By now, you should know that gin is a spirit that contains infusions and distillates of various botanicals, but predominantly juniper. But how do gin producers get those botanical flavours into the gin itself?
Well, since there are no clear rules and regulations about how gin MUST be made (unless your’e a London dry gin), it’s no surprise that gin producers have come up with all sorts of different methods to get the best flavours out of the botanicals they use.
There ARE, however, a few methods that are commonly used. Some are more traditional than most, while others take advantage of modern technology to make exciting new styles and flavours of gins, using all sorts of unique botanicals from all over the world. Here’s a brief overview of what they are:
1) Direct Maceration/Steeping
Many London dry gins are made with the direct maceration method.
Also known as ‘steeping’, this is one of the more traditional methods of making gin, with gins like Beefeater and Monkey 47 being made using this method.
This method pretty much involves putting the botanicals directly into the neutral spirit to be steeped, kinda like making tea. The botanicals are usually left in the spirit for about 48 hours so that the oils and flavour from the botanicals are extracted into the spirit, though different distilleries may have different maceration times. After that, the entire mixture is re-distilled, which produces a clear spirit that includes the flavours from the botanicals.
2) Vapour Infusion
Sometimes, a gin producer may want to include subtler flavours int the gin, flavours that might be lost or overpowered if done in the direct maceration method. This is where a method called vapour infusion comes in.
Instead of being directly added into the spirit, the botanicals are instead placed in a ‘basket’ within the still above the spirit, without touching the liquid itself. What happens here is, as the spirit is re-distilled, the ethanol steam will pass through the botanical basket and extract the botanicals’ essentials oils at the same time.
3) Vacuum/Cold Distillation
Also known as ‘cold distillation’. this is one of the more modern ways of making gin, this is a method in which the redistillation of the spirit and botanicals are done inside a vacuum, which creates a lower boiling point for the ethanol, and ‘cooking’ the botanicals less.
One of the best examples of of a gin made with cold distillation is Porter’s Gin
One of the best examples of of a gin made with cold distillation is Porter’s Gin, which was founded by three bartender friends who decided to build their own vacuum still in the basement of their bar in Aberdeen, Scotland. With it, they distill the botanicals at low temperatures, which retains their fresh, natural flavours.
The result is a range of light, refined gins, including Porter’s Modern Classic, Porter’s Tropical Old Tom Gin and Porter’s Orchard Gin. (You can get these gins at our November Real Deal!)
4) Individual Botanical Distillation
One of our favourite gin producers, Kyro Distillery Company, uses a method in which they make individual distillates of each botanical and blending them to create their signature gins like Napue and Koskue.
Kyro uses this method pretty much out of necessity – many of the botanicals they use are foraged locally and fresh, including cranberries, sea buckthorn, meadowsweet, and birch, and can only be gathered in the summertime. However, the summer season tends to be quite short in Finland, so the distillery decided to gather as much of each botanical as they could, and then do individual distillations, basically creating single botanical concentrates that will allow them to produce gin throughout the year.
With so many gins in the market right now, there will doubtless be more and more innovation when it comes to making gins. And if that means more and more great gins are being produced, then we’re all for it!