DISTILLING ABSINTHE

Randy Horton

As a child I learned that Absinthe was a mysterious drug from turn of the century France that gave
wild visions to artists and writers, before it drove them hopelessly and irreversibly insane.
Naturally, I wanted to try it. The truth is less dangerous and more pleasant.

BACKGROUND

Unfortunately for those of us who came of age before the recent renaissance, Absinthe does not
make you trip. People who claim to have had hallucinogenic experiences are usually recounting a
drunken evening, often in conjunction with some nightmarish Czechoslovakian breath freshener
that bears as much relationship to genuine Absinthe as you do to the god Zeus. Absinthe does
however contain herbal essences, which when combined with strong alcohol can induce a lucid,
intoxicated state. It is a slightly bitter liquor avoured with Anise, Wormwood and Fennel, typically
sold at around 140 proof, or 70 percent alcohol.

This guide is designed to be a short, e ective and reliable source to use for those of you who are
interested in distilling your own. It is heavy on details and light on atmosphere. Where possible I
try to provide shortcuts and distilling tips that might not be mentioned in standard guidebooks. It
is assumed that you are smart enough not to light your kitchen on re, as I once did, and that you
are wise enough not to drink excessively from a bottle that is more than 75% pure alcohol, as I try
to remember not to do.

Distilling is a craft and like any craft much of the quality of the end product comes through
personal experimentation. This means that the rst few times you distill Absinthe it will probably
taste like wet cardboard. Luckily, you can always pour your distillate back into the pot and begin
the process anew.

But rst, we need to discuss a few concepts:

Anise:

While Absinthe is also produced with Fennel and Wormwood, the primary avouring agent, or that
which is most likely to stick with you, is Anise. This is similar to liquorice, although it is not exactly
the same as liquorice. The fact remains that if you don’t like the taste of liquorice, and have never
appreciated an Anise-based liquor, you probably won’t like Absinthe. You can distill a liquor with
only Wormwood and Fennel, but it will be your own creation.

Louche:

This is the most important, most talked about, and coolest aspect of artisanal Absinthe. It is the
quality of change that comes over the liquor as water is added to it, and it will fascinate you
beyond belief somewhere around your second glass, especially if you begin drinking in the early
afternoon.

Traditionally, Absinthe is presented in a glass, with a notched spoon over the top, onto which is
placed a sugar cube. There are people who will tell you that you need to light this sugar cube on
re. They are ignorant. That trick was invented in the last decade, possibly by Czechoslovakian
bartenders trying to hide the fact that they were selling Scope and calling it liquor.

I can guarantee you that Vincent Van Gogh never lit his sugar cube on re, and Verlaine didn’t
even use a sugar cube. The point is that you are here to appreciate Absinthe, not turn it into a
comestible torch.

In its initial state, it is clear emerald in colour. If your Absinthe is bright green like a Jolly Rancher
hard candy, you can be sure that you have a liquor of inferior quality, possibly from
Czechoslovakia. Do not be afraid however, because you can always throw it into the pot and
redistill it, to make something truly drinkable.

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 Next, cold water is poured over the spoon, slowly, in order to enjoy the louche. Louche has
become an adjective to describe someone who is decadent, worldly, oversaturated with pleasure,
and of morally questionable character. As a noun, it is more appealing. It is the process by which
your absinthe changes colour. As the cold, sugar-saturated water ows into it, the alcohol
becomes opalescent white and green. It becomes opaque. This is because the essential oils of
the herbs that you will use to distill your product are suspended in the strong alcohol. Once the
water lowers the cumulative proportion of alcohol to water in your glass, the mixture can no
longer hold those oils. They separate into the water causing the visible change and making it
drinkable. If your Absinthe does not louche, you have failed in its creation.

The liquor described herein is loosely based on my current favourite French Absinthe, Verte De
Fougerolles 72, as well as a turn of the century recipe that I cobbled together from a number of
sources. You should use it as a basic blueprint from which you will create your own concoction
based on personal taste.

The rst thing you might notice when researching Absinthes is the number that is appended to the
name of the liquor, such as the ‘72’ in Verte De Fougerolles 72. That number is the alcohol
percentage of the distillate, not the year it was produced. Absinthe is not aged like wine. Generally
speaking no one cares when it was distilled, only how well it was produced. Absinthe is not
typically described in terms of ‘proof’, which is double the percentage. This means that typical
American liquor of 80 Proof is 40% alcohol. Absinthe tends to be twice as strong.

American vs. Foreign Brands:

Simply put, although there are ne American products on the market, including Lucid, the brand
created by the most highly regarded Absintheur of his generation, Ted Breaux, there are
limitations to American Absinthe that render it less pleasurable to drink.

The primary issue is the supposed active ingredient, Thujone. Thujone is a chemical product of
Wormwood and is what litigators rst blamed for the supposedly deadly qualities of the liquor.
This is because in large doses Thujone is a neurotoxin. That is Latin for brain-killer; you do not
want to drink large amounts of Thujone, just as you don’t want to drink large amounts of Benzine
or Turpentine. But, to make a long story short, they were wrong. Ted Breaux himself helped to
prove that Thujone is not present in large quantities in traditionally manufactured Absinthe.

