Botanicals

I use only first class botanicals. 

It is very common to use standard gin botanicals from all over the world and add local ingredients. In my Højer Gin, I have added blackcurrant, elderflower and raspberries from my garden. In my Højer Gin BASIC and in my NAVY BLUE, the garden botanical is Clara Frijs pears.

I use a mix of fresh or frozen and dried botanicals.

Accurate measurements help creating the same gin next time.

Maceration

It is important that the water and alcohol solution can uptain the flavours of the botanicals. This is done by soaking the botanicals for a couple of days.

Distillation

Right before distillation, the fresh citrus peel is added in the column. These are not boiled, but only steamed.

I have filled up my columns with copper sponges to get as much copper contact as possible.

The still collected is around 80% ABV in the small distilleries, I have available.

Alcohol measurement

When the distillation is done, the alcohol percentage must be measued.

For that purpose, I use a number of floating alcohol meters depending of the range, I need to measure.

It is important to take the temperature into account. The floating alcohol meter only measure correct by 20°C. In case the liquid has a different temperature, the measure must be adjusted.

Diluting and adjusting the alcohol percentage

When I have found the alcohol percentage, I add water to obtain the target percentage depending on the gin, I make.

In case you have clean and calcium free water in the tap, you can use that. Unfortunatly, the water in my tap contain a very high amount of calcium. So I use 69N glacier water from  Iceland.

When you are watering down, it is important that the temperature of the water and the alcohol solution is the same. If the water is very cold, the final product will be misty – especially when the alcohol percentage drops below app. 46% ABV.

When you mix alcohol and water, the temperature of the liquid increases. This is important to take into account, when you measure.

Bottles

There are a huge amount of bottles on the market. I have chosen the Aventura bottles due to the simple design and because they are available in different sizes. I get them from flaschenland.de.

Before fillling, I wash, dry and rinse off the bottles with 96% alcohol.

After filling, I seal and label the bottles.