Absinthe recipe

KatoFong · Post by **KatoFong** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 12:52 pm

So it would seem...

Thelonius Monk · Post by **Thelonius Monk** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 1:27 pm

Hey now!!!

fahdoul · Post by **fahdoul** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:58 am

Just wanted at to say I tried coloring a batch today with the greatly reduced amount of herbs recommended here, and it seems fine and much nicer than the suspect quantities in the Pontarlier recipe.

Anyone who wants to experiment with quantities should note that the initial batch of colored alcohol will be a tad over 2x colored/flavored as the final batch will be, so you can get a good idea of what a more strongly flavored/colored brew would taste like without any extra work by just setting aside a little of the color batch and then comparing it with the final brew. If you find you like the colorated stuff better, then double the amount of colorating herbs next time and repeat the experiment (if you make it all the way back to 10gr/liter let us know!).

Now for the agony of aging. Hmmm. I use O2 in my job, I wonder if I could speed thing up by oxygenating it?

KatoFong · Post by **KatoFong** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:13 am

I have a shelf set aside as my aging shelf. It's high enough that I can't reach anything on it without considerable effort, so I'm more likely to leave my bottles alone up there.

Of course, you could experiment with aging by keeping the bottle down and noting how the flavor changes as you drink on it over the next couple of months...

fahdoul · Post by **fahdoul** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:05 pm

More like next couple of hours.

KatoFong wrote: as you drink on it over the next couple of months...

WhiteLightning · Post by **WhiteLightning** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:15 am

well its been almost a year since I made my absinthe, and a year makes for a nicely aged drink. Its still got the bite that made it interesting in the first place, but its flavours have smoothed out alot, maybe an Cream de Absinthe wouldnt be such a bad idea as a new experiment.

Marionette · Post by **Marionette** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 8:33 am

Hello everyone, I'm new around here, and hope not to ask too many stupid questions.

I am a member of the Fée Verte forums, and recently bought a 10L copper alembic from, perhaps obviously, http://www.copper-alembic.com. Along with some other drinks, I'd like to produce a decent absinthe.

I have a wormwood plant growing for future years, but I have a feeling I'm going to have a problem finding a number of the ingredients in the mean time. I can't work out where I am going to get artemisia pontica, so I think I will be making blanches for a while.

Anyway, besides introducing myself, I did make this post for another reason: When I bought the still, I did not include with it a water bath (bain-marie). I do have one already, but as far as I remember it is made of aluminium or steel. If the copper still were floated in water in this, is there a possibility of damaging it (would it make an electrical cell and corrode the still)? Should I just directly heat the still on an electrical hob?

If this has been asked before then I apologise…

hornedrhodent · Post by **hornedrhodent** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:53 am

Marionette wrote:
Anyway, besides introducing myself, I did make this post for another reason: When I bought the still, I did not include with it a water bath (bain-marie). I do have one already, but as far as I remember it is made of aluminium or steel. If the copper still were floated in water in this, is there a possibility of damaging it (would it make an electrical cell and corrode the still)? Should I just directly heat the still on an electrical hob?

If this has been asked before then I apologise…

The steel or aluminium should corrode in preference to copper so your still should be safe although it may get rust stains from the steel.

KatoFong · Post by **KatoFong** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 8:00 am

Yeah, you should be fine. I know of at least one other person whose water bath is a stainless steel stock pot.

It's funny this should come up now. I'm getting ready to start a couple of absinthe experiments of my own in the next couple of weeks. I have four recipes--three blanches and a simple verte--that I want to give a go. Just to see what comes of them. I'll let you know what I get.

Marionette · Post by **Marionette** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:40 pm

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to have a look tomorrow at the bottom of the garden and see what material the bath is made of. I'll report back with any progress.

fahdoul · Post by **fahdoul** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:32 am

Cascade in WA has the pontica, and I highly recommend using it because the coloration stage is just plain fun since it gives the lovely green and a more complex taste. Cascade stuff is all very expensive but the pontica is worth the splurge since a liitle goes a long way if used at the reduced levels mentioned earlier.

Do not worry about rusting/dissimilar metal corrosion you are using the thing for a few hours at a time not leaving it full for weeks or months. A double boiler really makes redistilling the absinthe easy, see my earlier post about it.

Genuine Florence Fennel is the real key to good absinthe, and is available at not-to-outrageous prices from several places which sell seed for planters, as well as from Cascade, though it is quite expensive from them. If anyone wants to split a pound, PM me.

I was able to find everything else at my local healthfood store.

