How To Make Gin Mile Hi Distilling with Downslope Distilling

Hello, this is Jason at Mile High Distilling and we are here at Downslope Distilling in Centennial, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. This is where the three days hands-on workshops are held. The three-day hands-on workshops, you learn how to make a whiskey, a gin, vodka, rum, and agave spirit. So you get a full range of how to learn how to make spirits hands-on. Hands-on mashing, running a still, learning the whole gamut. So we're here to do how to make a gin today. Let's take a look. This is Mitch. So I'm Mitch. I'm the head distiller and the instructor for the three-day classes. Today we're going to talk about making gins. And so what we have on the table currently is the type of botanicals we use to make our gin. Now, we make a really complex gin. We use a number of botanicals. You could make a much simpler gin, but today we're going to make a more complicated gin that's not juniper forward. How many botanicals do you put in your gin? We have about roughly 20 botanicals, botanicals and herbs. So basically our gin is what they call citrus forward. So we use orange, lemon, and lime peels to give us that citrus taste. And so our gin has a slight orange tinge to it. We also use typical botanicals that are used in most gins throughout the world. But again, our gin is a sweet gin. Our gin is a sweet gin, not a dry gin, as opposed to like the English gins. So the type of gin we'll be making today is the Genevieve style. So it's a style that has more, give you more botanical flavors than the juniper. The juniper's there, but it's not in your face. So that's what we'll be making today. This is their bottle. This is down slopes distilling gin. You can find this at your local liquor store. If they don't have it, please ask them for it. So this is what our typical gin basket looks like. That gets inserted into the gin basket or the carter basket. We like to use these filter bags. So we put all our botanicals in these filter bags because basically if we have anything that's super fine, it might fall out of the sides here. So we're going to fill this all up with our botanicals. And then what we're going to do is we're going to surround this bag that has botanicals in it. We're going to surround this with a juniper. Now, if you want something that's a little bit more juniper forward, what you may want to do is add half of this juniper and half of this with botanicals. But today we're going to make the double diamond just using our formula. So basically what we're going to start, we're going to just start using all these different types. So basically what we do is we'd like to use this mason jar. We're just going to use teaspoons or tablespoons and just start filling up the filter bag with all these different botanicals and herbs. And this is going to take some time. So we're starting out with the orange peel, the lemon peel, and then we're going to do the lime peel. And that's going to give us the citrus flavors. That's one tablespoon? Yeah, we use one to two tablespoons. Again, a lot of these formulas you can tweak them. So we use about one to two tablespoons of each one of these peels. But again, the filter bag has to be completely filled. So we might have to come back and add some additional botanicals or herbs in there. But we'll start out kind of using like one tablespoon of everything just to make sure it's full. So that's the caraway seeds. Now we're going to add the cinnamon. The cinnamon we use is the Saigon or Vietnamese cinnamon. It's called Casio bark. It's a lot better cinnamon flavor than some of the cinnamon you might see out there. The next we're going to use the Angelica. That gives a little bit of bitterness. Then we use cumin seeds. The next we just use a little bit of cloves. We don't want to go too crazy with the cloves because that would all be a little bit too strong for the gin. So we might use a half a teaspoon, half a tablespoon. So half a tablespoon of cloves. A lot of these ingredients are found in a book like this, The Craft of Gin. Is that right? So for somebody making their own, this book might be a good book to pick up just to get an idea of the different botanicals used in gin. So the next we used was we used the orris root and then we used fennel. The next we're going to use sage. Gives it a little more earthy. We don't need that much of the sage, maybe a quarter teaspoon. We're going to use a little bit of lemongrass. That gives us a more of the aromatics that we want. The next we're going to use a little bit of lavender also to give us some more aromatics. 