The Craft of Gin explores the history of Gin production from its crude origins in medieval Europe to the finely honed spirits of twenty-first century craft distillers. The book describes how gin is made, the primary botanicals used in its production, tasting notes for fifty craft gins from around the world, and five interviews of leading craft gin distillers. The book is rounded out with two chapters dedicated to timeless gin cocktails, their background, how they are made and the best gins and ingredients that allows them to sing.

Gin introduces the reader to the global artisan gin revolution, highlighting the spirit’s history and the ways that today’s craft drinks-makers have transformed the notion of what a gin can and should be. New Gins are hitting the market seemingly every day. This book will help the reader make sense of this rapid expansion, and contextualize them within gin’s illustrious history from the Renaissance apothecaries of Europe, to the streets of London, to the small local distilleries and cocktail bars of the United States, Canada, England, Spain, Australia and beyond. This is the first book to take a closer look at the emerging new categories of gin and to place it within context alongside the old guard. It includes profiles of key players in the distilling world and hundreds of ideas for how to drink gin – as a cocktail, in a classic gin & tonic or neat, as an aperitif or a liqueur.

The ultimate guide to today’s exciting gin revival with a nod to the spirit’s rich history, featuring a comprehensive review of gin distilleries, ingredients and accoutrements, distilling methods, cocktail recipes, international bar guide, and creative contributions from industry leaders. The Spirit of Gin is a comprehensive and entertaining illustrated guide to the classic spirit, with a sharp focus on the modern gin revival led by innovative craft-gin distillers, new ingredients and infusions, and growing interest in bars across the United States and overseas. The book details the colorful history of gin from its invention in eighteenth century London to today’s worldwide resurgence; provides detailed coverage of the methods, ingredients, and accoutrements of modern makers and purveyors; gives coverage to popular gin bars and classic cocktails with eclectic sidebars and interviews; and provides a complete catalog of commercial and craft distilleries worldwide.

A compendium of facts and sayings about the superior spirit, Gin.

In need of some gin-spiration? Look no further!

“An absorbing popular history of one of history’s most popular drinks.” —Booklist Gin has been a drink of kings infused with crushed pearls and rose petals, and a drink of the poor flavored with turpentine and sulfuric acid. Born in alchemists’ stills and monastery kitchens, its earliest incarnations were juniper flavored medicines used to prevent plague, ease the pains of childbirth, and even to treat a lack of courage. In The Book of Gin, Richard Barnett traces the life of this beguiling spirit, once believed to cause a “new kind of drunkenness.” In the eighteenth century, gin-crazed debauchery (and class conflict) inspired Hogarth’s satirical masterpieces “Beer Street” and “Gin Lane.” In the nineteenth century, gin was drunk by Napoleonic War naval heroes, at lavish gin palaces, and by homesick colonials, who mixed it with their bitter anti-malarial tonics. In the early twentieth century, the illicit cocktail culture of Prohibition made gin—often dangerous bathtub gin—fashionable again. And today, with the growth of small-batch distilling, gin has once-again made a comeback. Wide-ranging, impeccably researched, and packed with illuminating stories, The Book of Gin is lively and fascinating, an indispensable history of a complex and notorious drink. “The Book of Gin is full of history that will make you grin . . . An enchanting read.” —Cooking by the Book

An encyclopedia guide to the thousand-year history and dynamic future of the distillation of whiskey, vodka, gin, rum, brandy, and more.