It is however present in small to moderate quantities. In American-approved Absinthe, the

Thujone level must be below 10 parts per million. Typically, French or Swiss Absinthe has
considerably more than that. While Thujone is not important to the experience of drinking this
liquor, it is a byproduct of the Wormwood that is used in its production. And the avours that
Wormwood lends to the liquor IS important to your drinking experience.

This is why you are going to distill your own, because the American versions are less than perfect,
having less of the naturally occurring Wormwood avour (as well as being typically less strong),
and because foreign versions are godawful expensive. My recommendation for those interested in
making a truly exceptional product would be to go online and read a number of reviews of various
Absinthes, buy one or two, and then to use these bottles as barometers against which to measure
your own work.

Before the current renaissance, we really had no idea how Absinthe was supposed to taste. This
is why people didn’t complain when the rst brands were so terrible. Now we know better. This
means you no longer have an excuse.

The Experience:

There is no limit to the number of misinformed people who will tell you that Absinthe causes
hallucinations. There are more polite ways to say this, but they are stupid.

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 What this alcohol does is twofold: First, it provides a slight, herbal buzz that is no more powerful
than a can of Redbull or perhaps a few shots of Jagermeister. Secondly, because it is extremely
strong and nely distilled, it goes immediately to your head with a powerful jolt of nearly pure
alcohol. Your body does not need to metabolise a pint of carb-loaded crap to get its x.
Consequently, you tend to feel the unadulterated alcohol experience and the herbal joys of this
ancient tonic quickly and e ectively.

The experience is described as a more lucid, clear buzz than typical alcohols and in large doses it
can leave you nearly incapacitated and yet still ambulatory. This is not necessarily a good thing,
especially if you have a cell phone handy. To experience a true natural hallucinogen however, you
need to seek elsewhere, perhaps a cow pasture somewhere in the Paci c Northwest after a
spring rain.

History:

By the end of the 1800’s a grape vine parasite, Phylloxera, had destroyed much of the wine
supply of France, leaving the lower classes without a reliable, low cost way to intoxicate
themselves. This was a threat to the stability of the government, because unhappy poor people
need an e ective way to drown their sorrows.

At this point, a distilled spirit used by French soldiers in WWI to purify water and ease their
stomach ailments became wildly popular. These soldiers, once the war was over, brought their
taste for Absinthe back with them, and soon it became both economical and trendy to be seen
with a glass of the green fairy on the streets of Paris. Dr. Pierre Ordinaire in 1789 is credited with
the rst recipe, however Wormwood had been used for stomach ailments since ancient times.

It became perhaps the rst industrial, mass-produced intoxicant, avoured primarily with Anise,
Fennel, and Wormwood (Artemesia Absintheium). It was cheaper than Brandy, which required
wine, and Cognac, which required champagne. Because its production began with puri ed
alcohol, it could be mass produced with none of the ageing that ne whiskeys require. I would call
it the cocaine of 1900, if not for the fact that cocaine was the cocaine of 1900.

Its popularity made it immediately suspect. The growing temperance movement found Absinthe
to be the perfect poster child for the dangers of alcoholism. First of all, it was relatively new on the
scene and so the companies that created this liquor were less economically entrenched. While
wine had been an important part of French culture since before there was a France, this was
something new that was not completely understood.

Because it was strong and cheap, people could and did become quickly and dangerously
intoxicated. Artists, writers, bohemians and other poor people were quick to take up its cause. A
culture war began to brew that set the forces of order and tradition against the chaos of a whole
new world that was only now beginning to take shape with the end of the Edwardian era.

The wine industry joined in this ght, happy to destroy their primary competition (after the
parasites that had destroyed their vines at the turn of the century were overcome). By the end of
the rst decade of the twentieth century, 36 million litres of Absinthe were consumed in France.
Five years later the liquor would be banned.

Unfortunately, there were incidents of drunken insanity that helped the forces of temperance kill
the green fairy. These were publicised in the o cial media outlets of the age, in addition to
salacious stories of shoddy Absinthe that was being produced by distilleries trying to capitalise on
the popularity of the alcohol without actually going to the trouble to properly make it.

In 1905 a Swiss alcoholic took a few shots of Absinthe and then butchered his family, providing
the forces of order with all the ammunition they needed to sweep a near complete ban of the
liquor through Europe and eventually America.

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 The Swiss, and to a lesser extent the Spanish, re-jiggered their formulas and continued to secretly
create their own versions of Absinthe during this ban. But for the most part the world moved on,
forgetting about it entirely except as it related to the art of Vincent Van Gogh, the poetry of
Verlaine, or the work of Toulouse-Latrec.

Seeing paintings of an Absinthe drinker or reading the feverous campaigns against the liquor
created by the opposition led generations of hopeful youngsters like myself to believe that the
alcohol actually had psychoactive properties, that it gave a user visions even as it unraveled the
very fabric of the brain itself. Luckily, or perhaps sadly depending on your personal de nition of
the word romantic, this was simply not the case.