21 botanicals, that'll make a pretty good gin. Next we're going to use this coriander. And then we like using allspice. And then we use anise which gives kind of that licorice flavor. These come in the stars and also the uh they come in stars and also seeds but we're using the stars right now. And then we use just a little bit of marjoram, maybe half a tablespoon. And then we're also using uh so we already had cardamom. So next we're going to use, we like using some ginger. So this is the dry ginger that we use. You can also use candied ginger but we like using the dry ginger. And then just a little bit of cloves, a little bit more cloves. And then what you notice is that the thing is about half full. So what we'll do now is that to make sure this is full, instead of just putting a lot more botanicals in there, we'll just put more uh orange lemon and lime peels up and that will actually give us more of the citrus. And so we don't, we're not going to over, our gin is not going to be over botanical. We're just going to make sure it's a little more citrusy. And then basically we're just going to take this out and then we're going to put it in here. But before I put it in there, we're going to actually put the juniper. So this is our juniper. The juniper we use is uh from eastern Europe and Italy so it's not super piney. So we recommend not using juniper from the United States because it might be super piney. So try to go to your local uh but your local spice shop and make sure you get juniper that's not super you know super piney. So we'll put a little bit at the bottom. We'll put this bag in there and then we'll actually surround the bag with more juniper. So we'll surround the bag and top the bag off with juniper. And this is kind of what it looks like. So we have the bag in there along with the juniper. Now again if you want to have more juniper in there that's fine. You would put less uh botanicals and orange lemon lime peels in your bag so you can make it more juniper. So this is going to be all up to your, up to your palette however you'd like. So now we're ready to then bring it over to the still. Right now I'm going to place the gin basket in the carter basket or gin basket vessel. So on this three days work, three days hands-on workshop I actually used a 16 gallon quince fill with the gin basket. So familiar equipment that you'd be using in the class plus 16 gallon false bottom mash ton. And what I should, what I should mention just because it's a gin basket or carter basket, you can actually put fresh fruit in there too. So for the last class we made um, we made it like an apple jack. We put fresh apples in there. So you could put fresh fruit and apples in there and along with other botanicals doesn't have to have a juniper in there. And basically that will extract all those flavors. So we made a real kind of a natural apple pie in the last class without any sugar. So basically we had the sweetness from the fruit. We had some nutmeg and cinnamon and basically made a really nice apple pie. So just because it's called a gin basket you could put anything else in there. Fruits, vegetables, whatever that are fresh. Just make sure that if you have something like an apple or an apple or a peach or anything else, don't put the pits in there because that's going to extract some uh, some metals that you don't want. So basically that's like this. You can put anything in there and we'll extract all those flavors. We were also talking about the base. So in this, in this kettle right now what, what Downslope Distilling does for a base for their gin is rum. But you can use a different base. The base spirit could be made from grains or grapes or cane sugar. There's different base spirits that would go in here and we would suggest not to go over 50 percent. 30 to 50 percent alcohol. The remainder would be water. This is filled up about three quarters of the way and it's just hearts. So there's no heads, pour shots, heads, or tails in this. It's all hearts and it's mixed with water to dilute it down for safety reasons. Then that's heated and the vapor goes up through the still and through the gin basket or the infusion chamber and through the condenser here and out through the parrot. Now basically the situation is is that the way we have it set up today, we actually have all the bubble plates in each one of these. So basically what we're trying to do is in our, this particular case today, we want to make a really neutral spirit. So that's why we have all the bubble plates in there. On the other hand, if we wanted to make the spirit that wasn't as neutral, we would take out any every other flavor of all the plates because that's going to strip out the flavor. But today we want to make a more neutral spirit that's actually going to go through there. The thing that's really important is we want to make sure that the spirit that we're using down here is not going to conflict with the botanicals that we have up there. Because if we have something that's a harsh spirit down there, that's going to conflict with the sweetness and all those botanicals up there. So we want to make sure it's really, it's neutral or as best tasting as possible. All right, so now we have the gin basket or the infusion chamber loaded. The still has been heated for an hour or so. We're filling each plate with liquid and we're starting to run liquid out of here. We're running about 180 proof. Now what we'd like to do is a lot of, a lot of people make gin that they're distilling their spirit as a vodka, so 190. We'd like to, we'd like to distill the spirit a little bit lower proof and that's going to retain some of the sweetness from the gin to basically, basically give us more flavors with the orange lemon liqueur. So we're sweetening it up. So, so we basically, we basically go anywhere somewhere like 160, 180. We try to keep it in that spot. And the way we control that is we actually control