How to distill gin at home: practical guide to get started

For gin lovers and DIY enthusiasts, being able to distill it independently means testing themselves with a creative and interesting activity. Before understanding how to distill gin at home, you must first equip yourself with suitable tools, such as stills of the right capacity, thermometers and, of course, alcohol.

The first step, however, should involve proper information from the competent authorities in order to verify the laws regarding self-production. If the distillation is on a large scale, in fact, the activity must be reported to the competent authorities.

Equipment needed to distill gin at home

But how do you distill gin with a still? As already mentioned, this fascinating container with almost magical nuances should be chosen with a capacity not exceeding 3 liters to ensure better control and therefore a suitable result.

The gin still, moreover, is often equipped with extremely useful and valid technologies that prevent the spices used from accidentally burning: these, in fact, are kept well away from the flame and give the drink a delicate flavor. The still, however, while representing a fundamental tool, is not the only one that must be part of the kit.

It will be essential to equip yourself with thermometers that can precisely measure the temperature of the distillate during each phase of preparation. The copper grid is an element that is positioned to divide the solid part from the distillation liquid: each still model has its own grid to adapt to its dimensions. The high quality of the individual components positively affects the final result.

Essential ingredients for homemade gin

The first ingredient for distilling gin at home is therefore alcohol. The ideal percentage of alcohol by volume is 96%, to ensure the purity of the product. But a good homemade gin also needs low-residue water, preferably distilled.

By balancing the amount of water, the alcohol content will be determined. The botanicals for gin are nothing more than the spices that can personalize the aroma. Everything is a matter of taste, however, the classic gin spice blend is mainly composed of juniper, orange or citrus peels and coriander.

Juniper is a plant that boasts about 70 different varieties, but as far as artisanal gin production is concerned, only about ten are used. The berries of the Juniperus Communis will constitute at least half of the homemade gin recipe, so about 30g per liter: the degree of ripeness is very important to obtain its pressing.

Linalool and pinene, on the other hand, have the typical citrus aromas of coriander, which counterbalances the stronger one of juniper. Although berries are normally used, often even leaves are used. For 10%, however, dried citrus peels should be added to the mixture. Oranges are fine, but also grapefruits or lemons, depending on the nuances you want to give the distillate.

In terms of flavor customization, but also in order to better "stabilize" the mixture, it is possible to add iris roots, with floral tones, as well as licorice, cardamom, flowers and other spices.

Distillation phases

To better understand how to distill gin at home, you need to know the various phases, which are:

• Maceration.
• Distillation.
• Collection of the heart.

During maceration, the botanicals can be cold or hot treated in alcohol. Lower temperatures and long extraction times characterize a gin with a delicate aroma, while for a decisive taste, simply increase the former and shorten the latter.

With the gin still, the steam method will be used. Cold distillation still extracts most of the flavors with less pressure, while with steam distillation we can distinguish a kind of distillate pyramid. The first liquid that comes out is called the head, then there is the heart, at a higher temperature, and the tail, which is the final part. To obtain a good gin, the head and tail elements must be "cut", so as to extract a "heart" perfectly balanced in flavors and alcoholic strength.

It can be said that the best DIY gin production is that which takes place between 80 and 90 degrees Celsius.

Common mistakes and practical tips

One of the tips on how to distill gin at home is to avoid burning the spices with too high a flame at the base. The quality of materials and ingredients will also be of enormous importance, as will all good recipes worthy of respect.

Using too low an alcohol content, then, can be a fatal error that leads to saponification: at an organoleptic level, this occurs when fatty acids are very concentrated and the temperature drops too quickly with the addition of water.

The result is a cloudy product with a very unpleasant taste. Optimal homemade gin production therefore involves following each individual phase appropriately, neglecting nothing, from the ingredients to the cut. A still can cost between 36 euros for small capacities, up to just under 295 euros for several liters.

Discover the tools for distilling gin in the Vivi in Campagna shop

Finding the right equipment for homemade gin distillation is not complicated, especially if you rely on reliable online shops like Vivi in Campagna, where there is everything you need to create your personalized gin. First of all, there is a wide selection of stills of different capacities, in materials such as steel and copper, perfect for this production. There are also grids and other accessories such as coils or high-precision thermometers.

You can also buy bottles for storing gin and botanicals of all kinds, without forgetting the indispensable spices. All products are designed for enthusiasts, small artisans and hobbyists who care about quality. Consult the complete catalog now in the section dedicated to distillation.