best way to brew absinthe

hey, im going to try to brew some absinthe on my birthday and was wondering what the best way to do this was.

 

lol. Good luck.

 

You've gotta be kidding. Use the search "absinthe" on this board. There is lots of good info.

 

Yup, the most important of which being "it won't make you trip, or even give vaguely psychedelic affects besides being drunk"

 

Thujone is not psychedelic. It's a myth. Also be vary wary of home brew kits for absinthe since it is a liquor and must be distyled to be the real thing. Otherwise you are just getting fucked up on the essential oils the homebrew kits provide, and that's SO not good for you.

 

i bought this extract thingy in a little dropper bottle. it smells just like absinth, and it says makes 5 bottles. just add to vodka.
havent tried it yet? anyone heard of this shit

 

It won't be absinthe, I guarantee that. It's probably anise oil.

 

What I heard from someone that makes Absinthe professionally, was that it needs to be distilled, to have anything close to a good flavour.

 

shit, than i wasted 15 bucks

 

yep.

and as has been mentioned, absinthe is distilled, not brewed (steeping certain materials in hot fluids, as you do with wort [which becomes beer once its cooled and yeast is added], coffee, tea, and so on)

its not a matter of simply adding extracts or oils or anything to a bottle of vodka

 

that would work. Though vodka is not high enough proof. The color would be different too, and it would have to age so that all the flavors would be properly distributed; I've heard of people using mostly EOs (5-10 different ones depending on the recipe) added to everclear and then adding some fresh herbs, allowing to sit for a week, or more, filtering than distilling. After this some adjust with water and sweetner. This method (as opposed to steeping) has the advantage that you control the actives (or flavoring) more precisely, gain smoothness and desired color by aging and selectively steeping some of the herbs. now this is just off the top of my head but it might be worth a try for someone somewhere...

To 1 L pure grain alcohol 95% or greater.
Add Essential Oils:

Anise 400 mcL
Angelica 10 mcl
Star Anise 250 mcl
w.wood 100 mcl
Juniper 30 mcl
Cardamom 50 mcl
nutmeg 250 mcl
Vanilla 60 mcl
Seet Flag 275 mcl
Lemon 80 mcl
Coriander 40 mcl
Orange 30 mcl
Cinnamon Bark 25 mcl
Ginger 10 mcl
Clove 5 mcl
Lavender 3 mcl
Neroli 2 mcl
Melissa 1 mcl

Then one could let this sit (perferably with mild continuous stirring) for a day or so. Next one could add desired green herbs such as fresh peppermint/spearmint, and liquorice root, etc.
e.g.

10-20 g of your favorite fresh green herbs
1-2 grams of your favorite citrus peel
1 gram w.wood
3 g Liquorice Root

allow to sit with occassional swirling for a day or two. Filter. Distill. Adjust with distilled water, grain alcohol (if it oils out), and a small qty. of sugar syrup to taste.

 

most liqueurs take at least a few weeks, if not a month, of maceration (not steeping, steeping is with hot liquid) and prior to maceration at least another month of aging

all of the ways in which you mention include a distillation process, which is exactly what i was saying.....its not truly absinthe unless its distilled...its not so simple as just adding herbs to a bottle of booze and letting it soak.

while its nowhere near impossible to get set up for alcohol distillation in the US, it is in fact illegal to do so and personal stills are quite hard to come by unless you're willing to have it shipped from somewhere else, and relatively few americans have the know how or ability to construct their own stills these days (an of those that do have the know how and ability, there are fewer still who care to actually do so)

not that this thread must cater to americans by any means or that this information is useless - in fact yours is one of the better quality recipes from the looks of it. much more adequate than folks trying to just throw wormwood or wormwood extract/essential oil into a bottle of vodka and drinking it. but my point remains that its not so simple as just adding one or two kinds of herbs to some hooch.

 

Agreed. It might be possible to make something that resembles the effect of Absinthe w/o distilling, but many qualities would be sacraficed --the product would not be worthy of calling absinthe. On the practical side, it is not, it would cost several hundred and more likely several thousand to set up with not much to gain since it would be illigal in the US and have effects not much different than any high proof booze.

 

so i tried that extract i bought with a friend. and ill have to say, it did make it more trippy slightly, but most notibaly more estatic and weird that i like. it was similar to just normal absinth youd buy yet different. it tasted different though similar, though it reaked like a son of bitch, like nothing else ever. i mean people commented and our clothes reaked so strongly in the next morning. though however we got pretty sick, but not the normal drunk sick. was weird. and not like from drinking bought absinth. but it was great until we started feeling sick. we used alot of it though.

you know that estatic crazyness you get from absinth. i love that.

 

That is a ridiculously long recipe. And it sounds absolutely disgusting. The first four ingredients are classic. The rest? It looks like you pulled these from a catalogue or something. There are too many flavours for an absinthe.
From the top of your head? I believe it

 

I never said it was any good! Just so happens that I had those EOs laying around and experimented one day...I didn't keep carefull records of everything that I put in it but it actually didn't taste too bad, mostly like strong bitter-anise-strange herb- slight cola flavor. I liked it better than the absinthe my friend brought back from Europe. Gave a definite buzz distinct from alcohol, not sure how to describe it. Sure pick and chose which oils you like and can obtain.

 

On your birthday? Won't it take a few weeks to have a finished product?

 

you know you can buy good absinthe legally online.

 

Someday I might try this recipe:

Part 1: Flavoring extract
w.wood 225 mcl
Coriander 25 mcl
Anise 300 mcL
Star Anise 150 mcl
Cardamom 25 mcl
Lemon 200 mcl
clove 25 mcl
Orange 700 mcl
Cognac 25 mcl
Neroli 25 mcl

These oil/essences are available on the net and are fairly inexpensive except for the cardamom, neroli, and cognac.

Add the essences to a 1/2 L of everclear that has been redistilled and filtered through activated carbon. It might be better to mix the essences first and add the desired amount to the ethanol.

Part 2:
To a 1/4 L of vodka add fresh ginger or fresh spearmint and allow to sit for a day, add a small amount of sugar syrup, allow to sit another day, decant, and add to the flavoring extract.

 

Absinthe is steeped for 12 hours at a heat just nearly too hot to touch but below substantial vaporizing temps.

Quality Absinthe is not made from oils, thats nasty and falls far below absinthe ordinary standards, the dried herbs are cheap as hell and work dandy, it is often steeped in the still's boiler if you have a big enough still. dont filter it, toss it some pottery chips or marbles so it doesnt stick and burn at the bottom, if you skip distilation you're in for some pain.

the finish should have lemon balm, hyssop and maybe some petite wormwoood in it. (different than grand wormwood, less bitter.)

if you skip the ageing you could blast out a decent batch of clandestine absinthe in a couple days with good color, taste and louche.