I started by making some neutral out of fruit based brandy feints. Redistilled 3 times total in my potstill. I cut very heavy, discarding 1.5 quarts fores/heads and more tails, and ended up with 6 quarts of hearts. There was still a touch of fruit, but it was subtle and certainly didn’t overtake the strong herb character of this drink. The herbs were ordered offline from starwest botanicals, except the mint for coloring was fresh from the fresh produce/herb section at the grocers. I tasted all herbs raw, to get an idea of the flavor and character. The wormwood is REALLY bitter. But the bitterness doesnt come through in the hearts of the distillation run.
Recipe:
6 Quarts Neutral 70%
75 gr Wormwood
58 gr Green Anise
28 gr Star Anise
28 gr Fennel Seed
5 gr Coriander Seed
6 Whole Cloves
6 Black Peppercorns.
Coloring:
14 gr fresh mint
Process:
I put all the herbs and seeds through the coffee grinder to chop em into smaller bits and open up the flavors, and mashed them together in a large bowl with a quart of water into a paste. The paste was then added to the carboy with the neutral to macerate for 55 hours. The distillation run was at a slow trickle, leaving the head off at first and stirring with a long stick for the first several minutes to avoid the herbs settling and scorching. The first half pint brought over a lot of bitterness from the wormwood. Then it mellowed out quick and was really nice. Surprisingly there were tails, even tho I started with very clean neutral the last couple partial quarts at 56% and 42% were funky so I left them out. Yield was 3.75 quarts at 76%. I watered it down very little to bottle at 136 proof. The louche comes out beautiful. The flavor is just as I would have hoped for, strong on the anise, a very subtle bitterness, and lots of other flavors swirling around.
Coloring was done with 1/2 oz fresh green mint soaked overnight in a pint of this. Gave it a bright green color. Looks like it sucked all the green clorophyl right out of the leaves, see below it looks fake like food coloring, but no joke thats all from the fresh mint. Fun recipe, and damn delicious!
Cheers, Jimbo
Edit/Addendum to above - Aug. 2015:
1.) The recipe I put together here was assembled from lots of sources here on HD and across the internet. It has been brought to my attention that some of these sources are full of shit and can result in creating 'bogus recipes'. So if you want to stay true to historical form ditch the black pepper corn, cloves, star anise and the mint used for coloring. Substitute for coloring Lemon Balm, Petite Wormwood and Dried Hyssop Flowers.
2.) Compared to several commercial absinthes, all diluted 4:1, this recipe makes an absinthe 'lighter' in flavor concentration. After re-review of recipes I will make this change on y next batch and recommend others do as well. The base spirit here is 6 liters, reduce this to 4 liters, and/or bump the herb bill qty.
FINALLY: In an excellent tasting session at RandyMarsh's with many commercial absinthes and HD members, found here viewtopic.php?f=47&t=53197 the reports are my absinthe aroma and flavor were in the pocket and delicious, however lighter in flavor concentration, at a 4 to 1 dilution, compared to the commercial absinthes. I have to note that I drink this at a 50/50 dilution (66 proof) because I like a higher alcohol, and the flavor is terrific. Note 4 to 1 puts this and other absinthes at a 33 proof strength or less. If thats your cup of tea, make the change in 2. above to concentrate more flavors. And if youre a purest make the change in 1. above to stay truer to historical form. If you're not too concerned about any of that, make it as is in the recipe above and enjoy, its a fine drop. Many who have tried this at various tastings, incl Bigbob and Woodshed at S3 had nothing but praise.
Cheers,
Jimbo
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So its a bit of a bastardized Absinthe recipe. I am very happy with it tho, there are flavors swirling beyond just the anise. Next time around I'll drop the star anise and compare. Thanks for your inputs.