Gradually this veil of ignorance began to rise with the introduction of Czechoslovakian brands of
Absinthe, which were originally called ‘Absinth’, and which were really closer in composition to the
uids used to clean silverware than traditional wormwood-based liquors.

However the excitement generated in the minds of modern drinkers, even by these inadequate
copies of our once-great liquor, set re to the imagination of those who might pro t by a proper
exploitation of it. In Switzerland and Spain, places where the true art of Absinthe-making had
never quite been extinguished, distillers resurrected the ancient art. In France, the true spiritual
home of the alcohol, proponents managed to have the statutes re-examined. It became obvious
to those who looked into the issue that Absinthe had never been a threat to public health, or at
least not more of one than might be expected from an incredibly strong and deceptively tasty
liquor.

Today, throughout Europe you can purchase Absinthe that is as good or better than anything
drank by Vincent Van Gogh. Considering his economic state, I think it’s safe to say you will be
drinking far better quality liquor than Van Gogh. At the very least you will have access to the anti-
depressants that will allow you to better appreciate it.

Distillation:

This is a warning. Because you have purchased this guidebook I assume that you are willing and
able to distill liquor.

It is impossible to make true Absinthe without a still. There are kits on the market, sold to
desperate and ignorant college students, that purport to result in Absinthe, but these generally
involve soaking vodka in a teabag of herbs, including Wormwood. This would not only taste bad,
it would be sad and pathetic.

Further Misconceptions:

Because it is so strong and has such a bad reputation, many people feel they need to drink
Absinthe with very little mixer. This is not wrong, but it is silly. The day is long and your body is
nite. If you drink Absinthe that is nearly pure you will miss out on not only the avour of the
herbal essences but also the rest of the evening, because you will soon black out or fall asleep on
the couch in a puddle of your own stomach acid.

The proper ratio for an aperitif is about 4 or 5 parts of water to one part Absinthe. If you take it too
strong it’s like drinking Everclear, the herbs can’t separate into the water and you won’t taste the
avour.

Water that is added should be cold, but not freezing. Sugar should be cubed, but for aesthetic
reasons only.

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Purchasing:

Before you make Absinthe you should know what it tastes like. Imagine trying to build a bicycle
without ever having seen or ridden one? If you live in America as I do, you will be met with a
number of local brands that are now being sold. They are not terrible. They are also not great.
Since they tend to be only slightly cheaper than the European versions (when amount of alcohol
per unit volume is considered), I would recommend ponying up the cash required to buy online
from France or Switzerland.

If you are purchasing Absinthe online you will be confused by all the di erent brands, so here are
some basic rules of thumb: The best Absinthe tends to be made by the Swiss and the French,
primarily because a lot of the small distilleries in Switzerland never really stopped making it.

If you see something called Swiss Le Bleu or Clandestine, that is essentially the Swiss version of
Absinthe, produced during the dark ages after 1915. Although I make fun of Czechoslovakian
Absinthe, I hear that there are adequate brands being produced there now, though you will have
to brave that market on your own.

Essentially, you should read the reviews and judge for yourself. My current favourite has been
given a mere 70 out of 100 by the Absinthe Buyer’s Guide. This is because it is particularly sharp,
herbal, spicy and avourful. If you read enough reviews, you will get a sense of what will probably
appeal most to you.

Absinthe buyer’s guide:

http://www.feeverte.net/guide/

My favourites:

http://www.feeverte.net/guide/country/france/verte_de_fougerolles_72/

http://www.feeverte.net/guide/country/france/lemercier_abisinthe_amer_72/

http://www.feeverte.net/guide/country/france/Absinthe_edouard_72/

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 PRODUCTION OF ABSINTHE

Hopefully at this point you have a more realistic view of Absinthe and yet still want to try your
hand at producing it. I shall attempt to describe not only the process I have come to use, but the
reasoning behind it. Be aware that this will take time. You have to order the herbs, the still, extra
equipment, bottles, and base ingredients. Once you have these, it will take a few iterations before
you come up with something that anyone other than yourself will want to drink. Patience is the
most important virtue of a successful distiller.

First let’s start with the equipment.

The Still:

Never buy or drink an Absinthe that has not been distilled. If you are merely taking hard liquor and
adding essences to it that is not Absinthe. A still is any device that takes a liquid and raises the
temperature above the boiling point of alcohol but below that of water. The alcohol boils o , or
sublimates, and the resulting vapour is cooled so that it returns to liquid form after it has been
separated from the rest of the mash.

There are exotic forms of stills that use freezing or other methods to separate the alcohol from the
rest of the mash, but for all practical purposes you will need to use either a hotplate or a stove to
make your liquor.

Technically, I believe it is not legal to operate a still in America. But since we will begin our process
with a form of distilled spirit, I think it may be possible to argue that this is not technically distilling
but in fact some other process akin to recombination or maceration. In its simplest form a still can
be created from a pressure cooker and a length of copper tubing, but I never took shop class and
am generally lazy when it comes to physical labor, and so I purchased my own from one of the
many shops online. I recommend you do the same.

If you are a handyman then by all means create your own still; there are plans online that you can
nd with a few seconds searching. But a perfectly serviceable still can be bought for about $250.
It is, however, important to realise the type of still you are using, because there are two main
forms with very di erent end results.