KatoFong · Post by **KatoFong** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:37 am

Where'd you find the florence fennel? I've been using regular Indian fennel...not bad fennel, all in all, but I'd like to see what difference the florence makes.

Marionette · Post by **Marionette** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:21 pm

I managed to get wormwood, anise, hyssop, lemon balm, calamus and peppermint from an old herbalist shop today, and got normal fennel and star anise from a chinese shop a few days ago. Artemisia pontica and Florence fennel are the problematic ones, it seems. I'm going to phone some Italian delicatessens tomorrow, if they exist any more.

KatoFong · Post by **KatoFong** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 1:20 pm

Also, if anyone knows a good source for A.a in the states, let me know. I've been using herbspicetea.com, and while their anise is good and so are their coloration herbs, their wormwood is very twiggy. Cascade has reputedly good herbs, but A.a from them is far too expensive.

fahdoul · Post by **fahdoul** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:56 am

I got my FF from Comstock Fere. I bought too much so if anyone needs some PM me.

I've heard some rumor though that the Comstock stuff is not ideal for absinthe so I may shell out for a pound of Cascade's just to see the difference. However, I figure the Comstock stuff, while it may not be the best, at least is FF, so it's got be be better than all the other non-florence fennels people have been using. And the absinthe I have made with it has gone over very well though I have not had the chance to test it head to head with a really good commercial product.

I haven't been worrying too much about the AA I use - it seems to me it is one of the less complex flavors in the mix, and that the FF and anise are the really critical ones. If twiggyness bothers you (though the twigs are often described as containing more thujone than the rest, and if you read the New Yorker absinthe article the Jade dude is described as chopping up bunches of twigs), one can always buy the cheap stuff and separate out the twigs. It will double the price of what you do keep but still a lot cheaper than Cascades.

KatoFong wrote:Also, if anyone knows a good source for A.a in the states, let me know. I've been using herbspicetea.com, and while their anise is good and so are their coloration herbs, their wormwood is very twiggy. Cascade has reputedly good herbs, but A.a from them is far too expensive.

KatoFong · Post by **KatoFong** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:19 am

If you ever have an absinthe made with really good A. abs., you'll notice the difference right away. It isn't in any way less important than the anise or the fennel, nor is it a less complex component of your absinthe. People grow their own for a reason.

I can't really speak for Breaux's methods, but I do know that a good deal of the research for that article was done several years back. It's possible he's refined his methods since then. From what other HGers have told me, an overly twiggy wormwood can lead to an excessively bitter absinthe.

I've been working with the sift method, but it's time-consuming and more than just a little annoying to spend a half hour, an hour, an hour and a half sifting wormwood flowers through a colander. And the wormwood dust in the air makes my snot and saliva bitter for days.

Marionette · Post by **Marionette** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:18 pm

I would take fahdoul up on his kind offer of finnochio, but it wouldn't be worth shipping to Europe. I am going to try to get some from someone in Italy. Fingers crossed.

I'm having problems finding an electric hob without a thermostatic control, so I might just try using a gas cooker + water bath. Hopefully I don't blow myself up, or burn the absinthe.

KatoFong · Post by **KatoFong** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:33 pm

That's what I use. Haven't had any problems yet.

Marionette · Post by **Marionette** » Fri Sep 08, 2006 3:36 pm

Ah good, that's one less thing to buy. Spending £50 on herbs in one shop was a bit of a shock last week.

Amadeus82 · Post by **Amadeus82** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:05 am

i don't think i seen anything about using spirit of wine to make the absinthe with?
anyways which would be the best wine to distill to get teh spirit base of absinthe. and not really wanting to use neutral spirits.

cheers

Marionette · Post by **Marionette** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 3:00 am

Some absinthe uses a pommace base (grappa).

If you want to use a wine base, I wouldn't have thought it would matter that much which type of wine you use. I would have thought red wine would be sensible.

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:37 am

Hey guys, I actually know somthing!!! I read that when they would make absinthe from wine it would be a white grape wine.

Hey also I was wondering what temperature you are all distilling your absinthe at. Im trying to keep mine around 190 degrees F. = around 87 celcius.

what are you guys doing?

Lorax · Post by **Lorax** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:18 pm

Good to see there are some absinthe fans here

To follow on the discussion of the wine spirit base could one substitute brandy into the maceration recipie at an appropriate concentration or perhaps use grape juice. I ask because I did some reading and Kato I noticed you seemed to change your opinion of the value of the base.

