Homemade Gin Martinis

[Viper 12155]

not completely homemade, I just bought vodka and infused it to make gin. I got the idea from one of the lifehacker.com sites except they were saying you could do it in an instapot in a few minutes. Then I had a laugh when they updated to page after someone informed them that cooking alcohol in a pressure cooker was a bad idea, so I just did it the slow way. I figured the holiday break would be the perfect time. 

I bought some Monopolowa vodka cause it's pretty good and not too expensive. Added some juniper berries and let it sit for about 12 hours. Then added the rest of the ingredients, coriander seeds, cardamom pods, a packet of chamomile tea, lavender, anise, allspice berries, a bay leaf, and some grapefruit peel and let it sit for about 40 hours.

 

The waiting was the hardest part. Once it was done, I just strained it with a cheesecloth and added it back to the bottle. Then I was all set for some Christmas Eve martinis. 

Add the vermouth. I've not really bought much vermouth before, so this may be a crap brand, but the liquor store I stopped at only had two brands to choose.

 

Here's a closer look at the color, I assume it's partly because of the chamomile

 

Then I added some large jalapeno stuff olives and some olive juice and we have two martinis, one for me and one for the misses

 

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the Misses decided she was not a gin martini girl, so both for me.

Prost!

[Bozo_Casanova 26675]

They make gin, you know. Some of it is even pretty good.

[Upgrayedd 5824]

Well . .  . How was it?

[Viper 12155]

7 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

They make gin, you know. Some of it is even pretty good.

But do they? Do they really?

7 minutes ago, Upgrayedd said:

Well . .  . How was it?

Pretty good! Lots of flavor. Might try a bit more lavender and a tiny less juniper next time

[thrillhammer 684]

is this a joke?  you bought vodka to make gin?

[GreenspointTexas 9866]

Saying “gin martini” is like saying “bourbon old fashioned”

 

jfc u guys

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

Pssst... psssst.... they actually make gin... bottled and everything, with labels and specific flavors........  sitting right there in the stores, very near the vodka aisle I bet.

[Anastasis 23498]

1 hour ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Saying “gin martini” is like saying “bourbon old fashioned”

 

[huge 3798]

My favourite flavour of vodka is gin

Also Greenspoint is right to be a pedant about the "gin martini" but his example is a little off.

[thrillhammer 684]

1 hour ago, huge said:

My favourite flavour of vodka is gin

Also Greenspoint is right to be a pedant about the "gin martini" but his example is a little off.

i'll have a beef burger please

[huge 3798]

Also his point was “homemade gin” martini.

I guess he could have said Making homemade gin for my martinis.

[Bozo_Casanova 26675]

My favourite flavour of vodka is gin
Also Greenspoint is right to be a pedant about the "gin martini" but his example is a little off.

His favorite flavor of Old Fashioned is Manhattan

[sidis 9832]

amazing thread.

[Paco 1934]

Corn, malted six row barley. Cook it, mash it. Pitch yeast and ferment on the grain for 7-10 days. Should be about 5% ABV.

Run through your still, keeping everything except the first half pint and anything below 25%. Distill again, this time carefully cutting heads and tails. Keep hearts, set aside heads and tails for people you don't like.

Take your botanicals (juniper, coriander, cardamom, anise, citrus peels, whatever you want to try) and macerate in the spirit for 24 hours.

Strain out the solids and put 3/4 of the juice in the boiler of your still. Put the remaining quarter of the juice plus half the botanicals in the thumper. Distill,, make cuts again.

Or so I'm told.

[thrillhammer 684]

25 minutes ago, Paco said:

 Put the remaining quarter of the juice plus half the botanicals in the thumper.

 

I put your mom's botanicals in the thumper last night.

[WhatTheBuck 28828]

2 hours ago, thrillhammer said:

I put your mom's botanicals in the thumper last night.

Username checks out. 

[Napoleon 8710]

On 12/27/2018 at 10:29 PM, Viper said:

Pretty good! Lots of flavor. Might try a bit more lavender and a tiny less juniper next time

Was thinking about mixing up some homemade gin, because I was bored and I have a couple of friends who have bars in Barcelona and they have about 30 to 40 different varieties of in-house gin and I was thinking why not?

I was thinking about leaving out the lavender though and didn't think about cutting down the juniper after chewing on a berry last night. Why would you want more lavender?

Here's the recipe that I was going to roughly follow:

Ingredients

• 2 cups vodka
• 2 tablespoons juniper berries
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon chamomile
• 1/2 teaspoon lavender
• 3 cardamom pods, broken
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 allspice berries
• two 4-inch pieces of grapefruit peel, with no pith

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/06/how-to-make-your-own-gin-recipe-juniper-infusion-easy-homemade-gin.html

 

[Landomatic 3813]

On 12/28/2018 at 11:27 AM, huge said:

My favourite flavour of vodka is gin

Huh...my favorite martini is vodka so this hits close to home.

[Viper 12155]

10 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

Was thinking about mixing up some homemade gin, because I was bored and I have a couple of friends who have bars in Barcelona and they have about 30 to 40 different varieties of in-house gin and I was thinking why not?

I was thinking about leaving out the lavender though and didn't think about cutting down the juniper after chewing on a berry last night. Why would you want more lavender?

Here's the recipe that I was going to roughly follow:

Ingredients

• 2 cups vodka
• 2 tablespoons juniper berries
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon chamomile
• 1/2 teaspoon lavender
• 3 cardamom pods, broken
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 allspice berries
• two 4-inch pieces of grapefruit peel, with no pith

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/06/how-to-make-your-own-gin-recipe-juniper-infusion-easy-homemade-gin.html

 

that's the same recipe I used.