A re ux action or fractionating still is best at stripping out liquor from a mash. It is useful for
obtaining nearly pure alcohol. This type of still tends to have a long, metal tube leading out of a
heated pot. This means that the alcohol vapours that make it to the condensation area are more
pure. There is less avour and more alcohol. You will need this type of still to get the purest base
from which to begin the process of making your Absinthe.

A pot still is necessary if you intend the end product to be avoured by the mash. The distance
from the boiling pot to the condensation area is shorter than with a re ux still, and this means that
more avour is delivered to the end product. You will need this kind of still to get avour in your
nal product.

It is important to realise that in making Absinthe you are going to need both aspects.
Misunderstanding this is probably the most important reason why homemade Absinthe goes
astray.

You need to begin your Absinthe-making process with nearly pure alcohol, and a re ux still will
help with this. But you need to end your distillation process with a pot still, because it is vitally
important that you retain the avour of the Anise, Fennel, and Wormwood. Beginning with a weak

solution of alcohol or using a still that strips out the nal avour will ruin your end product. Luckily,
there are now stills on the market that have extendable lengths of piping between the mash and
the condensing area.

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 Ideally you want something that can work as both, but if you have to make a choice you should
choose a pot still. If you have a pure pot still, you will simply have to re-distill your initial base
liquor one or two extra times until the distillate reaches the appropriate level of purity.

When you purchase your still, read up on the various brands and make your own decision,
remembering that there are a few aspects of Absinthe-making that are unique.

Typically, home distillers begin with a weak mash of sugar, water & yeast, or else a combination of
malted grains and yeast. Once they distill this product they are ready to lter and store it.
Sometimes with a product like vodka, they may redistill numerous times. This sort of product
must be aged in containers with natural lters, mainly carbon, so that bad tasting aspects are
removed.

Absinthe-making reverses this process, because it begins with nearly pure alcohol and the nal
distillation involves a pot that is full to the brim with herbs. You will be using a lot of herbs and it is
important to remember at all times that they are in the pot, because it is easy to overheat your
mash and burn them, ruining the nal product.

There will be more on this later, but these aspects of Absinthe-making require that you have a still
that can both strip out and leave in essences, and one that is easily cleaned. A still that has only a
small central opening into which you are to pour your mash will not work unless the pot can be
opened up for cleaning. In the beginning when you are tempted to speed up the process of
distillation, you will almost certainly overheat your mash and burn the herbs into the bottom of the
pot. This will only happen once or twice however, because the process of scraping burnt herbs o
the bottom of your pot is time consuming and annoying in equal measure.

The still that I use is probably the least attractive one on the market. It is formed from a large
stainless steel pot. The lid is clipped onto it with hardware clamps. This allows a user to quickly
open the pot to either add water or check on the mash and it makes cleanup as easy as possible.

Base or Mash:

Traditionally, Absinthe was made with a grape or beet alcohol base, however it is not important
that you do the same. This base is between 80 to 96% pure, and so there is little avouring added
by any substrate. If you begin your project with a mash of sugar & yeast or else begin as I rst did
with a huge amount of white wine, you will not be any more authentic than someone who starts
with a few bottles of cheap vodka or Everclear. This is because the rst ingredient in the process
of Absinthe-making is this very pure alcohol. How you get it is immaterial, since it will be re-
distilled at least two more times.

It may be cheaper to begin with sugar and water and yeast, however, if you have decided to distill
Absinthe in order to save money you will certainly be disappointed. After much trial and error I
have found that the simplest and cheapest option is to stock up on the least expensive hard liquor
that my local grocery store has on its shelves. It will quickly become apparent to you why this is
easiest if you try one of the other methods.

WARNING:

If you do begin your liquor with a wash of sugar & water, or one of the other similar methods, be
warned that there will be dangerous by-products in your initial mash. There will be small amounts
of the stu that gave bathtub gin a bad name in the 1920s.

In order to prevent blindness or other calamities you should always throw away the heads and
tails of this sort of distillation. That means that the rst 50 ml should be tossed and anything that
distills out once the mash temperature rises above 96˚ C should be thrown away. Be extra careful
with this method to throw out anything that smells like it might work in your lawnmower engine.

Another reason other than simple ease of use for why you might want to begin the Absinthe-
making process with bottles of cheap, local liquor is that you bypass any such concerns.

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 Originally, I wanted to be as authentic as possible and created my Absinthe from boxes and
boxes of white wine, however this added another two steps (of distilling) to the process and was a
general pain in the ass. The end result was a mass of avourless and colourless alcohol,
indistinguishable from puri ed vodka.

I now begin with cheap distilled spirits. I choose to buy 1.75 litre plastic bottles of gin and/or
vodka, whatever is on sale. In fact I take particular pleasure in beginning with rotgut liquor
because I know that I will turn it into something beautiful. It is my Eliza Doolittle.

At the moment I have been able to nd these bottles for about $10-15 apiece. When distilled to
nal product, I have found that taking into account evaporation and other losses, two 1.75 litre
bottles of vodka or gin will result in 1 litre of Absinthe. When you add in the cost of the herbs, a
small batch of Absinthe will run you about $30 to $40 per litre, or less as you become more
e cient. As you make more, you will lower the associated costs.

