What alcohol is use in Absinthe?
Henri-Louis Pernod, who first distilled commercial Absinthe in the early nineteenth century in Pontarlier, France, used a wine alcohol base. He distilled the alcohol with herbs like wormwood, fennel, aniseed, hyssop, angelica, lemon balm, star anise, juniper, veronica, dittany and nutmeg. Wine is the conventional base for Absinthe but some distillers use other types of alcohol.
If you search for Absinthe recipes online, you will find that many of them include steeping blends of herbs in liquor such as Everclear, white rum or vodka.
How would you Make Absinthe in your own home?
Even though some recipes on the web are for distilling Absinthe, distillation of liquor without a license is illegal in many countries and you also need the right equipment and also you need to know what you’re doing. So, are there any other ways of making Absinthe?
– Steeping and Filtering – This usually involves steeping herbs such as wormwood, fennel, aniseed, calamus root, star anise, mint, coriander seeds, cloves etc. for a few days or perhaps a few weeks inside the neutral alcohol base and then filtering. Only distillation will provide you with a genuine Absinthe, this will just provide you with an Absinthe flavored vodka.
– Employing an Absinthe Kit – Many of the kits available online, much like the ones from Green Devil, are only steeping kits. They may be easier than obtaining and preparing your own personal herbs but you’re just steeping the herbs in vodka again and creating a flavored vodka.
– Utilizing an Absinthe kit form AbsintheKit.com is a less difficult and much better approach to make Absinthe from home. AbsintheKit.com produce essences for the Absinthe industry and the essences are made by distilling classic Absinthe herbs in alcohol. The distillation is performed for you and all you need to do is mix the essence with vodka or Everclear and you’ve got a true Absinthe drink.
The essences can be found in four distinct varieties:-
– Classic Green Essence to produce a traditional “verte” Absinthe which has a thujone content of 35mg per bottle.
– Clear Absinthe Essence to produce a clandestine La Bleue style Absinthe. This actually also has a thujone content of 35mg.
– Orange Essence to create Absinthe having a twist. This essence could make a yellow-orange coloured Absinthe with a natural orange flavor as well as a thujone content of 35mg.
– Strong 55 Essence can make an Absinthe having a higher thujone content (55mg) and a more bitter wormwood flavor.
You can obtain a 20ml bottle of essence for $3.95 to create one 750ml bottle of Absinthe or obtain a kit for $29 to create 14 bottles of Absinthe. A kit comes with a handy plastic gauge and 14 artistic bottle labels. All that you should supply is the neutral alcohol base. Just remember that the alcohol content of your Absinthe depends on your alcohol base. Be mindful, drink Absinthe in moderation because it is a significantly more powerful beverage than other spirits and also fermented drinks.
What alcohol is use in Absinthe? A wine alcohol base or a neutral alcohol which doesn’t have a powerful taste of its own – Everclear, vodka or 151 rum.