Dried herbs and absinthe

[Craisogaenus]

Dear forum,
I am atm wanting to make some absinthe; Unfortunately at this time of year a lot of the things I need aren't in season, however I can find the dried versions quite readily, I know these would give the taste but would they give the natural verte colour as the fresh and how would it cope without the active chlorophyll during ageing?

Thanks guys.

[Bushman]

Look up the thread on absinthe, I believe someone posted a good supplier for the herbs if your interested.

[Craisogaenus]

Cheers I'll try and look it up. Is that in America that supplier or Europe/UK?

[Craisogaenus]

Yeah I think I found the one you mean, gekruid.com, it's a Belgian site. I'm having a go at a sweet absinthe as well as the original.

[frozenthunderbolt]

I'm having a go at a sweet absinthe as well as the original.

Is that the one made with Hibiscus in it?

[Craisogaenus]

indeedy doo. It's got hibiscus 33g, 3 vanilla pods, 25g cardamom, 100g stevia, 50g wild chamomile, 20g rose petals, Holy trinity: 200g fennel, 150g green anise, 125g wormwood. when distilling I only put in 200g fennel, 150g green anise, and 150g wormwood.

[Craisogaenus]

I was going to put elderflower in it but I wasn't going to fork out the ridiculous prices people were charging when I can just wait a few months.

[frozenthunderbolt]

indeedy doo. It's got hibiscus 33g, 3 vanilla pods, 25g cardamom, 100g stevia, 50g wild chamomile, 20g rose petals, Holy trinity: 200g fennel, 150g green anise, 125g wormwood. when distilling I only put in 200g fennel, 150g green anise, and 150g wormwood.

Very cool.
To my knowledge your the first person on here to document the concoction of it, I will be interested to hear how it taste compared to the regular.

[Craisogaenus]

Well a few of my friends don't really enjoy the strong aniseed aspect of usual absinthe so I thought it was worth a go, just letting it age atm but yeah it smells lush so hopefully it'll go down nice, it might be better diluted like the traditional way if it's too sickly, just have fingers and thumbs crossed tbh. You should have a look at the Bochet mead thread I've put up if your interested in firsts, as by the looks of it no one has ever caramelised honey then distilled it after ferment .

If anyone doesn't know what stevia is then it's just a herb that has a compound that tastes 400x sweeter than sugar. However it doesn't have the calorific content due to glucose and fructose in sugar (so no risk of diabetes) and it hasn't got the chemical properties of sugar which are crucial to make syrups and liqueurs so it still can be classed as an absinthe (I hope: correct me if I'm wrong guys) as long as you keep the holy trinity in .

Thanks for the interest guys!

May be we should start a thread which is specifically made for people who think they are the first to do something! Unless there is already one? It'd be like a home distillers renaissance.

[Craisogaenus]

Here you go guys; a thread for potential world's firsts! So get your ideas down or just browse and comment on others!

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=37672

[Craisogaenus]

Tastes amazing, it has a sort of bitter sweet taste, which is noticeably different from the original have a go guys if you want!

[frozenthunderbolt]

Choice!

So you used holy trinity in the boilier for distillation and then all the others listed together (not in individual parts) for a cold macceration?

[Craisogaenus]

Yeah when distilling I only put in the holy trinity but I also put some more in after the distillation for the maceration, depending on on how high a percentage you want to go do the distilling on your herbs either on the second run or the third of your brandy (that is if your doing a white grape brandy, red grapes would be interested to use for a sweet one, or if you're making it out of vodka then again the last distillation). I'm going to try a honey brandy one next time with the sweet one just to see what it comes out like.