Gin has become the ‘It girl’ of alcoholic drinks over the last few years, and you can now find hundreds of different blends at your local bottle shop, many of which come from small, boutique distilleries boasting a particular signature blend.
What is Gin?
In essence, gin is just a clear, ‘clean’ spirit, distilled with the addition of ‘botanicals’ (herbs, spices, flowers – anything that came from a plant originally). The most important flavour element – what makes gin, Gin – is juniper, so that’s the first thing you’re going to need to make your own gin. In the booze world, a spirit must have 51% of its flavour coming from juniper for it to legally be classified as gin.
Juniper is a type of conifer, and there are around 70 species, but it’s worth noting that only some species are safe to eat. There’s lots to know about junipers, including how they were used medicinally in ancient times, and how to tell safe from toxic varieties. If you’re interested, you can take a read here.
For the purpose of making your own gin, what you need to know is that Common Juniper Juniperus communis produces the ‘berries’ (they’re actually super plump cones, like pinecones but for conifers) used most often in food preparation. These berries lend a strong, bitter, slightly peppery flavor to whatever they’re used in thanks to their high concentrations of essential oil Thujone.
If you don’t have access to a positively ID’ed Common Juniper plant to harvest from, you can find juniper berries in the spice section of most international greengrocers or delis, and there are heaps of online suppliers too. You’ll only need a couple of tablespoons for this recipe, but they make a wonderful addition to mushroom and/or dark meat-based dishes, so it’s worth getting a decent sized supply to have some on hand for cooking with.
How can you make your own gin?
Traditionally, gin is made by distilling a ‘clean’ spirit with not much flavour of its own, through a basket filled with a blend of botanicals. The clean spirit – which is basically vodka – can come from a wide variety of original sources, including wheat, corn, fruit and potatoes, which is fermented and then distilled. If you’re keen to learn more about distilling gin, this is a great resource.
But unless you happen to have a still set up in the garden shed, the simplest way to produce a DIY gin is to infuse vodka with juniper and the botanicals of your choosing. The result is likely to come out coloured, but that has no bearing on the resulting flavour.
Adding flavours
It’s important not to mess around too much with the alcohol content of your gin, which can happen when you use ingredients with high levels of water in them, so it’s best to use dried ingredients when making your own infused gin.
There are a few pretty standard ingredients that are considered ‘necessary’ in any gin blend (in bold below), so you might like to add them as a base flavour before experimenting, but ultimately it’s up to you! We like to mix and match with different foraged and homegrown ingredients, coming up with different combinations to suit the season, location or special occasion.
When starting out, look for a good blend of earthy, herby, citrusy, floral, and fruity notes, and then adjust future blends to suit your tastes.
Possible flavours
Here’s a list of possible ingredients you could play around with:
Base note
- Juniper – this should form the bulk of your flavour blend
Earthy/Spice notes
- Coriander seed
- Angelica (root or seed)*
- Peppercorns (black, green, white, pink)
- Cinnamon/Cassia bark
- Liquorice root
- Saffron
- Clove
- Cardamon
- Star anise
- Nutmeg
- Magnolia flowers
- Ginger
- Turmeric
- Fennel seeds
- Orris root
- Tasmanian pepperberry
- Allspice pimento
- Sichuan pepper
- Chilli
Citrus notes (use dried zest)
- Lemon
- Orange
- Lime
- Grapefruit
- Blood orange
- Finger lime
- Mandarin
- Pomelo
- Lemongrass
- Lemon myrtle
- Lemon verbena
- Lemon balm
- Lemon geranium leaves
- Pine buds & needles (not all pine are edible, so do some reading first)
- Rosehips
Herb notes
- Rosemary
- Dill (seeds or fronds)
- Heather
- Tea (sencha, green, black)
- Samphire
- Saltbush
- Bay leaf
- Thyme
- Basil (Thai, tulsi, sweet)
- Sage
Floral notes
- Honeysuckle
- Rose (typically, darker petals = more flavour)
- Lavender
- Wild violet
- Cherry blossom
- Roselle (hibiscus fruit)
- Elderflower
- Rose/lemon geranium flowers
- Rose geranium leaves
- Strawberry gum leaves
- Gorse flower
- Yarrow
- Quince
Fruity notes
- Berries (blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry etc)
- Plums
- Rhubarb
- Cucumber
- Borage flower (tastes like cucumber)
- Apple
* Angelica (Angelica officionalis) is a member of the carrot family, and grows as a biennial plant. It produces aromatic, faintly musky flavoured seeds after flowering in its second year, and then dies back. The root is then used to flavour gin and vermouth. If you can’t find a gardener growing this plant, you can buy dried Angelica root online.
