Shine On Harvey Moon

So it's a very, very small sample, but this is the first gin we've made from start-to-finish. From the grain mix, to the mash, to fermentation, to stripping distillation run, to botanical distillation.

There were mistakes. The mash had too much water to grain in the ratio so the ABV once fermented was much, much lower than preferred - that's the key thing. But it does mean that if I get that right, I reckon I can produce a full bottle from about 4.5 litres of mash, and a total cost of about a tenner.

Leaving this one to settle and mingle till Friday and we'll give it a whirl, and the weekend should see another attempt at a (higher ABV) mash. In the meantime I was brewing some beer in parallel, and that IPA is ready to bottle tonight (about 5.78% ABV, and tastes nice and crisp at the moment) - so I'll plan another small-batch brew for the weekend as well. Leaning at the moment towards a rye beer, but also thinking of trying some 'out there' stuff for every other brew. It's only 4 - 5 litres each time, so not much to lose really!

Slainte!