Also easiest way to experiment with flavours would be to produce ethanolic distillates of all the herbs you would want to use at a greater concentration then you would use them then mix and match and dilute to give appropriate concentration of each herb, if one knows how much herb was in each distillate then that can be converted into a recipie. There will nodoubt be slight flavour differences to distillation of all herbs at once though.

Also to answer the question about boiling with the macerated herbs in or out. Boil with them in as heating for the length of time you distill will likely pull more oils out then a 12-24 hour cold soak.

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 11:54 pm

Im a little bummed about my last batch of absinthe. The first batch turned an extremely opaque white when adding cold water, and this one is only a cloudy neon green not quite opaque at all. I am very dissapointed about this.

I did leave some of my original ingredients out, and my guess was that there was not enough total erbs to create a full louche effect. what would you folks think about this.

From what I understand is that the erbs are what turn the liquor opaque white upon adding cold water.

Does this sound correct to you guys?[/i]

Lorax · Post by **Lorax** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 12:38 am

Nigel it is the essential oils in the plants that turn it cloudy, they are soluble in concentrated ethanol but when you add water they become insoluble and separate out, think oil on water. Thus it would follow the more oils in your herb the more in the final product. The oils get steam distilled along with the alcohol. Perhaps you left out too much of the tails.

KatoFong · Post by **KatoFong** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 5:41 am

Nigel: you can create a full louche with as little herbal content as anise, fennel, and wormwood. Specifically, what causes a good louche is anethone, the essential oil in anise. So you don't need to bother with a huge herbal charge. Did you change your anise source or use less anise? That could affect the louche.

Lorax: I'm not sure what you mean when you say I've changed my opinion about the base. It's true I've started to use a simple brandy as my base, but you can just as easily use a pure sugar base. Grape spirits just have a somewhat smoother mouthfeel and a bit of a fruity aroma that adds to the rest of the aromatics in the finished product. I wouldn't bother with tricks or easy arounds like adding grape juice before distillation. Grape juice isn't wine and it sure as shit isn't brandy.

It's also easier to formulate a recipe just by running experiments in one-liter batches. Start with the most basic recipe you can think of, see what you get, and continue from there.

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 11:43 am

So what I gather from your responses is its the oils that make the louche, which I understand why my stuff has a poor louche.

I only used a small quantity of erbs for three litres and I only macerated for 12 hours, and I didn't shake nearly as much as I did the first time around.

I now know...

Im going to build a bigger better sealed still this next time around so I should yeild much better results. and larger quantites.

me and my friends love the way this stuff is turning out.

Lorax · Post by **Lorax** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 2:45 pm

Thanks Kate, what I meant was in your first posts about absinthe you didn't bother with the brandy and had said it probably wouldn't affect the taste, later on you started using it and said it did, as you said above. See I read all your posts lol

The volatiles in the grape juice are probably around in the wine still and are therefore distilled into the brandy, no doubt more are made during the fermentation though. So the grape juice, I think could work.

Nigel yes its the oils, quality of the herb is likely to affect it just as much as quantity. As long as you leave the herbs in whist you distill that should extract the oils sufficiently. Hot ethanol is a great solvent compared to cold ethanol (which is still a pretty good solvent).

He he with running 1L runs, I don't drink so that would leave a large excess lol, at the moment I use a shot glass with a small amount of what I'm testing added and diluted appropriately with however much water, then i have a spit bucket. So yeah adding drops to make up 10ml lots is easier for me. Means I can mix many at once and even tweak them as i go. My reason for making it is I'm a chemist and I'm completely infatuated with the smell of some wormwood tincture I made years ago but only distilled recently, big fan of fragrance and flavour. I used it for treating worms and bugs. Plus my friends love absinthe.

Nigel · Post by **Nigel** » Mon Oct 02, 2006 2:54 pm

Here's your recipe. Stick to it through at least 5 or 6 batches, along with

the tails management I outlined earlier, and you'll be making good absinthe, assuming you're using good ingredients.

25g wormwood
50g green anise
50g florence fennel

Macerate in 85% spirits, distill, color:

1g pontica
1g hyssop
.5g melissa

Sorry for the confusion.

is that for one litre?
I wasn't sure...

KatoFong · Post by **KatoFong** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:21 am

Nigel, that does look like a one-liter batch.

Lorax: As for adding grape juice to high-proof vodka and then distilling, do you think we could make ourselves a good batch of whiskey by adding corn to vodka and then distilling that? Or, to follow your logic, a glass of wine by adding some grape juice to alcohol.