It’s the holiday season, so that means you’re on the search—possibly at the last minute—for gifts for friends and family. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’re going to dig up the D.C.-made and D.C.-themed gifts that we’d love to get—and would be sure to give. If anything catches your eye that you think would be worth including, feel free to send it along.
Distilling returned to D.C. as a commercial enterprise earlier this year with the release of Green Hat Gin, produced by the city’s first hard-liquor manufacturer in over a century. But now there’s another way to give someone D.C.-made gin.
Let them make it themselves.
Jack Hubbard, a 28-year-old Georgetown resident who works in political fundraising, and a business partner started selling The HomeMade Gin Kit around Thanksgiving. For $39.95, the kit lets anyone take a dumpy old neutral spirit—vodka, say, or some other unflavored grain alcohol—and turn it into a bottle of tasty, interesting juniper juice.
“There aren’t many local craft distilleries,” Hubbard says. In fact, aside from New Columbia Distillers’ Ivy City warehouse where Green Hat is made, you’d have to drive deep into the mountains of Virginia to find a company cranking out sour mash whiskey.
But as an avid home brewer, Hubbard figured he’d take the next step from beer and move onto hard alcohol. What the kit offers buyers is the opportunity to do it the way most distilleries make their test batches.
“Whenever one of these big companies is making gin, the first thing they do is start with a neutral spirit like a vodka,” Hubbard says.
Most commercially sold gin is distilled gin like Beefeater or Tanqueray (which are also classified as London gins, but that mark has its own complexities), meaning that it uses alcohol produced specifically for the purposes of making gin. But chances are you don’t have a commercial tun in your kitchen, so just get yourself a cheap bottle of potato hooch for a base.
Turning boring vodka it into DIY gin isn’t such an arduous task, though. Hubbard’s kit includes tins of juniper berries and a proprietary blend of spices and other flavorings. All gin brands have their own closely held recipes. Hendrick’s Gin, for instance, infuses its product with cucumber. Hubbard uses, among other elements, rosemary, cardamom and lavender. The entire distilling process takes 36 hours. The kit also includes a pair of swing-cap bottles, in case you want to gift someone the finished product.
But Hubbard says his kits are going fast. A quick review on the website Urban Daddy sparked a surge in orders, clearing out the initial few hundred kits. Hubbard says he’s planning on shipping 1,000 more before Christmas.
And, how does the gin taste? Well, we’re on the waiting list right now, but Urban Daddy’s test kitchen reported that their finished beverage retained that “old familiar gin-y gloriousness.”
Check out the rest of DCist’s Capital Gifts series for more great D.C.-themed holiday gift ideas.
