the juniper berry. Just juniper berry might be a little bit boring, so you make it more complex. For example, you have some lemon freshness or coriander seeds for the nose, ginger root or cube pepper, and a specialty that is in our gin that is hops and malts. In the beginning, it was just a gag. We said, come on, we're in Bavaria, Munich. This is the capital of the brewery industry. You have the biggest density of breweries in the world, so there has to be something like this. The fruity hops work very well with the juniper berry, and the malt is our Bavarian secret to make it smooth because the malt has a slight sweetness in the end. Hi, my name is Georg Zwirf. I'm the distiller of the Duke Distillery. Cheers. The first step is a short maturation. Take the composition of the botanicals, the herbs, into alcohol-water mixture. It takes one day of maturation until it's ready for the next step, the distillation. Seems easy, but this takes technique, right? Yes, some practice, I guess. The lemon. Here we go. While the distillation, we heat the kettle, which contains now our composition of botanicals and alcohol and water. The steam has to find its way through the still, must walk through different levels. The first one starts in the kettle, afterwards follows the helmet, after it goes through the cooler. Now we have our distillate, our spirit. It's 85% strong spirit. After the first distillation is over, we pump the finished spirit into the next tank. We mix it up with water and cool it down. After that, there's a short filtration, a pretty smooth filtration, and it follows a second distillation. The process is pretty much the same as before. After the second distillation, the spirit has to move to the second stage of our production, the marriage. That's the place where alcohol, our distillate, and the water come together. We mix it up, looking for a little rest before the finished bottle leaves our house. At least one month should be passed. After the marriage, we go on with the bottling. We're washing the bottles. They get filled. They're getting closed. Afterwards, the labeling, and in the end, the seal. The finished bottles get packed into boxes, and now they're ready for shipping and ready to leave our house. ...is to take the bottle from the last place I learned and give it to the new place I learned. So, this is called Morality Amber Gin, and it traveled all the way from South Africa here in Germany. So, guys, thank you so, so much. Thank you. Thank you so much, Anil. Very welcome. Let's see how it presents here. They show us how religion works. Oh, shit. Hey, you can't be a part of this. Take two. Guys, I really want to thank you for allowing me to come in and learn all of that. He does this. All of a sudden, I'm talking, and he's like,