Typically I like to have 6 litres of 96% alcohol to begin the distillation. This means purchasing 12
bottles of rotgut vodka. My still can only hold 6 litres at a time, with room for boiling, and so in the
beginning of the process I run the still twice, each time condensing 6 litres of standard vodka into
nearly pure alcohol, which is saved in the empty plastic bottles. Mark these bottles with a
distinctive sign to indicate the percentage of alcohol and that they are pure. Later on you will have
to place the rst (transparent) stage of your Absinthe into these bottles and you don’t want to
confuse this product with the base.

In Addition:

A small digital scale is inexpensive and necessary for measuring out your herbs. You also need an
alcoholometer (it’s like a thermometer that measures the percentage of alcohol in a liquid), a
digital thermometer, and some graduated cylinders to measure your distillate. Ideally your still will
come with a thermometer or at least a convenient way to measure the temperature while you are
distilling. Depending on the nature of your still you may also need things like insulating tape or
copper mesh, but this should be clear from the instructions that come with your still. Do not under
any circumstances try to make drinkable spirits without an alcoholometer and a thermometer.
That would be dumb.

The Herbs:

Surprisingly, this is the easiest part of the process. All the herbs are fairly easy to nd with the sole
exception being Roman Wormwood (petite wormwood) also called Artemesia Pontica, which is
only sourced from a few places and is unnecessarily expensive because of it. This is used in the
nal stage of the process, after the more robust avours of regular Wormwood have been added
to the distillate.

Also surprisingly, regular Wormwood (Artemesia Absinthium) is used for many purposes and is
cheap. Roman Wormwood is used only by Absintheurs and consequently is pricey. DO NOT use
regular wormwood in place of Roman Wormwood. If you cannot obtain Roman Wormwood for the
nal stage of the process simply skip it altogether. Absinthe needs both products but the less
bitter Roman wormwood is used only at the end. If you use regular Wormwood at this point it will
taste bitter and unpleasant.

Later on in this guide you will nd the exact amounts of herbs that you will need to purchase,
depending on how much Absinthe you intend to produce.

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 The primary and only essential ingredients of a superior Absinthe are:

In the initial distillation phase:

Anise, Fennel, and Grand (traditional) Wormwood.

And in the nishing or maceration stage:

Petite (also called Roman) Wormwood, Hyssop, and Lemon Balm (also called Melissa).

However, many other herbs can be used at any stage of the process. Once you master the initial
distillation, feel free to improvise, either by changing the herbal proportions or by adding new
avours altogether.

Good Sources: With the exception of Roman Wormwood each of the ingredients of Absinthe are
relatively inexpensive and easy to locate. In addition to the above listed ingredients you might also
want to purchase a small supply of Star Anise, which is helpful to add avouring at the end of the
process, most especially if you nd yourself with a re ux still that has stripped out too much of
the initial avouring. Keep in mind however that the Anise you are using during the rst stage is
Green Anise or Anise Seed Powder, not Star Anise.

There are many companies that supply bulk herbs, but here is a fair beginning to your search:

http://www.herbalcom.com/

http://www.wildroots.com/

And for Italian Pontica/ Roman Wormwood/ Petite Wormwood (all same thing):

http://www.cascadeherbs.com/

THE DISTILLATION PROCESS:

You have done your research by purchasing a quality Absinthe and drinking it, preferably with
friends. You have purchased or created a still that will not explode in a ery ball of face-searing
alcohol vapour. You have read up on the ingredients and purchased the appropriate amounts of all
herbs necessary to make between one and six litres of Absinthe. Now you are ready to begin.

First of all, you need to build your base. By this I mean you need to begin your Absinthe-making
with a large quantity of nearly pure alcohol. This is not something most people can purchase
directly, so I am assuming you are going to create it. If you are taking the hard route and
beginning with sugar and water, then you will be distilling your mash at least once but probably
twice more than is described here.

I will assume that you are taking my advice and beginning with 12 bottles of inexpensive liquor,
preferably vodka or gin.

It took three attempts before I created something drinkable, and another two before I was able to
make an Absinthe that I thought was as good as the kind I like most, which at the moment is Verte
De Fougerolles 72. There are factors that go into the process that each distiller will have to
experiment with, but I try to describe them all as this guide progresses. Because my machine is a
tilt/re ux still, with a longer path between pot and condenser, there were elements that I had to
change in order to get the most avour out of the nal distillation.

The rst batch I created had too little avour and the next batch too much. As you run through
this in the creation of your own rst batch, you will have to make your own changes to the
process depending on local conditions, herbs and equipment. Your tastebuds should be the nal
arbiter of quality in this activity, because above all a properly made Absinthe should be something
that you enjoy drinking. If it is not, then you have failed and should immediately head back to the
kitchen.

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 FIRST:

First purchase 12 to 15, 1.75 litre bottles of clear liquor, either gin or vodka. The cheaper the
better.

