Gin

You’ve read about the Wedding, Arisaig, the Homemade Gin and know more about Squirrel’s daily routine than you may have bargained for. Now it’s time to read about us….The Gin Club.

So there you are, two men about to hit the late stages of their twenties, one slightly further along than the other (even although many people think that the younger of the two is the older brother of the other – typical). Both like Gin, one has a more discerning taste and he slowly builds a rather bespoke collection. Following Birthdays and Christmas’ of asking only for Gin the collection continues to grow. His shorter, less grey friend comes round often and they start to sample each in turn. This happens more and more. One supplies the Gin, the other, the ice, tonic and garnish; until the shorter (and ultimately chubbier/buff) friend decides he should start purchasing his own bottles of craft and small batch Gin too. They start drinking these gins before heading out and painting the town a creamy beige colour.

These nights of Gin appreciation were always accompanied by their love of everything social media orientated. They were after all the first generation to really take to chat rooms, Hot or Not, Faceparty, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Whilst testing the Gin they would be on YouTube watching anything from Rap Battles to People Falling Over, this was accompanied by Tweets and photographs of the Gin of choice, and affectionately labelling it “A Club”.

Through the world of social media, people responded to the pictures and posts asking, “Can I become a member of Gin Club?”. Slowly before and sometimes after nights out, the club grew in size. Gradually this club started meeting more and more, continuing to watch things on YouTube but more importantly to chat and drink Gin. First some Gin companies noticed. Then a festival noticed and asked, “Fancy curating a Gin bar?”, of course they said yes. BBC Radio Scotland noticed, “Fancy coming on the radio to chat about Gin?”, again they said yes. Before long they were speaking to Gin distillers from all over the world, their tweets became a blog, their private social media accounts became the Gin Club pages – it was official.

Then it was time to take things to the next level; organised nights with Gin tasting, music, banter and of course more Gin. Time to organise more Gin events. Time to get serious with blogging about the product they loved so much. And time to get a lady scientist to come in and organise the tall one and the shorter one into a well-oiled Gin machine….

Oh this Blog is not going in chronological order at all, oh well bugger it, this is how my brain seems to work.

So I was recently at a wedding up in Arisaig with fellow Gin Clubber Caldo (see post below). The wedding was Ritchie’s – an old school friend from Blairgowrie. Ritchie is a fellow Gin lover but has never actually been along to Gin Club to drink Gin and get the banter. So, as a present, me being a cheap skate (this didn’t actually turn out to be the cheap or stress free option) decided to craft my own Gin. After a long think about my favourite flavours and possibly a few impulse buys in Waitrose (yes, I have become that person who shops in the shop where people of a certain age, and what they perceive is their social standing, look at you with disdain and never apologise for walking into you) we were ready to go.

To kick-start the process I bought a 1 litre bottle of decent 50% ABV vodka, I should whisper this was Smirnoff Blue Label, and a second bottle of 40%. I also had a whole piece of ginger root – the standard size any supermarket sells, four stalks of lemon grass, a handful of dried juniper berries (about a small tea-cup – when I weighed it, it was around 20 grams) and a healthy pinch of rosemary. As you may have gathered there is nothing scientific or measured here. I was just going on my knowledge of flavours, making a Gin is as standard as everyday day cooking, isn’t it?

Everything was chopped up, except the dried juniper berries which were bashed, broken or used whole. The 50% vodka was added to a mixing bowl, then into that was added the botanicals. The bowl was covered in clingfilm and left. Everyday for two weeks I would open it up and stir. As time went on you could see the liquid begin to take on the colour of the ingredients, it became very orange or “gingery” in appearance. At this stage it was exceptionally bitter to the taste. On the Friday morning, after the two weeks of infusion, Caldo and I removed the clingfilm for the final time to filter and taste. The liquid had lost a fair bit of it’s volume due to evaporation, so in went the remainig bottle of 40% vodka – this instantly removed the bitterness of the concentrated Gin. It’s hard to explain but the remaining liquid felt stronger than the liquid that went in in the first place.

Once all the botanicals had been removed and the extra vodka was added, small particles could still be seen remain. We decided to strain further using coffee machine filter papers. This process took hours. Upon completing the first few filtrations we observed liquid was being lost through evaporation so we rebottled with the decision to reconvene at the wedding venue. Within three hours further sediment had settled in the newly bottled Gin so we filtered again before leaving overnight. Another 12 hours, and more sediment. We completed a final filtration which resulted in an orange but significantly clearer liquid.

The Gin tasted great for a first attempt, the ginger and the lemon worked so well together. It was almost like Thai cuisine but minus the spice. When Fever-Tree and lime were added, it was transformed into a very refreshing and what would be a perfect Summer drink.