Make your own infused gin
So now you’ve got an idea of what to play around with, here’s how to do it. The first recipe below was made with vodka, so we added juniper as the base flavour. The second recipe was a batch we made using existing juniper-flavoured gin, to which we added our own twist of citrusy flavours for a lighter, summery blend.
Recipe 1: Ingredients
- 700ml vodka
- 2 tbsp dried juniper berries
- 1 tbsp dried rose petals
- 1 tbsp Angelica seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp cardamon pods
- 1 tsp fennel seed (or 2 fresh seed umbels)
- 1 tsp dried elderflower
- 1 tsp dried wild rosehips
- 1 tsp dried lemongrass
- 1 tsp lemon myrtle leaf (dried, crumbled)
- 1 tsp dried blood orange zest strips
- 1 large bay leaf, crumbled
- 1/2 tsp allspice pimento berries
- 2 whole cloves
Recipe 1: Method
- Add juniper & vodka to a large clean jar.
- Seal, shake and leave to infuse for 24 hours.
- Add remaining ingredients, seal and shake well.
- Leave to infuse for 24-36 hours. Taste after a day, and tweak ingredients to suit your taste (eg, remove stronger flavours like cardamon, so they don’t take over)
- Strain through a coffee filter to remove all flavour ingredients.
- Pour your gin into a clean, dry bottle, seal, and pop on the drinks shelf.
Use as you would any other gin. You can create a fancy label in Canva to print on paper and stick on the bottle with homemade glue paste, or you could try using a paint marker to write your label directly on the glass. Homemade gin is an excellent gift, so you could get inventive with the labelling to create a truly personalised present for someone.
Recipe 2: Ingredients
- 700ml gin (we used Aldi’s Darmouth gin, which has juniper as the main flavour)
- 1 tbsp dried rose petals
- 1 tbsp Angelica seeds
- 2 tsp dried lemongrass
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp fennel seed (or 2 fresh seed umbels)
- 1 tsp dried elderflower
- 1 tsp dried wild rosehips
- 1 tsp lemon myrtle leaf (dried, crumbled)
- 1 tsp dried blood orange zest strips
- 1 large bay leaf, crumbled
- 1/2 tsp cardamon pods
- 1/2 tsp allspice pimento berries
Recipe 2: Method
- Add all ingredients to a large clean jar.
- Seal, shake and leave to infuse for 24-36 hours.
- Taste after a day, and tweak ingredients to suit your taste (eg, remove stronger flavours like cardamon, so they don’t take over)
- Strain through a coffee filter to remove all flavour ingredients.
- Pour your gin into a clean, dry bottle, seal, and pop on the drinks shelf.
A note on fruity gins
Most of the fruity gins you can find these days are actually more likely to be formally classified as a ‘gin liqueur’, as they’ve often got added sugar, and they don’t have juniper as the star flavour. If you’re wanting to experiment with making alcoholic liqueurs, we’re working on a write-up for you, so keep your eyes peeled.
NOTES
* As with all home-infused alcohols, be aware that the original alcohol content (ABV%) may have changed. Unless you have access to an alcoholmeter, you won’t be sure how the percentage has changed. The best approach is to assume the percentage is similar to the original spirit, rather than less, and then apply self regulation to drink responsibly according to that percentage.
Xo
NannaAnna
Permaculture Principle 2: Catch & store energy; 3: Obtain a yield; 6: Produce no waste 5: Use and value renewable resources and services; 10: Use and value diversity; 11: Use edges and value the marginal
