How do you make Hops & Honey gin?
We've had a lot of questions regarding how exactly we go about making our infamous gin, so we thought we'd give you a little insight!
There's multiple ways of producing gin, however here we use a traditional 'Steep & Boil' method, which essentially involves the botanicals being soaked in a spirit before being distilled.
You can purchase Sheffield Dry Gin Hops & Honey here.
Here's a step-by-step guide:
1. Ethanol, which we use as a neutral spirit, is cut from 96.3% to around half of that, which is done using water to reduce its strength.
2. Our expertly selected botanicals are then added before being allowed to steep in the spirit for around 24hrs, before then being strained out.
3. The mixture is then placed inside our copper stills, which were imported from Portugal.
4. Our Citra and Simcoe hops are then added to the mixture, whilst our locally sourced Sheffield Honey is smeared inside the head of the still.
5. Heat is then applied to the still, which is raised to 78°C (the boiling point of Ethanol). The mixture then evaporates, with the steam containing all the flavours and oils given to it by the botanicals.
6. The steam then passes through a condenser, before the resulting liquid is collected using our experts tasting knowledge.
7. The spirit is then cut down further with pure Sheffield water, in order to reduce the gin distillate to bottling strength.
8. The gin is then bottled and labelled by hand, which leaves you with the product that is Sheffield Dry Gin - Hops & Honey!
Check out our video for a sneak peek at the process: