A gin making kit keeps for 18 months from packing, and the best before date is printed on the outer box. We aim for every kit to leave us with at least 12 months still to run on that date, so a kit that arrives this week will comfortably still be a gin kit next autumn. Store it at room temperature, somewhere dry and out of direct sunlight, and there is nothing else to do until you feel like buying a bottle of vodka.
The finished gin is a separate question with a separate answer: once made, your gin keeps for 12 months. In our experience it rarely gets the chance.
Why do dried botanicals last so long?
Everything in the box is dried: juniper berries, coriander seed, allspice, lemongrass, and orange and lemon peel. Drying removes the water that spoilage needs, which is why a spice cupboard behaves so differently from a fridge. Nothing in a gin kit is fresh, nothing is alive, and nothing needs to be kept cold.
What does change with time is aroma. The volatile oils that give juniper its pine-and-pepper snap and citrus peel its brightness are exactly the parts that drift away slowly once the botanicals are dried. That process is gentle over months and only really noticeable over years.
So the honest version is this. Our Gin Making Kit is at its most fragrant in the first year, good throughout its date, and still perfectly usable afterwards, with a slightly softer result.
What happens if you use a gin kit after the best before date?
Best before is a quality date, not a safety date. Past it, quality slowly declines rather than the kit becoming unsafe.
Gin kits sit firmly in the flavour-led group, alongside rum, chilli and the meat seasonings. The ingredients simply taste less punchy with age. Nothing in the box has a job to do beyond giving up its flavour to the spirit, so an older kit does not fail, it just needs a little more patience.
That is genuinely easy to correct, because you are tasting as you go anyway. Use the pipette, try the infusion each day, and strain when it tastes right to you rather than when the clock says so. If an older batch tastes gentle after the usual few days, leave it another day or two and taste again. Contrast that with our hedgerow wine kit, where the yeast is doing biological work and may stop working reliably after the date, or the cheese kits and their rennet. Gin has no such trap.
Do you have to make every batch at once?
Not at all, and this matters most with the larger kit. The Ultimate Gin Making Kit runs to up to ten 700ml bottles from 13 botanicals, including juniper, lemon peel, orange peel, ginger, coriander seed, allspice, lemongrass, cacao nibs, hibiscus, rose petals, cassia bark, nutmeg and cloves. Nobody wants ten bottles of gin on a Tuesday, and you do not need to buy ten bottles of vodka in one go.
Spread the batches out instead. Each infusion takes a couple of days with the larger kit and under a week with the standard one, so a batch every few weeks over a year is a very comfortable pace, and it gives you room to mix and match the botanicals into blends of your own. The kit's shelf life is designed for exactly that.
How should you store an opened gin kit?
Once the sachets are open, air is the thing to keep out. Reseal each one properly, or tip the contents into a grip-seal bag or a small airtight tub, and keep them in the same cool, dry cupboard the kit was living in before.
Three small habits are worth having. Keep the botanicals away from the hob and the kettle, since warmth and steam both hurry flavour loss along. Keep them out of direct sunlight, which fades dried citrus peel and petals quickly. And label anything you decant, because a spoonful of unlabelled dried botanical is very hard to identify six months later.
Leftover juniper berries have a use of their own. Drop a couple into each section of an ice cube tray, top up with water and freeze them: they look excellent in a gin and tonic, and the berries float up as a garnish as the ice melts.
How long does homemade gin keep once it is made?
Twelve months, kept sealed and out of sunlight. Gin made by infusion is a spirit with flavour in it, and the alcohol does the preserving, so there is no fridge, no sterilising and no careful sealing required.
Bottle it into a clean recycled spirit bottle or a swing-top bottle, label it with the tag and the date you made it, and stand it in a cupboard rather than on a sunny shelf. A little fine sediment can settle out over time and a slight haze is normal with natural botanicals; neither is a fault, and neither affects the taste. If it bothers you, strain it again through the sieve without squeezing, let it settle, then decant off the clear gin.
The colour may deepen slightly as the months pass. Compound gin, which is what any infused gin is, takes an amber tint from the dried citrus peel from the start, so a golden bottle is a sign of the method rather than a sign of age.
Gin kit shelf life FAQs
How long does a gin making kit last unopened?
Eighteen months from packing, with the best before date printed on the outer box. Kits leave us with at least 12 months still to run on that date.
Can I still use a gin kit that is past its date?
Yes. It is a quality date rather than a safety one, and the botanicals simply taste less punchy. Steep the batch a little longer and taste as you go with the pipette.
How should I store the botanicals between batches?
Reseal the sachets, or decant them into a grip-seal bag or small airtight tub, and keep them cool, dry and out of direct sunlight. Away from the hob and the kettle is ideal.
How long does homemade gin keep?
Twelve months once made. Keep it sealed, out of direct sunlight and away from heat, and label the bottle with the date you made it.
Does homemade gin need to go in the fridge?
No. A cool, dark cupboard is right for a bottle of gin. The freezer is fine if you like it very cold to serve, but it is not needed for keeping.
Fancy making a bottle of your own? Have a look at our gin making kits.
