[Closed] Beginners guide to gin, does such a thing exist?

Step 1:  Open, pour, add tonic and a slice of Lemon, drink.

Step 2: repeat as necessary

There you go 😉

Yes, I can confirm that gin exists.

HTH, and good luck with your next step on your journey of discovery.

Thanks Kryton but thought the world had moved on since Gordon's.  I was wanting to join the "in crowd", maybe.

It's flavoured vodka

Well the next step is Bombay Sapphire, then Hendricks.   After that it got far too complex for me...

OK, are they artisan?

Bombay Sapphire and Hendricks most definitelyaren't artisan. A step up from Gordons but still mass produced. If you want to try a few then buying bottles will get expensive. Maybe pop along to a gin event where they will have tastings. Also many of the new smaller distilleries that have cropped up will do open days and tours, almost always with a tasting. You can learn about gin such as what it is and how it is made. Can be a good day out

Thanks and certainly not cheap to buy!  Yes, just found somewhere does that guided tours with tasting session and a voucher.  Came across some plum gin somewhere else which definitely appeals.

My sister has a gin club. Once every couple of weeks she invites all her friends round for gin tasting (getting pissed). They each bring a different gin, mixer and fruit/garnish. They have a hoot, get to try plenty of different gins with different mixers etc.

Not a bad way to learn.

Sounds good trailwagger!

Last year, around this time we made our own flavoured gins - Bramble, Rubarb & Ginger & Sloe. Go out and pick berries, wash them then put into a Kilner jar with supermarket white label Gin & some sugar.

Bloody brilliant and super cheap - We will definitely be doing it again this year

Angostura bitters, lime and ice make any old rubbish taste great on a hot day.

Pop to Aldi or Lidl borwse their selection of fancier gins cheaper than the big guys and nice too. Co-op were doing a gin for card members reduced from £18 to £10 it too is lovely.

Some are very botanical and can be little over powering so you need to find a type you like and go from there.

Gordon's is cooking gin.

If you're anywhere near South Oxfordshire, go to the Keep in Wallingford. Over 80 types of gin, and very reasonably priced.

You'll learn enough in there...

Can't stand the stuff, prefer paint stripper with a dash of lime, but I found the ideal website for  you c_g...

https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/gin-guide/

😀

St Georges Terroir.

Spirit of Toad Oxford dry.

Audemus Old Ma's pink pepper.

The Story Gin small batch.

Cabraboc.

Start with those so you know what's achievable. Don't start with Bombay for it is awful. I'd rather drink Gordons/Tanqueray (same thing) and that stuff comes from Fife, so cannot be trusted.

If you're in the supermarket then Hendricks is good, as is Opihr.

I should probably recommend the Cambridge Distillery's gin as well, as I can see them from my house.

Our two favourites at the moment are:

Bloom London Dry Gin, a more traditional gin.

and Lakes One Elderflower, which is more a liqueur but very drinkable.

We just buy random ones on offer and try them, most are OK, some we really don't like and just take to various parties and leave them. Others, like the two above, I have on repeat order with Amazon.....

Was in the Craft Gin Club for a while- novelty wore off after a bit, seemed very much The Emperor's New Clothes with many of them.

By the time you've played with different tonics and added half a flower patch to them they could be anything really 🙂

Purchase industrial spirit, chuck in some berries n stuff , fancy bottle, charge artisan price.

How much more do you need to know?

Book a table at 40 St Pauls in Birmingham

Explain to the server that you're a gin beginner and he has 5 drinks to educate you

Let him or her pick your drinks, but order some charcuterie as well as, well, why not?

Stable out a couple of hours later smiling, full of gin and now better educated

Then pop into Otto's pizza up the road and soak up the gin.

Hell of an afternoon that is.

Local-ish, I can recommend Toad in Oxford, the Rye Vodka is particularly more-ish.

They also have propper hipster/artisan beards.

They also have propper hipster/artisan beards.

They come with a beard and served on a checked shirt cloth?

Toad in Oxford, the Rye Vodka

that is one you can try at the Keep. My local favourite is Twisting Spirits Lemongrass gin

A more serious answer, download the Ginventory app, really useful to help understand what tonic works with what gin and garnish.

I would think most gin consumed will come from Fife, Gordons "London gin", Tanqueray,  and the artisan new build distillerys popping up

Your pimms, smirnoff and archers all made in the same place Windygates

Pop to Aldi or Lidl borwse their selection of fancier gins cheaper than the big guys and nice too.

Yes, Lidl do Hortus gin which is really nice and does really well in the blind taste tests, and is only fractionally more expensive that stuff like Gordon's

Book a weekend away in Woodbridge and pop out to The Angel. They have/used to have the world record number of gins for sale. They also do good food.

I would think most gin consumed will come from Fife

There aren't many gin companies that make their own base spirit, but the aforementioned Toad is one of them. Excellent gin, and that's coming from a Cambridge boy.

I would think most gin consumed will come from Fife

I believe most actually comes from Langley, just outside Birmingham.

I drank gin and soda with lime for a while in an attempt to offset my calorie consumption from ale..

It tasted nasty. Hope that helps!

Cheers all, plenty of info to mull over.  Can always rely on the forumites!

My vague advice would be to either go to a tasting session or find a good local gin bar to try a range at. Dont bother buying bottles until you decide whether or not it is drinkable.

Bonus points if the gin bar takes the sensible approach and has one floor for gin and one for decent beers so when you realise there is a good reason you didnt bother with it before you can have something nice instead. There is a good one in Norwich which I cant remember the name of and then three monkeys in Colchester.

I was recently given a bottle of Masons Dry Yorkshire Gin and have just bought some bottles of nice tonic from Lidl.

I used to drink a fair amount of Gin - mainly Bombay Sapphire but got a little bored of it so looking forward to rekindling my interest in Gin again as there seems to be a huge variety now to try.