Gift Guide: Homemade Gin

Home distilling isn’t generally legal in the United States but that doesn’t mean you can’t play around with spirits in your own home. The Homemade Gin Kit is a fun way to “make gin” in your home and a great gift idea for the holidays.

The kit comes with two 375 milliliter glass bottles, tins of “gin-ingredients” (juniper berries and a special botanical blend), custom stainless steel funnel, strainer, and instructions. After following the simple directions you can convert your neutral spirit into a tasty gin.

The Homemade Gin Company is a local product as well. Created by Joe and Sarah Maiellano along with another couple, Jack and Molly Hubbard. The Maiellanos are born and raised Philadelphians who recently returned to Philadelphia after a time in D.C. (welcome home).

We tried the kit out because we like booze. It’s a sharp looking setup with everything you need to turn vodka into gin (besides the vodka of course). The directions suggest a run-of-the-mill vodka, no need to step up to the high-end world. From there you add the wonderfully smelling juniper berries, shake the bottle and wait. 24-hours later it is time to add the also fragrant botanical blend. After another good shake and 12-hours in the bottle it is time to strain the new booze into two 375 ML bottles that are included. The liquid is now a light golden color and smells like a very respectable gin. The directions suggest gifting one bottle and keeping the other for yourself. If you have better self-control than I, then maybe you can do that.

Me, I went right to the cabinet, grabbed a rocks glass and added one big ice cube from the freezer and poured in a couple ounces of gin. The flavors were really nice, a gin with an herbal backbone, rather than floral or fruity. But definitely a nice gin. Topped with club soda and a lime, I immediately started thinking about what else I could do with my newfound distilling prowess.

The finished gin.

Luckily the Gin Company offers other enhancements and blends including smoky, spiced, barrel-aged and hopped grapefruit. Or you might just start looking around your spice cabinet. The world is your oyster now.

You can get the Gin Company Kit at Williams-Sonoma, Barnes & Noble as well as online at homemadegin.com.

Homemade Gin Company [Official]