How To Make Your Own Booze

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Making home-brewed beer is one thing, but wouldn't it be cool to make yourown hard liquor? Unfortunately, distilling drinkable alcohol without the properpermits is illegal in most countries (though that doesn't stop thousands of hobbyists andmoonshiners). That said, there are ways to participate in crafting hooch without gettingon Boss Hogg's bad side or filtering bathtub gin through a dirty sock.Here are a few fundamentals to keep in mind from the start:-Distillation doesn't make alcohol. The fermentation of sugars (often from grapes, grainor other organics) does. Distillation just separates the "volatiles" -- ethyl alcohol anddesired flavors/aromatics -- from what's essentially the malt or wine "lees," creating astronger, cleaner product.-There are home distillers out there. Justremember what they're doing is illegal. Not meth lab illegal, but most countries frown onit anyway.-If you do opt to run a moonshine (or rum or gin) operation out of yourgarage, do your research. The equipment and processes are relatively complex, and can beunsafe (as in ka-BOOM!) if handled incorrectly.Craft Your Own Gin

Gin consists ofan already-produced neutral spirit (essentially high-proof vodka), redistilled and blendedwith distilled and/or infused botanicals: herbs, roots and berries (juniper being thedominant addition). What makes each brand different is the type and combination ofbotanicals used, how their essences are introduced into the end product, and where the"heads" (bad alcohols), "body" (various flavors you want or don't) and "tails" (leftoveroils and water) are cut and removed.At the Plymouth Gin distillery inbeautiful seaside Plymouth, England (three hours by train from London), visitors can takea Master Distiller's Tour (£40, or about $60), which offers them the opportunity tomake their own gin.Following a brief history lesson and tour of the facilitiesby master distiller Sean Harrison, guests indulge in an in-depth nosing and tasting ofseveral prominent brands (Tanqueray, Bombay Sapphire and, of course, Plymouth,which is launching its bartender-coveted Navy Strength Gin in the U.S. this summer). Theythen head to a room with several shining individual-size Thermo Scientific stills. Selectyour botanicals (in whatever ratios you like) from ingredients like angelica, lemon,coriander, orris, cinnamon and (of course) juniper. Run everything through the still,decide when to cut the heads and tails, et voila: gin! Harrison recommends youwait a day before imbibing the small sample to give everything time to properly blend.You’ll discover two things: 1) Making booze is serious fun (the tour wouldmake a great graduation or Father's Day gift) and 2) It's harder than it looks. Mycreation was heavy on the orris root and tasted like I'd soaked tree bark in rubbingalcohol. Clearly a manly gin, and an acquired taste.Call 01752-665-292 forinformation and reservations.www.plymouthgin.comWork In a Distillery for the Day

Most distillery tours are routinely dull. You wander among giant steel vats that couldcontain anything or nothing, get a history of the booze in question, sample a little bitof the product and land in the gift shop. A few, however, provide opportunitiesbeyond the norm. Because of laws and safety issues, you'll mostly be dealing with theingredients before cooking or the results after, rather than the actual distillation. Freelabor for them, mini-vaycay for you.At the Starlight Distillery in Borden,Indiana, guests help pick the grapes, apples, peaches and other berries (in season) thatgo into making Huber Winery's Applejack brandy, grappa, blueberry port and peach nectar.Distiller Ted Huber says they hope to find even more ways to involve the public in theprocess. Volunteers at Dry Fly Distilling in Washington state help with bottling its ginand whisky (there's a year-long waiting list to participate).RELATEDVIDEO: Do You Know What Makes Bourbon Unique?Getting in on the ground floor with a new craft or microdistillery is a great wayto get involved. With startups and microdistilleries popping up monthly, it's relativelyeasy to friend them up on Twitter or Facebook and interact. New York's TuthilltownSpirits, producer of such goodness as Hudson Four-Grain bourbon whiskey and Heart of theHudson Vodka, sometimes posts "friends and family" opportunities on its Facebook page. Youmight be given the chance to harvest rye and wheat, prepare barrels for aging and storage,and so on. You may even get the chance to customize a barrel of hooch for yourself.www.starlightdistillery.comtuthilltown.com/We'vegot more ways for you to make your own booze, next... Continue Reading

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