Hello and welcome to episode 2 of our gin
talk with my good friend and gin expert, Trish Brew. This one is all about the
amazing different styles of gin, so you know everything from Old Tom to
barrel-aged, to gin cordials and London Dry. If you missed
our video on the history of gin which sort of puts all of this into context
then check out the link below and if you want more of this then be sure to press
the subscribe button and hit the notification bell and then you'll be the
first to know when at the next episode, all about the different uses of gin,
comes out. So we've just had a little chat about the history of gin, where we
looked at Jenever, which was the precursor of gin and then the kind of
next style on from that was Old Tom gin which is kind of the missing link I
guess between Jenever and the gin that we tend to drink now, so we do have one
example of Old Tom gin here. So old Tom gin essentially pays homage to a style of
gin that was drunk in probably one of the worst times in London, called the gin
craze, everyone was making gin and there were very crude styles, to say the
least, so mainly methylated spirits, the term blind drunk comes from this era, so
basically they were gin that to try to mask those heinous flavors added things
like licorice root to disguise that because sugar was quite an expensive
commodity. So they were looking for something a bit sweet so to make it a
bit more palatable. Absolutely and so there are quite a few old toms today but
there really isn't a regulation about how you have to make them so generally
they made by distillers and distilleries who really like to pay homage to the
past they probably already make other gins, but it's just a little bit of
fun for them so that they can try to recreate something that they base their
brand on. Old Tom for example with Herno, they use a beautiful honey and lots
of meadowsweet to give it a perception of sweetness that you might have had
when you're drinking old toms of the past. Actually quite a lot of older cocktails
from the kind of 1800s like the Martinez for instance, that
would actually be Old Tom that that would have been made with. Absolutely so
they were known as Gin cordials or cordials but old Tom gin was very
palatable and the masses drink it, so a lot of the old cocktails that you would
have drunk, contained either the precursor to Old Tom, which was Jenever
or an Old Tom style. And then I guess the next one along is Barrel Aged Gin, which
is also an older style. Barrel Aged Gin again is one of those gins
really doesn't have any regulations so it's really again up to the distiller
to pay homage to a certain style also producers that make whiskey like to use
barrels for their gin as well. Definitely a really good way to get whiskey
drinkers onto the gin category but in the old days when bars were invented and
bottles weren't so commercially available bartenders would store their
wares in barrel so instead of coming up to a bar and opening a bottle you'd be
tapping a barrel. Barrel Aged Gin pays also homage to transportation so barrel
aging was an accident, originally, where- Like all good things! Like all good things. So
you'd put your spirits in a barrel to ship it long distances and then when you
got to your next port you have this amazing luscious barrel enriched product.
So that's how barrel aging came about. Like what kind of flavors there's that
impart onto the Gin. Definitely refines the botanicals in
there. Yeah okay, so it like just mellows, mellows it out. Yeah, so if you're a
gin traditionalist and you really like bold flavors of the botanicals they dial
right back, you start to get more from the oak or the barrel that it comes from
so if you age it an American oak for example you might get some more vanillas, if
you age it in wine casks you might get a drier grape sharpness.
This is one in particular Santamania from Spain uses Tempranillo at its base
spirit and ex wine barrels. You know, love wine, I love gin so it's always gonna be a
happy marriage. Perfect for you. Yeah! And speaking of which on to your favorites I
guess which is a London Dry-style of gin, so kind of basically just really quite
crisp and clean and let the the actual quality of the spirit show through. Dry Gin, London Dry Gin is my favorite category of gin so what I really love about
it is it's really honest you can't hide behind anything when you go to London
Dry Gin so you've got to be a really good distiller and I guess maybe I'm
just really old but I do love this style it makes it amazing Martini, a really
crisp gin and tonic if it says London Dry, just to be clear
it doesn't have to be made in London but it pays homage to cleaning up London.