the, the phlegmator. The phlegmator is, is what's going to control the proof, but also what the phlegmator does too, which we, we, we have talked about in the past is that it actually controls the temperature. So if we look at the temperature here versus the temperature down there, there's quite a bit of depth differential. So basically, since we were cooling down the vapor here, it was basically getting the maximum extraction of the botanicals, the, the aromatics of the botanicals that we want. Now this is neat. This is a lot of fun to be able to make a gin and be able to make it on, on a small scale equipment that's easy to use, all brewing equipment. This is a way to, way to learn. It's a hands-on workshop, hands-on classes that teach you, you know, how to, to mash out to, to, through the distillation process. And all those things you wonder, you know, questions you want to ask, you can learn here. So this is what the gin looks like. So the gin is actually coming out of here, it's going to be crystal clear. So this is basically, this is about 100, probably about 180 proof roughly. And basically, you want to make sure that this, this spirit, even though it's a higher proof, you should taste at least with your finger and make sure it's not burning. The thing we do want to show you though, that you're going to see the difference between the spirit that's coming out of here and the spirit that's actually going to come out of, directly out of the gin basket. So when we actually drain this gin basket, we can notice that there's a color. So that's where we're going to get our color from. That's the color from the orange, lemon, lime peel. So the color's not going to come through here, the color's going to come through there. Just be aware that the liquid that's coming out of here is going to be a little bit hot because it hasn't been cooled down very much. This has cooled down quite a bit because we have the main condenser here. So it's going to be slightly hot. So just be a little careful, maybe kind of mix this spirit with that spirit and you'll wind up with getting the color spirit. And you're going to see it's, it's kind of cloudy. And basically what's going to happen is, is that after you dilute it, it's going to still be cloudy, but a lot of times what's going to happen is it will clear up. You'll see a lot of this stuff will actually, the sediment will actually go to the bottom of the, the bottom of your bottle or jar. And that's something to be concerned about. That's going to be, basically those are pexins that are actually actually going to help age the spirit as it ages in the bottle. So we like to try, so basically what we do, we like to try to keep it, in our temperature right now, we'd like to keep it anywhere from like say 170, 180 degrees. And now this is at our altitude, which is about 5,400 feet above sea level. So you'll have to adjust it depending on your altitude, but that's where we like to keep it right now. So we'll adjust the rate of flow of water going through the flame air, which will keep that temperature plus or minus in that general area. How many gallons do you usually get through the gin basket before you need to change the botanicals? So basically what we do, basically once, once, what we do is we actually taste it. So we will taste it out here through the distillation cycle. When we see all the botanicals have been exhausted, then we don't change the botanicals off. We just actually throw the rest of it down the drain and do another batch. So because what's happening is, is that even though you think it's a one-way flow, we're actually getting backflows. We're actually getting backflow down. It goes all the way down to the bottom here. So what's happening down here is the spirit that's actually left in here is going to get really bitter. So basically we're not going to reuse that spirit. So that's what we do. So basically what happens is if, if we have whatever we have in there, we could roughly say we're going to get to recover roughly about 50%. So if we have, let's say we have, if we have, let's say 10 gallons in there and 100 proof, we're going to wind up with five gallons of 100 proof. And then we're going to eventually dilute it to 80 proof. So that's, so we, we, we lose about, we lose anywhere from 40 to 50%. Right. So you get that, that concentration of bitters. You don't want, you don't want to taint your spirit. Right. Because what's going to happen is, what happens is since the, since the Juniper is the, is the dominant, dominant botanical, what's going to happen is it's going to destroy the flavors of all the botanical you put in there. So it's going to bitter up the spirit. Now on the other, if you like that bitterness, if you like more Juniper, then yeah, you would do that. But we'd like to have our, let's say our Juniper, our gin is more sweet. It's a, it's a Genovese style. So it's a sweeter style of gin, not a dry gin. So, so you're going to have to, you're going to have to experiment by tasting here and there to see what's, what fits your palate. And so when you drain this, so, so after you put, this is, this is concentrated. Yeah. Oh yeah. So you, you drain this out and as you come through and then you, you, you'll collect, you'll make your collection, you'll make