Making your own gin: still or jar
These are usually presented as the serious option and the beginner option, which is wrong twice over. Compounding — steeping botanicals in a bought neutral spirit — is a legitimate production method that a large part of the gin industry uses, and it is what almost everybody asking about home distilling actually wants. Distilling is a different activity with a legal position that decides the question before any of the craft arguments start: in the UK it requires approval under Finance (No. 2) Act 2023, and the personal-use exemption that covers brewing and winemaking explicitly does not extend to spirits.
The decision this settles: You want to make a gin that tastes the way you want it to taste. You have read about home distilling, you are not sure whether it is legal, and you have seen people online making gin in a jar and cannot tell whether that is the real thing or a shortcut. You want to know which one you are actually looking for before you buy anything.
Where they genuinely differ
Marked per row rather than overall — “better” only means something relative to a specific dimension.
| Point of difference | Home distilling | Botanical spirit blending |
|---|---|---|
| Whether you may lawfully do it at homeThis decides it, and it is the fact most published guidance on the subject gets wrong. The exemption for personal-use production applies only where the products "are not spirits". | No, not without HMRC approval — and approval to produce spirits is not something a person obtains in order to make their own gin | Yes, with no permission of any kind. Nothing is being distilled, so none of the spirits regime appliesAdvantage here |
| What it costs to find out whether you enjoy itThere is no equipment threshold on the right and no point at which it becomes expensive. That asymmetry is the practical whole of the decision for most people. | Not a purchase decision. The lawful routes are a distillery experience day at £100–£250, or the column on the right | About £25 — a bottle of neutral spirit at £14–£22, juniper for £3–£5, and a jar and sieve you already ownAdvantage here |
| Where the craft actually isA genuine difference in kind rather than in difficulty. If what appeals is the recipe design, the still adds nothing to it; if what appeals is the apparatus, the jar will not scratch it. | In the run — apparatus, heat, separation and the judgement about what to keep, all of which is production practice | In the choosing: which botanicals, in what proportion, steeped for how long, and how the parts balance once combined |
| How the drinks trade actually does itWorth stating because "bathtub gin" is used as an insult and describes a legitimate method. The label difference is regulatory rather than a quality verdict. | Distilled gin and London dry are made this way, and the still shape is part of the house character | Compound gin is a real and widely sold category, and flavoured spirits generally are made by infusion |
| Time from deciding to drinking | Indefinite. The lawful version of this is a booked experience day or a career change | An afternoon. Steeping is hours to a day or two, and the first bottle exists the same weekendAdvantage here |
| RiskThe right-hand column inherits the safety of a commercially produced spirit, which is the other reason it is the answer for a hobbyist. | Real on two axes — flammable vapour, and methanol, which is why this catalogue publishes no method for either | Essentially none. No heat, no vapour, no separation, and the alcohol content is whatever the bought bottle wasAdvantage here |
| What you can learn from this siteStated plainly because it is a real difference in what these two pages are. One is a subject explained; the other is a hobby you can take up from the page. | Orientation only — the law, the history, the vocabulary, the categories of apparatus and where to go instead | The whole activity, because the whole activity is publishableAdvantage here |
Home distilling
Somebody whose interest is in distillation itself — the apparatus, the process, or a possible career in it
The interest is legitimate and the page is worth reading for the law, the history and the vocabulary. But the honest route to touching a still is a distillery experience day or commercial training, not a home setup, and this catalogue will not help with the latter.
More on Home distillingBotanical spirit blending
Almost everybody who arrives at this question, and certainly anybody whose goal is a gin they designed
It is lawful, it costs about £25, it works the first time, and it is how a good deal of commercial gin is actually produced. The craft — balancing botanicals — is the part that was interesting anyway, and none of it is improved by owning a still.
More on Botanical spirit blendingLast reviewed 2026-08-18. HobbyHQ does not declare a winner in comparisons — why.