Where wealthy families could pay the taxes and levies to make a good quality
gin, with refined distillation techniques to be a London Dry they must use all
fresh botanicals distilled together at the same time and it must be very clearly
juniper driven which takes a really good distiller, because I've tried making
Gin, don't recommend and it must be over thirty seven point five percent ABV
so it will retain its flavor for quite a while on the shelf and this is probably
the most versatile style of gin to me. An extension of that is is the Navy
Strength, we have an Australian example so that, I think they call it a Fool
Strength, as with everything in Australia they just like to have a bit
of fun with it. Fools & larrikins, everywhere you go. Absolutely, so a Navy Strength Gin pays
homage to when you're in the Navy So the sailors weren't getting ripped off
so you know giving them half, watering down the rest, it's all clear, it's all the same so
no one's gonna know, what the sailors would do is tip their gin on their
gun powder and if their gun powder would still ignite, then you'd know that it was fifty
seven percent or above, Alcohol just really increases the length
of, anything really, so sort of the higher the proof, I've discussed this in
a few of the videos, like the Old Fashioned than the London Calling, if you
have a higher proof alcohol then it'll obviously just stand up really well
against all of the other flavors that you're sort of mixing it with. Absolutely
less diluted, so less water added after distillation. And then these ones
are fun colors, what's that about? Love fun colours. So other styles of gin that you might come across one is a Sloe
Gin which is in the category of gin cordial. Plymouth Sloe, one of the oldest
styles obviously they already make a gin they
infuse sloe berries but sloe berries are basically part of the black thorn
family or plum family and what would happen is at the first frost in the UK
you would have an abundance of these berries everywhere because originally
you segregate your land with black thorn bushes, they only grew to a certain height
you didn't have to you know put them together like you would a fence you just
pop a whole bunch of seed in the ground you had your land section off. They would
fruit and what you do is because everyone was drinking gin, long history
of that as I've talked about, what are they gonna do with this? So they would pop
them into their gin. Kind of like shiraz grapes you don't want to press them
because you'll get a lot of tannin, and they actually quite bitter so you'd
leave them in your gin for a couple months,
just slowly extract the juice and then because it was still quite tart like a
really sour plum flavor they'd put sugar in it to make a little bit sweeter. They're a lot
lower in alcohol and they're a lot juicier so very perfect for Christmas. Yes, and I guess this guy's kind of another example but with oranges rather than sloe gin. Absolutely I mean if you're drinking gin you're doing it right, so
yeah, add whatever you like! So this style has been around for a while but I guess it's kind of related
to these quite modern styles of gin. As we discussed
didn't have to have juniper as the predominant flavor but the more gins
that are being produced especially kind of in different areas of the world
people are kind of looking around them and being like what can we add to our
gin that's gonna be you know I guess make sense for the place that we're
actually making the gin. Australia is a really good example of that of using a
lot of native botanicals so you'll see heaps of gins on the market here
that use things like lemon myrtle and strawberry gum. What is interesting is
you've got to use things that grow around you that's kind of how it all started in
the beginning. The way that you use medicines is something that was growing
next to you try it, if you didn't die and you know it made your cough go away,
perfect. We don't have sloes in Australia so
you can't really make a sloe Gin, they do grow in Tasmania in small quantities,
because the climates right. There are a couple of good examples of gin cordial
or flavored gin like Four Pillars Shiraz Gin, where they use, well they're made in the Yarra
Yalley, so they use Yarra Valley shiraz grapes, extract the grape juice
but exactly the same way. They don't add sugar because the grapes are sweet enough, so
that's how they make their style of gin cordial. There's also our version of sloe gin
like Davidson Plum Gin which is kind of similar to a sloe, still bitter still
kind of like a plum, still need to add sugar to it, but that's our native version so
just whatever's growing around you, and I guess you consume as people. Yeah, and then this isn't these ones aren't in cordials but they are sort of heavily
flavored with botanicals as well as juniper which are kind of native to the
places that they're made, so this one is the Adelaide Hills Australian Green
Ant Gin, made in conjunction with Something Wild and so they mostly use
indigenous Australian botanicals, one of which is literal green ants so you
can actually see them floating around the bottle which is quite fun and that
gives like a really citrus or a lime and coriander flavor,
and then this one's one of my favorites Gin Mare, from Spain and so it's got
olives, rosemary, basil, thyme so it's just really really herbaceous and savory.
And again, all really kind of classic Mediterranean herbs you see a
Mediterranean cooking as well so it makes sense that that's what a Gin would
taste like coming from that part of the world. Then there's this little guy. This little nugget. So Monkey 47 I think is a really
really strong example of a new world style gin, what I particularly like
about it is the fact that it still pays homage to traditional gin by using quite
a hefty amount of juniper, which to me is very important. Because you like that London Dry- Because I like that flavour that piney resinous flavor
that smells like my you know grandmother's hugs, like I love that. So with
Monkey 47 this is the best example for me because they use 47 different
botanicals quite a lot. In comparison to Tanquery that's 4 botanicals, and Monkey 47 has 47. Hop skip and a jump! 47% as well, so a higher in
alcohol. I love flavor, so more alcohol gives more flavor and a better night on
the town! (laughs) And they use quite a lot from the Black Forest in Germany, where
they're based, Schwarzwald, black forest, so lavender, lingonberry, there's quite a lot of
juniper and it's very unique to that part of the world so it really gives you
a sense of length, which is super important. While also I guess tying into
that very juniper forward traditional style as opposed to maybe some of these
other ones which are a little bit more you know led by other flavors I guess. Absolutely, I think if I would describe myself as a drink it would be a warm
shot of monkey 47, because it's a lot to take in but definitely worth it in the long run (laughs). You're like "I'm just gonna keep holding this" (laughs) Okay then (laughs) And I'm off (laughs). And then this one, I just kind of brought as a little and again a bit of an interesting example, as we
discussed, gin doesn't have to be made from anything in particular in
terms of the actual spirit, so grain is the most obvious one but there's also
now a lot of people using wine grapes or grapes in general, anything
that has sugar can be distilled into a spirit, so this one is actually made from
sheep's whey, which obviously then kind of translates into quite a quite a
creamy almost like yogurty sort of flavor and a little bit of a heavier
mouth feel, which is pretty interesting too. We're definitely in an exciting time for gin, you are spoilt for choice. So you
should definitely have a little taste through and let me know in the comments
what you reckon your favorite style is. And if you want more of this then be
sure to press the subscribe button and hit the notification bell and then
you'll be the first to know when the next episode all about the different
uses for gin comes out.
