Whitley Neill Banana & Guava Gin 70cl

Product Information

With: Gold rum, light white rum, crème de banane liqueur, Galliano liqueur, orange juice, pineapple juice and lime juice. Just remember that strong flavours like citrus peel, chilli and fresh or dried herbs tend to be quite powerful in small amounts! Pour the vermouth into a large jar and add the dried bananas. Cover and leave to soak for 12 hours. With: Jamaican aged blended rum, gold rum, crème de banane liqueur, crème de mûre liqueur, pineapple juice, lime juice, and grenadine syrup.

The base of waragi distillate can be made from either cassava, bananas, millet or sugar cane, depending on the crops grown in the region. The most popular (besides the branded Uganda Waragi) are Lira Lira and Kasese. Lira Lira is made mainly from cassava flour and cane sugar, and is named after the town of Lira. Kasese, named after the town of Kasese, is a potent banana gin. Waragi may also be known as "regular" or "super." The bottling technique: Add your spirit to a Kilner jar or another sealable container. Make sure your kit is clean and sterile to avoid the spirit going bad. Then add your infusing ingredient and leave it to leach into the spirit. Here's a rough time guide:Leave strong chilli, vanilla, cardamom or citrus for less than a day.Hardy spices and strong-flavoured veg will need five to seven days.Berries and strong fruit can take around three to four weeks to impart as much flavour as possible.Milder ingredients like apple or florals will take up to a month. Now, the banana brandy mash is ready to be distilled. To keep the original banana aromas, we’d recommend using a pot still.Herbs and spices like vanilla, thyme, lavender, mint, cardamom or chilli may only need a few hours steeping in the gin, whereas fruits, strongly flavoured vegetables and berries will probably be best left for a week or two, maybe even up to a month. How to store: If your bottles or jars are well sealed, strained correctly and kept in a cool, dark place, your spirits can keep for up to a year.

Optional, but recommended: At the temperature of 160°F (71°C), add one tablespoon (or 5g) of alpha-amylase and stir well. Our distillers have captured all that’s delicious about banana bread and bottled it to create this triple banana, sweet gin.Once you’ve added your desired flavors and tastes, it is time to make your very strong spirit drinkable. Mostly, this means around 80 proof. Don’t dilute the liquor in one day as this may spoil your final product. Add a little bit of condensed water each day to get the proof down around 5% ABV per day. There should be around 1.5 ounces of foreshots from this recipe. This part contains the toxic methanol and acetone. To be on the safe side, discard around 2 or 2.5 ounces (60-80ml). Then, collect the distillate in different containers, called cuts, of each around 50-100ml and number them. Once the proof of the distillate drops below 60, you can turn off your still. Cover the containers with your banana brandy and let them sit for a day to allow the aromas to settle. The banana moonshine wash may still produce quite some foam during the distillation process. So don’t fill up the still too much to prevent the foam from messing up your still. The secret here is to slowly heat up the temperature of the wash.

The extra banana flavor punch: Peel a banana and cut into thin slices. Add it to the distillate for around 5 days. This adds a delicious banana aroma and is our favorite banana moonshine flavoring. There’s no rule to how much of your chosen botanical to use , although approximately a third fruit to gin is probably about right for most infusions ( roughly 300g produce for 1 litre of gin). Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-04-06 . Retrieved 2011-11-09. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title ( link) We say: Smoky whisky-laced, rich, delicately herbal banana. Not as challenging as this drink sounds and considerably tastier.

Most countries that we travel to have their own version of alcohol. Of course, there are the mainstream alcohols that you buy in liquor stores and bars, but there is also the stuff that anyone can make if they have the right ingredients. Since we have been in Uganda for almost a year combined between 2021 and 2022, we have tried all types of alcohol that they traditionally make out of bananas. With: Gold rum, crème de banane liqueur, oloroso sherry, falernum, white crème de cacao, orang bitters, cardamom bitters, and chocolate bitters. We say: Banana notes often found in whisky enhanced with a generous splash of banana liqueur. Don't expect a sweetie, despite the liqueur, this remains a dry spirituous old fashioned.

Let the banana mash cool down naturally to about 75°F (24°C) while keeping the lid on your fermenter to avoid contamination. Depending on the size of your fermentation vessel, this takes about 1-1.5 hours. If the temperature is still too high after about one hour, you can add a couple of clean ice cubes to the mash to speed up the process or cool the container from the outside, e.g. by placing it into a bathtub with cold water. Since the enzymes need the high temperatures to convert starch into sugar, make sure to wait for about an hour before actively cooling down the mash. According to Bananaman, after Brazil, Uganda is the highest banana-producing nation in the world! Bananas here are mostly eaten green. Yes, you read that right. It is referred to as Matoke (mah-toke-ay), and when you cut it up and fry it, it tastes exactly like french fries, but without the heaviness in the stomach that potatoes give you. They also boil them and mash them just like mashed potatoes, plus they cook them on a grill for yet another different flavor. There’s certainly no shortage of flavoured gins in the supermarkets these days – everything from violets and geraniums to blood oranges and grapefruits make their way into the staunchly British spirit. But while these are at best overly sweet and at worst full of artificial flavourings, it’s far tastier and cheaper to make your own. And best of all – all it requires is a bit of sugar, some gin, your chosen fruit and time for everything to infuse together. We say: Cachaça and overproof rum provide the headline funk to this banana-flavoured spirituous tipple. After Ugandan independence in 1962, the government of Uganda passed the Enguli Act of 1965, which was designed to encourage local producers of enguli to supply their produce to the distillery factory, in addition to stipulating that moonshining could only be done with government-issued licenses; this was done so the gin industry in Uganda could be regulated and taxed by the government. Furthermore, those who received their licenses from the Ugandan government were directed to sell their enguli to the distillery. When the factory received shipments of enguli, they used them in the production of Uganda Waragi. [5]

Let’s start with the step-by-step preparation guide:

When you're happy with the flavour, sieve to remove any solids, then pass through a very fine piece of muslin or a coffee filter to get rid of any sediment. Next, strain the banana moonshine mash through a cheesecloth and make sure to avoid any pulp getting into the final wash. Squeeze out any liquids from the pulp. Close to 80% of the Waragi today is made in Uganda. A large glass of this unregulated liquor goes for approximately 25 cents, making it easily accessible for Ugandans. Herbs & plants: rosemary, thyme, lavender, mint, elderflowerRemember, the more you use the stronger the flavour. Use around 200-400g of fruit per litre of spirit.