[beekeepermark]

Good Evening

I am partial to the odd gin and tonic, and it has always amused me the way that each gin has its own set of botanicals giving it a particular flavour. For instance, Cork gin was flavoured from the various things landed at the local port.

My question is this: is it possible to purchase the 'raw/naked' spirit, so that I can add my own Juniper etc and experiment with flavours? Has anybody tried this, other than making sloe gin etc?

Thanks
Mark

 

[jennyb]

Oz and James' drink to britain on BBC2 featured this in the last episode.

its probbably still on BBC iplayer.

[penance]

Its not possible in the UK, its illegal to purchase raw alcohol/grain alcohol.

[celjaci]

I get some wonderful plum brandy in darkest Bosnia, made with nothing but plums and flavoured with some of the plum stone kernels.   

[new_2_veg]

you can use a turbo yeast that you can make a base spirit, its fine to make as you dont have to distill (and thats what you cant do by law)

theres plenty on ebay, ive just used alcotec 48 to make some stuff i wanted to then you just add the essence you need or want

thanks

nathan

[Stripey_cat]

Even turbo yeasts can't get you above 20% (unless they've improved dramatically, most struggle into the high teens).  Fine for short-storage liqueurs, but hardly spirit strength.

[Jay Dubya]

Hi, there are these kits on the market using high strength yeast and are flavoured like gin & tonic. Their argument is that when you add the tonic you bring the strength down to about 20 % anyway. I've never tried one but it makes sense.

Keep on a troshing J W

[Ropster]

I tried one of these for Whiskey and Ginger flavor

it was horrible, wouldnt recommend it

Gin and tonic may be better though

[scabs]

Both my local homebrew stores sell small stills.

Of course, making raw alcohol is illegal... 

[Stripey_cat]

Both my local homebrew stores sell small stills.

Of course, making raw alcohol is illegal... 

And potentially dangerous, unless you have access to a decent organic chemistry lab to run a quantitative analysis for you.  You can legally use small stills to extract essential oils and such, although I doubt that's what the majority sold get used for.