It all starts here…

I have been set a challenge. A challenge to make really good home crafted gin. A gin to beat other home-made gins. Or should I say, a gin that beats the rest of my family’s paultry efforts to do the same.

Only one problem, I have never made gin before, and have no clue where to start.

So here’s the story. Every year for approximately the last 10 years, there has been a big family holiday somewhere in the UK. A once a year opportunity for my Dad and Stepmum to spend quality time with their two off-spring (my older brother and I) and in turn, our off-spring too – my daughter, and my 2 neices.

My Dad and Stepmum don’t do things by halves for the 9 of us. For this long weekend – or a week if we’re lucky and all have the time to spare – over the years they have hired large, cosy, luxury English country cottages with expansive gardens, a quirky 16th century Scottish laird’s tower house, and even a castle on a remote Scottish island with its own kamikaze peacocks. (I kid you not.) And for those precious few days of uninterrupted family time we enjoy each others company while we walk and explore the locality (until our limbs ache), we chat and laugh (until our jaws ache) we cook and eat (until we burst), we play family games (daft, loud and very competitive) and we drink (quite a lot).

Recently, that drinking – for the 6 adults at least – has shifted more from beer, wine and prosecco, to gin. We all seem to have acquired a strong liking for the delights of the juniper berry (I do know that much) in all its forms.

Even my 14 year old daughter has long developed the skill of mixing a mean gin & tonic (mixing only at this stage thankfully, but give it time …)

So for this year’s week away we have set ourselves a wee competition. Each part of the family has to bring with us our best attempt at homemade gin, containing whatever botanicals take our fancy. We will then taste-test them all together, many times probably, and decide on a winner.

Yes it’s my family, yes it’s just for fun. But I really want to win.

This year we will all meet on 9th July in a grade 2 listed Georgian house in Northumberland. This means I have approximately 2 months to learn the art of making a really decent homemade gin, from nothing.

Today, I began. Essentially, I now know that gin is basically any strong base alcohol, usually vodka, (minimum 37% ABV) mixed with juniper berries and then any other botanicals that your discerning and creative palete desires.

First things first. I promptly dispatched hubbie to the local supermarket (accompanied by daughter, to keep him right) in search of lots of cheap vodka. They returned half an hour later with 2 litre bottles of red label Smirnoff. The cheapest? No. But it was all he could find he said. This leads to Test 1: Will the base alcohol make any difference? We will see.

Advise tells me approximately 1 teaspoon of juniper berries to 350ml of vodka. So after lightly crushing the berries in a morter & pestle, 3 teaspoons went into 1 litre. And therein Test 2: What is the correct ratio of juniper to alcohol? We now leave this for 24 hours, and then add other botanicals. So stage 2 tomorrow.

I suspect there may be much tasting and many mistakes in pursuit of perfection over the next 2 months. But it is a sacrifice hubbie and I are very willing to make. It is all very exciting really.

Either that, or just a bloody good excuse to get really pissed.

Join me along this journey, and we will see.