-
Is it Absinthe?
If I just do a maceration of absinthe botanicals and don’t redistill, what is it. It has the flavor of absinthe but most recipes call for a redistillation over botanicals, is that required? I has a dark brown color after filtering out the botanicals.
-
9 Replies
-
I don’t believe the TTB has a legal definition for absinthe. You can read through “Class and Type Designation” and see. I wouldn’t consider it absinthe without redistillation, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t get it approved as an absinthe.
-
Ok, but if it’s not absinthe, what is it?
-
It’s definitely not absinthe; absinthe must be distilled. It doesn’t taste anything at all like absinthe, which isn’t that bitter. Absinthe’s primary flavor should be anise, not bitter wormwood. What you have there are wormwood bitters. Pelinkovac, malört, and bäsk are examples of wormwood bitters from Central and Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. Absinthe may still be obscure to the general populace, but there is a lot of accurate information available to those care enough to look. I suggest doing a bit of research before trying to bring a product to market as absinthe. You’ll find literally everything you need to know over at the Wormwood Society, especially in the historic articles section.
-
An herbal infused vodka? Bitters?
-
I appreciate the info. I does taste like absinthe though. I have compared it to two us brands and the flavor is similar. I am using wormword, anise and fennel alongside 5 other herbs with anise being the main flavor. Not bringing it to market soon, just starting to experiment.
-
Good luck! Another good resource for some very old classic recipes is in Duplias’ “A Treatise on the Manufacture and Distillation of Alcoholic Liquors”. Lots has changed since those recipes were created but they offer a good starting point.
-
That’s why I pointed him to the historical section over at the Wormwood Society.
We have the full Duplais and De Brevans manuals posted there (but now I see the link is bad, so I’ll need to fix that today). Those recipes and processes are essentially definitive of the nature and characteristics of absinthe, along with the many surviving bottles that were made in the pre-ban (pre-1915) era. You can’t go wrong using those recipes as a starting point. -
I fixed those links, btw. Have at it.
-
Why not just redistill it – I have had excellent results after redistiallation. My only issue I have had is how to proof it down. As once you start to add water the oils drop out of suspension and it gets cloudy. My guess is It wont do that until it has a certain percentage of water – but I have not spent enough time trying that out at this point and have just left it as is.
I would love to see how people have overcome that – there must be a simple way.
As far as the browning – same issue here though it takes some time to happen. What your looking at, I believe, is oxidation. Just like a leaf on a tree that turns brown. Again I have not spent much time trying to fix that issue. I can tell you my ABV is 90 so you cant cure it with higher percentages of alcohol. Perhaps no air in the bottle and use it up rather quickly once opened?
I havent made this in a couple of years but i believe I steeped my intitial herbs using water and NGS. Then distilled. Then added coloring herbs and heated for a short time (15 mins). Then gravity filtered. (i dont think i redistilled after coloring). Final outcome was nicely colored, tasted where I thought it should (You need to like the taste of licorice) and looched as it should into a pearl-essent white when cold water was added.
Hope this helps
-Scott
Log in to reply.
English 
Spanish 
German 
French 
Russian