Capn Jimbo's Rum Project Forum

[Capn Jimbo]

It's really an art...


Let's first start with the raw materials which like the gins, also vary. The London Dry style is made from about 75% corn and 25% barley. Plymouth style gin is unique in that it is made from soft water and wheat. True Holland style (aka Genever or Dutch gin) is made from "malt wine" (fermented malt). Last German or Steinhager gin is made under the usual strict German purity laws from triple distilled spirit, juniper berries and water.

The basic process involved the redistillation of grain spirits with juniper and various botanicals using one of three basic methods.

1. Cold Compounding Method: in one of three ways. The first way is to crush and mix the botanicals and let them soak in neutral spirit for about a week. The slurry is then filtered and bottled. The second way is a kind of "teabag" method - a mesh bag is filled with the crushed botanicals, then dipped into the neutral spirit until the desired profile is obtain. The last way - often used for liqueurs - is the least used for gin. The neutral spirit is pumped up and over a bed of crushed botanicals, and recirculated until the flavor is obtained, then of course filtered and bottled.

Mass produced gins typically use one of the first two ways (soaking, or teabag).

2. Essential Oils Method: The botanicals are crushed and cooked to obtain their essential oils. The oils are then added to neutral spirits and allowed to marry for about a week then, as usual, filtered and bottled.

This was the method used to make homemade "bathtub gin" during Prohibition.

3. Gin Head Distillation Method: This is the original and most expensive method of making gin, using a pot still. In this method a "gin head" or second compartment is situated above the pot still. The alcohol vapors rise from the pot and pass through the botanicals in the gin head, picking up flavors in the process before being condensed and collected by the master distiller. This is a hands on process, and remains an practiced art.
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