Head, heart and tails

A meeting this morning with our new Internal Auditors. Then off on leave for the rest of the day.

I joined my wife to attend a gin making course. The tickets were a present from our daughter from last year and we at last managed to get a booking.

Fascinating, informative and enjoyable. We got to sample a range of botanicals then decide what combination we wished to add to make up our own gin. Some botanicals went into the still itself; others, the more aromatic ones, were left to hang in the vapours ans the still bubbled up.

While the still worked away we had a talk then a tour and returned for a tasting of different gins - and tonic - and some gin liqueurs.

And then we got to taste our own. The first liquid from the distillation - the head - had been removed as it did not have the proper flavour and could be cloudy.

The heart is the main body of liquid though the early drawing down tasted more aromatic with the end much more flavoursome.

And the tails are what's left at the bottom of the still and not for bottling.

Water added to get to the right alcohol content; a name chosen for our gin, then the bottle labelled.

3 and a half hours after arriving we left in a relaxed state. We'd had a few nibbles and the tastings had been of small amounts. But a snooze in the afternoon sunshine was very much in order.