your cuts. And as you, as you line up your jars and you come back and you blend it accordingly to get it to where you want it. And again, when we drain this and we, when we taste this at the, towards the end of the distillation, when we drain this and we see that the botanicals have been expired, then we'll stop the distillation. Because what's going to happen is the Juniper is still going to be there. So what's going to happen is, I guess towards the end, it's going to be real Juniper forward. So you'll see that the Juniper, the, the, the botanicals have been exhausted and the Juniper is going to come back and that's what we're trying to distill. Now, again, it's, it's up to, it's, it's up to what you want to do. It's up to your palate. So that's something you need to experiment with. How often do you drain this as you're running the still? I drain, I look at, I drain it maybe every five minutes, five to 10 minutes. And then we, we mix and match in different jars. And what you're going to notice, you're going to notice there's going to be, there's going to be a taste difference between what comes out of here and what comes out of there. You're going to notice here, this is going to be more Juniper forward, where here you're going to have more, you're going to taste more of the botanicals. And that's why you kind of need to blend. So in your workshops, when you do the, the hands-on workshops, when you do like a whiskey, are you showing, you're showing people how to mash out completely, convert the starches to fermentable sugar? So basically we, the three day workshop, again, this is the hands-on workshop. The first day, what we do is we actually make a rum. So basically we show you how to make a rum and we can make the rum from either from powdered sugar or from molasses. We can also show you how to make a tequila using a liquid agave syrup. We also will show you how to do a stripping run on rum and how to do a spirit run on rum. The second day, my partner Zach will take over and he will show you from soup to nuts, how to do a mash for a whiskey. So you'll have a choice to do either a corn whiskey, a double diamond whiskey, which is our, our well-known whiskey, a single malt whiskey, or a rye whiskey. So those, you'll have a choice of doing it, any one of those whiskeys. And Zach will actually go through using the equipment over here to do a mash. And then what we'll do during the afternoon, we'll actually do a distillation of a whiskey. And then we'll do, we'll show you through a series of jars where you can actually taste the different distillates through the, through distilling, for distillations times. And you'll actually see what happens from, from beginning to the end of the distillation cycle. So that covers the second day. The third day, it's kind of an open class. And the third day, we actually talk about making gins. We'll talk about cold infusions and it's be open for questions. We'll kind of, any kind of questions you may have, whether they're professional or non-professional, then we'll answer all the questions. So that pretty much covers the three-day class. You can find the classes on downslopedistilling.com, or you can find it at milehighdistilling.com. I think it's a great way to learn. I don't think there's any better way to learn than just hands-on, going through the motions and, and using equipment that's familiar. These, these, this, this brew kettle, a 16-gallon bottom brew kettle with the brew in the back, the authentic brew in the back system. Easy to, with pull straps, you can get it out easy. It teaches you how to use this equipment with a false bottom and a liquor tank and go through the motions to get it to the still. So you really know, you get familiar with everything on, on a manageable scale. And you go over how to make a cut. I know we get a lot of questions on how to make cuts. How do I know if I'm making enough of a cut? So we're going to go over the different cuts because there's a lot of confusion on the internet. So there's actually four cuts we'll be discussing. We'll talk about four shots, heads, parts, and tails. Unfortunately, a lot of information on the internet is wrong. Four shots are different than heads. Four shots become before the heads. So we actually tell you how to differentiate between all those different segments of the distillation. So, and that's really important. We'll do that not only by looking at our still head temperature, the proof, and also by doing tasting, feeling, and smelling. So we'll basically show you how to go through a distillation cycle to how to make your final cuts. Because it's really important to make your final cuts because if you don't make your final cuts properly, especially when we talk about whiskey, it may take a lot longer for that whiskey to age. So these are all things that the store knows they do this on a day-to-day basis. And as us, you know, want to learn this as a home distilling hobby or just as growing into maybe owning your own distiller. I think this is a great way to learn. Yes, again, these classes are held every month and you can find them on our page, milehighdistilling.com and downslopedistilling.com. You can sign up right there on the websites. And if you have any questions, email us or call us. Thank you.