Gin Botanicals Juniper Berries 100g

100g of New Zealand Juniper Berries. The very essence of all gins – the perfect base for you to craft your own gin style.

• Create your own botanical blend
  Use our juniper berries as a base to create your own botanical blend.

• Prepare your botanical soak
  Add the larger botanicals of your blend (juniper berries and coriander seeds) to ~40%ABV 2.5L of neutral spirit or vodka in a clean jar. Seal and leave to soak for up to 24 hours at room temperature. Gently agitate occasionally to help extract flavour. (Note: Soaking in higher-strength spirit, such as 90+% ABV, can extract harsh or off-flavours from the botanicals, so it’s important to stick to ~40%.)

• Fill the boiler
  Strain out and discard the soaked botanicals, then pour the infused spirit into your boiler. Top up with clean water to approximately the halfway mark of the boiler.

• Load the gin basket
  Place the remaining finer botanicals into your Pure Distilling Gin Basket. Attach the basket securely to your Pure Distilling condenser.

• Distil and collect
  Begin distillation as normal. You should collect approximately 2.25L at an average strength of ~40% ABV. The spirit will initially come off at around 70–75% ABV, gradually decreasing as the run progresses. The main “hearts” cut typically comes off between 30–60% ABV. Stop collecting once the condenser temperature reaches 99°C or once you are no longer satisfied with the taste of the spirit. Adjust final strength to taste if required.

Note: We reference ~40% ABV here because if all collected distillate was combined in one jug, the overall average strength would be close to 40%. If you would prefer better control over your quality & taste, you can use different collection jars to take cuts. For further instructions, please refer to the Pure Distilling Pot Condenser Instructions & Pure Distilling Gin Basket Instructions.