Next, you run all of it through your still. The resulting distillate should be well over 80 percent
alcohol; if it is not then you run it through again. Typically I will end up with 7 or 8, 1.75 litre bottles
of high percentile alcohol, which is of course transparent. If it appears milky then you are doing
something wrong. This process will take about a day, during which you have to tend to the still at
regular intervals. Never leave the house with the still running. Never turn up the heat so high that
there is a strong boiling.

The temperature for this stage of the process should be approximately 178˚ Fahrenheit. Your still
should provide a way for you to measure this with a digital thermometer. Most stills do. The
stages at which your alcohol begins to burn o and at which it nishes are fairly distinct so don’t
worry if you are o by a few degrees. It should be obvious as it progresses.

If you are following these guidelines and using cheap liquor for this step, then you can turn the
heat up somewhat to speed up the beginning of the process. Because there is nothing extraneous
that needs to be burned o , you can crank up the still as long as the alcohol inside is not bubbling
so much that it begins to splash against the top or spray into the condensing tube.

I should probably stress the fact that your still needs to be monitored. While it is in no danger of
exploding, because there are not extreme pressures brought into play, your still is full, at least
after the rst distillation, with highly ammable liquid. If you are operating a still with 85% alcohol
and it over-boils, there is a strong possibility that it will spray hot alcohol across your kitchen. If
you are using a gas stove then this alcohol will immediately catch on re. This is a health hazard
for all sorts of reasons and should be avoided.

Another concern is a still that leaks.

If your still is fairly primitive like mine, and has a top that is held on with clamps, then there is a
possibility that small leaks can occur during distillation. If this happens then alcohol in pure
vapour form will escape into the room. This will rob you of valuable source material and can, if
gone undetected, give you a long-lasting and mysterious headache. If you are distilling and there
is steam coming from the pot, you need to nd a way to stop it. It is not steam, it’s alcohol.

There will be a large amount of leftover material in your pot after distilling the rst round of cheap
liquor. This you throw away.

Finally, you are left with about seven or eight bottles of clear liquor which should be blended
together so the cumulative alcohol content is over 85%. If you have a pot still or are doing a bad
job of it, your initial distillations might yield an alcohol that is only 65 or 70%. If this is the case
then you need to redistill, until you reach the appropriate concentration.

If you have begun with a weak mash or with wine then you will certainly have to redistill. This is
boring and takes far longer than you had planned, and so it is unlikely you will take this route a
second time. Very few people are dedicated enough to spend the entire day watching alcohol
dribble into a bottle, knowing full well that it is only the rst of many steps toward inebriation.

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 SECOND:

At this point you should be extremely eager to begin drinking, but there are more days ahead, so
perhaps you should mix a quick gin and tonic to tide you over. Rushing the next two stages will
only result in more time later on, as you return to the beginning.

After cleaning out the empty still, you next add the herbs in the appropriate measurements, as
described below. Typically I make batches of 6 litres at a time, but I have included measurements
of herbs per litre so you can create a batch that suits you. It makes sense to begin with smaller
batches so that you don’t waste time and money in the development of your craft.

To the empty still you add: Anise, Fennel and Grand Wormwood. Because Anise seems to be
stripped out more easily, I sometimes add extra Anise or Star Anise to the batch, which is a
di erent but related herb. You will be surprised at how much herb is needed. This is why it is
important to have a pot that is easily accessed.

To the herbs you add your alcohol, in the amounts speci ed. Ideally the alcohol is as strong as
you can make it. It will be very slightly diluted at a later point.

Then you clamp the top on your still and leave it. The essences of the Wormwood, Anise and
Fennel will be brought out by the alcohol.

The amount of time you let this sit is very important and is the primary variable in the ultimate
taste of your liquor. Each recipe for Absinthe will give you a di erent amount of time to let this
step macerate.

The nature of your still will help to determine what is the right amount of time for you. If your still is
stripping out a lot of the avour, then you need to let it sit longer. If your end result tastes syrupy
or over-Anised, then perhaps you should begin distilling sooner. In the beginning it’s better to let it
sit longer, because it is easy to strip out avour and impossible to add it without making the liquor
cloudy.

Personally, with my own still, I have found that one day is too short and ve days are too long. I try
to add the herbs and alcohol in the afternoon, and then leave it to sit for a full day and a half, and
then in the morning I move to the next step of the process. You need to nd out what is right for
you, but this is a good point of departure.

Resist the urge to open the still and poke your nose into it while it is macerating. You will almost
certainly do this anyway, but resist.

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 THIRD:

Next, we distill again.

At this point your alcohol and herb concoction has been macerating for at least a day but
probably two or three. The resulting liquid is completely undrinkable, so don’t even make an
attempt. You should begin distilling in the morning, because you are going to be doing this all day
long and you don’t want to be groggy by the end of it.

First, add distilled water from the supermarket, in the amount listed below. If you don’t do this,
you will burn your herbs and the whole batch will taste terrible. If you nd your distillate beginning
to turn brown, you are burning it. Be very wary of coloration at this stage, because it is not your
friend.

Mix the water in and stir your pot with a large, wooden spoon. Then you should let it sit for an
hour or more. This will allow the herbal essences to continue to soak into the alcohol. Patience
will be rewarded.

