Gin School and Astro 12th Feb

I had a rough night - just couldn’t sleep and my leg was painful. Vince had gone to bed about. 8.15pm exhausted and I went with him but just tossed and turned so eventually I got up and stayed up working on my children’s books until 2.00am. But even then when I went to bed I just couldn’t get into a proper sleep. So I was very tired when I eventually woke this morning about 8.00am.

We pottered about for a while then headed off into Portree, stopping along the way to take a few shots of the snow covered “Pointy Mountain” and the “Storr” along with some shots of pretty light over the coast.

We arrived in Portree at lunch time so head to the little upstairs cafe we know, Arraba, and had a spot of lunch, I had macaroni cheese and a diet coke and Vince had a full breakfast minus the black pudding - even though it was lunch time, and a coffee.

Then we headed down to Inside Out, the camping and outdoor store as Vince needed to get a new basket for his hiking poles as the bog claimed his the other day. We had a bit of a chat there and then headed down to the look at the properties for sale in the Window of the Real Estate office. Whilst there we met a couple, Kay and Nigel who are in the process for moving to Skye. Nigel is also a Drone Pilot so Vince and he had a lot to chat about, and Kay and I discovered we have things in common also. It was like we were the best of friends even though a few minutes earlier we were complete strangers. They invited us over to visit them next week in Glendale and the boys will do drone stuff and Kay will show me how to spin wool, and we will have a meal there. Excellent!

We popped in very briefly to check out DVDs in the Charity Shop, but we didn’t find any and had to high tail it quick-sticks to the lane that held the little Handcrafted Gin shop where we would have a gin making class for 3 hours from 2 - 5pm with Alistair.

The shop is owned by two brothers who grew up on Skye and we me Alistair’s wife (Jill I think) and their cue dog Dawson who was very keen on licking me - to which I had no objections at all!

It was a small class of just 4 of us, Vince and myself on one still and Catrina (office worker on the Royal Mile) and Dale (primary teacher) up for Edinburgh ( although their accents weren’t Scottish). The class was Catrina’s birthday gift from her Mum and they needed to use it before it expired, so the pair of good friends had headed up to Skye for a few days. Coincidently they were staying at the Pink House where we first stayed when we first arrived on Skye - small world!

Alistair was very knowledgeable and entertaining and admittedly having only recently lost my Gin Virginity a lot of it went straight over my head - but the important stuff stuck and I did ask a few dumb questions, like gaining clarity on the “Head”, “Heart” and “Tail”.

He had quite a collection of local botanicals, including a secret flower that his brother collects from the Cuillin each year. I found this part extremely interesting and on his advice to us all to “not overthink it”. Feeling a bit like "Claire" from "Outlander" I selected my botanicals on instinct of what I thought I would like. As it turned out many of the ingredients I choose are also in his Misty Isle Gin - surprise, surprise - so that’s why I like it!

West Coast Images Gin Recipe:

8g Juniper Berries - Crush to open but don’t grind

Put Berries into copper pot (still bottom) with water and alcohol

0.5g Cassia Bark

1.5 Angelica Root

1g Liquorice Root

2.5 g Orange Peel

2g Dried banana and skin

After steeping in 30% Alcohol (Heads)

Drain liquid off and sprinkle with a pinch of Oriris Root powder

Place Botanicals into muslin wrap and place into top of still.

Screw top of still to bottom pot of still and put onto heater, then attach to the distilling pipe from the condenser and place graduated beaker under drip pipe to collect first 30ml (Head) which will later be discarded.

Turn heat up to 6 until distilled spirit begins to flow then turn down incrementally until you get the correct drip rate - continue to monitor and adjust as required.

When you reach 30ml, remove beaker and discard, replace with a graduated jug and collect 400ml of spirt this is the “Heart” of the distillation. Anything left in the still is “tails” and is discarded.

We all had a lot of fun and we were able to distill and bottle our own unique gin and even have a personalised label printed. Very cool!!!!!

We also got to taste all of the Gins they make, the Misty Isle, Tommys (named for their late father and some proceeds donated to war widows and veteran charities), their new florally Pink Gin, and their Mulled Christmas Gin. We also got to taste our own gin and the other groups gin. Vince wasn’t keen on tasting so he kept giving me his (so I had a double dose each time.) I was feeling verrrrrrry merrrrrry but the end of it I can tell you!

We were also invited to have a second helping of any that we liked and since I was saddened to find we can’t buy it in Australia and it’s too expensive to post out, I had some more of the Misty Isle and the Mulled Christmas - delicious.

Apparently the “spicy” Gin I made, and the Misty Isle are designed to make Negroni’s - an Italian cocktail with equal parts of Gin, Red Vermouth and Campari. Tommy’s gin is dry and better for Martini’s. Alistair Gin is better mixed with something rather than straight, so dry ginger (ginger ale here), soda or tonic.

Alistair and the girls also gave me some tips on the best Tonic Waters to use (NOT Indian - Fever Tree Mediterranean, Walter George’s Original or Schwepps Light are all good) - as that makes a big difference, and on a gin that’s available in Australia that might be similar in taste to the Misty Isle I like so much - called 4 Pillers. So I will check it out.

Alistair also gave us some local history and community information including some famous entities from Skye, such as Runrig (A Celtic Rock Band).

The time flew and it was actually around 6.00pm by the time we left - 4 hours of fun. I purchased a bottle of my two favourites and of course we had our own unique West Coast Images Gin as well - so I’m well stocked now!

I was really starting to feel the effects of the copious amounts of Gin inside me, so Vince popped into the Co op on Bank St and grabbed a couple of pizza’s for dinner.

The drive home was a bit of an inebriated blur, but I didn’t feel sick or anything, just a bit wobbly!!!! So after dinner I trundled myself off to bed for a good sleep!

Vince however, was full of beans and went down to Duntulum to get some Astro shots.