Homebrew “Gin”

[AshleighG]

Ok, so I have something I want to try, but I was hoping someone may have done something similar before and tell me if I am wasting my time or not!

I want to make a “Gin”, mainly to see if I can, without distilling.

Plan is, to brew a potato base, with a Champagne Yeast (or another high tolerance yeast).

Freeze off the water to concentrate the alcohol.

Then flavour it with some Juniper et al.

Firstly, will this just taste horrific?

Secondly, by concentrating the alcohol, I understand I would be concentrating the methanol, could this be dangerous?

 

[bracconiere]

how do you plan to convert the potato 'base'? and you do know freeze concentrating is just as uncouth as boil concentrating....

in reality if i was going to try something like that...i'd get one of these and magnet a hop sack of juniper what not to the top? i think.....

never mind, a counter top water distiller costs as much as my 7 gallon one did.......

edit: honestly, a juniper spiced cider could be good....

 

[AshleighG]

But isnt distilling illegal in the UK?

I was planning on fermenting the potatoes, then freeze distilling to get the % up.
In theory, making a vodka-esque brew.

then flavouring it with juniper like all gins.

 

[prog99]

If your really in the uk it'll be less hassle and taste better if you pick up whatever the cheapest own brand gin is in stock in tesco etc... And then do the sensible thing and wait until sloe season.
Or repeat the above with vodka and steep your "gin" aromatics.

 

[AshleighG]

If your really in the uk it'll be less hassle and taste better if you pick up whatever the cheapest own brand gin is in stock in tesco etc... And then do the sensible thing and wait until sloe season.
Or repeat the above with vodka and steep your "gin" aromatics.

I get that,
This is more of a “can I do it” than striving for a better quality

 

[Abhishek Dewan]

Ok, so I have something I want to try, but I was hoping someone may have done something similar before and tell me if I am wasting my time or not!

I want to make a “Gin”, mainly to see if I can, without distilling.

Plan is, to brew a potato base, with a Champagne Yeast (or another high tolerance yeast).

Freeze off the water to concentrate the alcohol.

Then flavour it with some Juniper et al.

Firstly, will this just taste horrific?

Secondly, by concentrating the alcohol, I understand I would be concentrating the methanol, could this be dangerous?

How about making a sugar wash "neutral" with step addition of sugars. So you start fermenting with sugar, nutrients and predicted ABV of say 6-8%. Then as the fermentation is near completion, add more sugars + nutrients. This will be less stressful for yeast as you don't throw in too much sugar initially and should avoid off flavours. Use a high attenuation yeast like champagne etc. When you get 14-15% ABV, you can freeze distil or use as is. The sugar wash will have negligible methanol and if you ferment properly, it should not have much taste/smell. Then hang in hop bag with gin botanicals and dry hop. After that you can degas and bottle it. Hope this works for you.