At this stage, you certainly do not want to be using a Re ux Still. You want to be using your
device as a pot still, because the essences in the alcohol are essential to both avour and the
louche. If you strip out avour then you will also strip out the oils that allow the Absinthe to louche
properly.

For stills like mine, with some room to manipulate, you want to shorten the distance between the
pot and the tube that is condensing the vapours. If there is copper mesh in the tubing you might
want to remove it for this stage of the process. Anything you can do to shorten the surface area
that the alcohol vapour has to go across before it reaches the condensation tubing will be helpful.

This distillation will take even longer than the previous one, because while it is operating you want
to keep the heat down to the lowest level that will produce a steady, heavy dripping from the
condenser.

If you turn the heat up too high it will burn the distillate and the product will taste bad. Your still
will be dripping into a catch-bottle at a rate that might become mind-numbingly frustrating on the
rst attempt. That’s just the way it is.

Six litres at two drops a second is longer than you might rst imagine. If you turn the heat up too
high however you will long for that previous frustration, because once the herbs in the pot are
burnt, the entire batch from that point on will be ruined. If this happens to you, collect all the clear
distillate that you have and keep it separate. Then, you will have to run the rest of the batch
through the still, saving it for use later, back at square one of the process.

Any ruined alcohol can be re-distilled, but you will lose a certain percentage of it to sublimation,
and you will lose all the time it takes to run this through your still, which is perhaps the most
valuable of all if you have anything better to do than watch liquid dripping into a bottle.

If you need to leave the house for some reason or want to take a break for lunch, it is perfectly
acceptable to turn o the heat under your still for a short while, as long as there is a little bit of air
that can ow back into the pot.

When heating your mash, you can turn up the ame under your still during the rst few minutes
while the pot begins to heat up. Be careful however not to turn the heat up too high or you will
burn your herbs. It will take quite a while to heat the initial pot to the point of sublimation, which is
approximately 178˚ F.

As you run through the batch, the temperature will very slowly rise and the percentage of alcohol
that is condensing out will slowly drop. This is natural and good. As long as the liquid you are
collecting is clear and not milky white or brown you are safe. If you see it turning milky white or
brown then immediately begin collecting your alcohol in a di erent container. At this point you are
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 burning o the end of the distillate and the taste will be o . You should continue to distill however,
and save the remainder for your next round of Absinthe making.

Initially you will be worried that the Absinthe you are making is somehow wrong. It will be clear
and the fragrance may be much less than you would have expected from the bottles you’ve
tasted. To double check your quality at this stage of the process, collect about 10 ml of distillate
in a graduated cylinder. You should have bought at least one graduated cylinder from the same
company that sold you your still. These are handy because you will want to continually be testing
your distillate to check the alcohol content.

In the beginning your distillate should be almost pure alcohol. By the end you will see the percent
hovering around 40. Below that, you should probably stop collecting for end-use and begin
collecting for later re-distillation. Later on, you will blend all the collected distillate and it is
important that the end result be at least 70 percent purity for the nal maceration to be completely
e ective.

But for now you are worried about the quality of your alcohol.

You have your graduated cylinder with 10 ml. of distillate in it. Smell this. Now add another 10 ml.
of pure water. If you can smell a simple, clear Anise quality then you are doing well. When you add
water you should see the liquid become opaque or cloudy. This is very good. This is an aspect of
the louche.

If there is a smoky, a burnt, or a wet cardboard smell, then you are not ne.

Smokiness means that you have turned the heat up too high under your still or else that you’ve
forgotten to add distilled water before beginning the heat. Either way, you are screwed.

If there is a wet cardboard smell then you are not screwed, but your alcohol may not be as tasty
as you had hoped. This can be caused by a number of factors. Your still, rst of all, might not be
clean. Or you may have started with inferior alcohol. If you are making your own alcohol from
scratch there is a much higher likelihood of this smell occurring. Finally, your still may be stripping
out too much of the avour. If this is the case then try to nd a way of shortening the distance
from the heated pot to the area of condensation. This is where the craft of distillation is most
apparent. Every still is di erent and accommodations must be made for each di erent
architecture.

As you distill this round, you should collect the product in bottles and measure it regularly with
your alcohol meter. Once the level drops below 30% you might as well turn up the heat a little and
burn o the rest to save for later. Don’t turn up the heat too much though, or you will have a more
di cult time cleaning the burnt herbs from the bottom of the pot. Always begin the distillation
process with a clean pot, because carbonised herbs will taint the taste and ruin all your hard
work. This is something that most other distillers don’t have to worry about. The amount of herbs
used in authentic Absinthe is awe-inspiring (or agony-inducing depending on the mistakes you’ve
made).

One thing you might try if you catch the distillate turning brown is to immediately add distilled
water to the pot. There is an outside chance you might catch it in time and save yourself a litre or
two, if you are in the middle of a run. If the distillate turns milky however this means that you are
basically nished. At this point you should collect the remainder separately to use for later
batches.

Once you have this batch distilled you should clean your still and let it dry. Mix the remaining
alcohol that you have produced so that the alcohol level is even and consistent.

