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Searching for the Sleazy…
Hi I have so far made only 2 (small) batches of absinthe, following to a tee the classic Pontarlier recipe and method, but scaled down to make 1 liter of product, so like so:- 0.95 litre of 85% ABV neutral alcohol- 25 grammes of wormwood- 50 grammes of anise (green, andalusian)- 50 grammes of fennel (doux Provence)Macerated the above in a glass jar in a water bath at 60C for 12 hours (using sous vide), then added 450mils of water (water the first time, for the second time I used the tails from the first batch plus some water) and distilled as per recipe.Did the colouring step as per recipe: take 400 mils of the product, added Pontica (10 grammes), Hyssop (10 grammes) and Melissa (5 grammes) into a glass jar kept in water bath at 60C for 4 hours. Let it cool down, strain and mix back in to the other product. Diluted to 70% ABV.The stuff tasts great and has a beautiful colour, but I dont get any louching, at all. After the first batch, I thought that might be because of the fact that I didn’t have any tails and I also read (after having made the first batch) that you should grind your anise and fennel to get better extraction of the oils.So for the second batch I was expecting better results, because I now had some tails and I ground the anise and fennel. Unfortunately, again, no louche.If somebody spots an error in the recipe or method that might have caused it, please let me know.So what I can I do to get it to louche properly? I know I could add some star anise, which will most likely fix it , but that sorta feels wrong for a couple of reasons: – the star anise might over power the green anise, flavour wise.- it feels a bit like the cheats way out; you would imagine that back in the day when they devised and used the Pontarlier recipe it would louche OK.So I’m looking for feedback, comments, suggestions. Anything welcome.
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10 Replies
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Well kiwipete, it sure is a beautiful kiwi fruit green When you say it’s not louching, what ABV are you diluting it to prior to drinking?
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The ABV seems very high, higher than I use.You might be cutting to tails too soon.You don’t say if you put the botanicals in the pot.
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Are you adding cold water to get it to louche? Colder the better. If your botanicals aren’t particularly fresh I wonder whether that would make an impact as well.
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Thanks for coming in Chris, appreciate that. Yep, all the botanicals go in the pot. I am using a little Airstill, and it it has never scorched anything yet (and I have sure pushed it to the limits)Using the Pontarlier recipe, I collect 950 mils of product, so go going quite deep into the tails..
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Thanks for coming in. Yep, using iced water. Re botanicals: good point. The botanicals come from Kirk from Absinthe.com and he has been praised on this forum repeatedly for the quality of botanicals, so I don’t think its that…
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Are you sure you are using the Pontarlier recipe? I calculate the ABV in his pot at around 44%, way less than I calculated that you used,You can’t go ‘deep into tails’. Tails are the late distillate that gets excluded. If you are not getting louche, chances are that what you are excluding using your idea of ‘tails’ should have been included.If you are excluding late take because it tastes like cardboard, that is because you are using poorly distilled base spirit that you should not be using.
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Hi Chris,Here is a copy of the Pontarlier recipe from Duplais’ book that I have followed.
So it says: take 95 litres of 85%ABV alcohol, macerate for the required time, then add 45 litres of water, distill and take off 95 litres of product. So I calculate (using Rad’s calculator on acedistiller.com) the ABV of what is in the pot to be ~57.7% ABV.
- Dilution_Calc.JPG (14.78 KiB) Viewed 1210 times
Obviously, in my case, all quantities divided by 100.Re the tails: after I took off the 0.95 litres of product, I kept taking what was left (as per recipe; for future use). As the 0.95 came off, I kept tasting all the way through and the taste was fine all along.As a base I used a very clean 95+ %ABV ( diluted down to 85% ABV for this recipe) which I also use for my gin and it makes a really nice product (even if I say so myself..)Cheers,Peter
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I was looking at the wrong recipe, thinking it was Pontarliers.All I can suggest is that you don’t cut at the given volume. If your herbs are a bit wimpy, that should get more of their oils over and give you a better chance of louche. After the 950ml, collect in 50ml increments in jars so that you can make up samples to find what does work. My last keeper jar usually has a hint of green.
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Thanks Chris,Will give that a go next time.The other thing I will try is upping the anise a bit and adding a bit more water to the pot.Found this comment in the “My Best Absinthe So Far”thread:”As for a thicker louche, use more anise and add more water in the pot. I cannot overstate the importance of the latter. You should have close to a50% ration of water to macerate in the pot. Anise oils are hydrophobic and more of them will come across to the distillate rather than stay in that water. Also, collect your tails for the next run.”
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I’ve used the recipes in Duplais, my favorite being the Montpelier, but I run things a little differently, in line with some of the advice you’ve already got.I add twice as much water as Duplais suggests and instead of collecting a specific amount, I run it until the distillate just starts to become less than pefectly clear. The point at which this happens can vary from run to run. I collect the rest as feints.Also, are you adding your alcohol to dry herbs? Try adding a bit of water to dampen them before adding the alcohol.
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