To have homemade gin ready for Christmas, start about a week before. Infusing juniper and botanicals into a bottle of vodka takes days rather than weeks, so a batch begun in the middle of December will be strained, bottled and labelled in good time for the day, whether you are drinking it yourself or handing it over with a ribbon round the neck.
That short timeline is the thing people never quite believe. Gin made at home is an infusion, not a distillation, which means there is no equipment to buy, no waiting for months and nothing to go wrong overnight. You put botanicals in spirit, you wait, you strain. Here is how to time it for Christmas, and how to make the result taste like something you would happily give away.
How long before Christmas should you start?
Work backwards. The standard kit infuses in under a week, and after straining you want a day or so to bottle, label and taste it properly. Mid-December is comfortable. The week before Christmas is still fine. Christmas Eve is optimistic.
The good news is that starting early costs you nothing. Once the gin is strained and bottled it keeps for 12 months stored sealed and out of direct sunlight, so a batch made in November is in no danger of going off before the 25th. The kit itself has a shelf life of about a year too, which means there is no penalty for buying one now and making the gin whenever the kitchen is free.
If you are making several bottles as presents, spread them out rather than doing everything on one frantic evening. Each batch takes its own bottle of vodka, and there is no rule saying you have to buy them all at once.
What do you actually need to buy?
One bottle of inexpensive vodka per batch, 700ml, and nothing else. Our Gin Making Kit contains the juniper, the botanical blend, the sieve or filter bags and the bottling kit, so the shopping is genuinely one line long.
Inexpensive is not a compromise, it is the correct choice. Gin's flavour comes from the juniper and botanicals rather than the spirit, so the subtle character of a premium vodka is simply lost underneath them. Supermarket own brand works perfectly well, though we would avoid the very cheapest bottles, whose harsh edge is hard to cover. Stick to unflavoured, since the botanicals already carry all the flavour the recipe wants.
One thing the box deliberately does not include is bottles. We would rather fill it with ingredients than with glass, and reusing an old spirit bottle is the greener option anyway. If the gin is a gift, 700ml swing top bottles are the ones to go for.
How do you actually make it?
Add the juniper and botanicals to your vodka, seal it, and leave it to infuse. Then strain out the botanicals and you have gin. That really is the whole method, with the exact quantities and timings in the recipe booklet.
You can infuse straight in the vodka bottle, but fishing the botanicals back out through the neck is a faff, so a large jar or any wide-mouthed container makes life easier. It does not need a pitch black cupboard either: room temperature, away from direct sunlight, with the lid on to keep dust out, is all it asks.
Use the measuring spoons and the quantities in the booklet rather than eyeballing it, and do not leave out the juniper, which is the backbone of the whole thing. Then taste as you go with the pipette. The longer it steeps the stronger the flavour, so the moment it tastes right to you is the moment to strain.
To strain, pour it through the metal sieve or a filter bag into a jug. If you use a filter bag, let it drip and give it only a gentle press. Squeezing hard pushes sediment through and clouds the gin, which is a shame on a bottle you were planning to wrap.
What does homemade gin taste like, and why is it amber?
The botanical blend is built around bright citrus, lemongrass with lemon and orange peel, alongside fragrant coriander and allspice, with juniper providing the classic gin backbone. It is designed to echo a premium London-style gin, and it makes a very good gin and tonic: decent tonic, plenty of ice, a citrus garnish.
Your gin will almost certainly come out yellow or amber, and that is completely normal. This is a compound gin, meaning the botanicals infuse directly into the spirit, and the dried orange and lemon peel lends colour along with its flavour. Clear commercial gins are made by redistilling after the botanicals go in, which leaves the colour behind, and that cannot legally be done at home. The amber tint is the honest signature of an infused gin, so put it in clear glass and let it show.
Two other things worth knowing before somebody asks over dinner. The botanical blends contain no sugars or sweeteners, so all the flavour comes from the botanicals themselves. And the alcohol strength of your gin is the same as the vodka you started with, because infusing does not dilute the spirit.
How do you turn a bottle into a present?
Funnel the strained gin into a clean recycled spirit bottle or a swing-top Kilner bottle, then label it with the tag supplied. Write the date on it. A bottle with a date on it reads as a vintage rather than a leftover, and it also tells the recipient when the 12 months start.
If you want to go further, make two batches and change one of them. Once you have used the kit's botanicals as written, experimenting is encouraged: use whole ingredients rather than powders, which are very hard to filter out, and go easy with anything dried, no more than about a teaspoon.
Leftover juniper berries have a use too. Drop a couple into each section of an ice cube tray, top up with water and freeze. They look fantastic in a gin and tonic, and the berries float up as a garnish as the ice melts, which is exactly the sort of small flourish that makes a homemade bottle feel finished. The Gin Making Kit is hand-packed in Britain, and there is free UK delivery over 15 pounds.
Homemade Christmas gin FAQs
Is it legal to make gin at home in the UK?
Yes, and no licence is needed. The kits make gin by infusion, steeping juniper and botanicals in a spirit you already own. Distilling your own spirit without a licence is illegal in the UK, which is exactly why the kits do not do it.
How long does homemade gin keep once it is bottled?
Around 12 months, kept sealed and out of direct sunlight. We doubt it will last that long.
My gin has come out cloudy, what went wrong?
A slight haze from natural botanicals is normal. Strain it again through the sieve or a filter bag without squeezing, then chill it. It will not affect the taste.
The flavour is too strong and a bit harsh, can I fix it?
It infused for too long. Soften the batch by topping it up with a little more vodka, and strain earlier next time, tasting with the pipette as you go.
Can I use a 500ml bottle of vodka instead of 700ml?
Yes. Add the full sachets of juniper and botanicals as normal, then taste as you go with the pipette and strain as soon as it tastes right, which will simply happen a little sooner.
Fancy a bottle with your name on it by the 25th? Browse our gin making kits.