It should all be transparent and clean-smelling. The alcohol level should be pretty high, around
80% to 85%. As long as it’s over 70% you have no need to worry. If you nd that the alcohol level
is between 60 to 70% then you probably did not begin with alcohol of the appropriate purity.

You have nished the most di cult part of the process.

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FOURTH:

Now we have the nal stage, which is the nish.

At this point you should have a collection of unused herbs. What we do now is to mix those herbs
with the liquor under a low heat, in a more delicate act of maceration, and let the essences of
these more mellow and pleasant herbs add to the avour.

Because we are only soaking the herbs in this powerful liquor and not re-distilling, we have to
keep in mind how best to remove the herbs from our end-product. I have found that creating a
sachet, or giant teabag, is most e cient. For this, you will need clean white cloth and string. A
basic, unused T-Shirt works ne.

For this stage of the traditional recipe we are using Petite (Roman) Wormwood, Hyssop and
Lemon Balm (Melissa). Once you master this form, you might want to try other herbs at this stage.
Sometimes liquorice root, coriander or angelica are added. Anything light and not too earthy or
overpowering can be tasty.

If you have come this far without any problems you will want to be very careful not to taint the
entire run. I tend to work in batches, so that if I happen to screw up a few litres I don’t ruin the
rest. Assuming that you have 6 to 8 litres of 70% or higher distillate, you should rst pour two to
four litres into a clean pot on the stove.

Next, measure out the appropriate amount of the remaining herbs. I have given measurements
below in relation to single litre increments. What I like to do is to measure out the Petite
Wormwood, Hyssop and Lemon Balm in single litre increments and use these to create the
sachets. That way you can just throw as many into the pot as you need for each batch. If you nd
that you are successful in the early stages, then you can create larger and larger batches.

Pour your herbs into the centre of a clean, white T-Shirt, cut out a square of cloth around the
mass, and then tie it o with a string. Once you have your sachet, cut o extraneous bits with a
sharp pair of scissors, because cloth and string can soak up alcohol.

Add the sachets to the liquor in the pot on the stove and slowly heat the mixture to 122 degrees
Fahrenheit. Don’t overheat, because you will start to burn o the alcohol.

Once it reaches the right temperature, turn o the heat and then with clean hands squeeze the
teabag a few times until you see the liquor turning bright green. Once the mixture is thoroughly
green, put the top on the pot and let it cool down.

After it cools, squeeze the teabag tightly a few times into the pot and save it for later. Ideally you
should use each bag only once, but if you need to you can use them more often. If the liquor turns
green, it’s working.

If everything goes according to plan you will have at this point 6 to 8 litres of authentic, artisanal
Absinthe. Ideally it should be between 70 to 80 percent alcohol. If all the batches seem equally
well executed then mix them together in a large pot and add distilled water to the mixture until it is
the strength you desire. Personally I shoot for 72% alcohol, but as long as your Absinthe is not
turning milky or opalescent, it it acceptable. Alcohol percentages range anywhere from 55% on
up.

When you pour the nal product into bottles it should be an emerald (slightly murky or earthy)
green. This is the natural colour. Taste it to make sure you like it and then let it sit for a few days to
a few weeks if you have the patience.

There will be sediment in the bottom of your bottles but this is also natural and looks cool. If you
want to avoid the sediment you can decant the product into another container after a day or two.

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 Under no circumstances should you carbon lter your Absinthe at this point. Any ltering should
have been done to the original alcohol that was used to create the rst distillation. If you decide to
carbon lter your alcohol, all the avour and herbal qualities will be stripped out and you will be
very unhappy, as I was when I did it.

Compare your Absinthe with the professionally produced bottle that you bought from France or
Switzerland. Compare the aroma before and after adding water, the colour of the product both
before and after, and the avour of the mixture on your tongue. By this time if you have done your
job correctly, you should be incapable of operating heavy machinery.

Here is my personal recipe developed over a period of two years. It is substantially based on the
work of others and is, hopefully, comparable to that made at the turn of the century.

RECIPE:

Randy’s Verte d’La Brea 72:

(makes six litres)

Start with 6 to 8 litres of alcohol at around 85 – 95% purity.

In the still add:

Green Anise (or ground anise seed if other not available): 450 g = 16 oz

Fennel of Florence (or ground fennel seeds if not available) 250 g = 8.9 oz

Grand Wormwood 160 g = 5.7 oz.

Leave for an amount of time, more than one day, less than ve days, to taste.

Add: 3 litres distilled water.

Distill the product.

Take the distillate and add:

Lemon Balm (Melissa): 45 g = 1.6 oz

Hyssop 35 g = 1.25 oz

Petite Wormwood (Artemesia Pontica): 40 g = 1.4 oz

Other herbs to taste:

Heat to 122 degrees and then let cool in a covered container.

Strain herbs and mix all the remaining distillate into a pot for uniformity.

Add distilled water to bring the alcohol level to 72 percent.

Bottle and allow to settle.

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 FOR A SINGLE LITRE:

Green Anise 75 g = 2.7 oz

Fennel of Florence 42 g = 1.5 oz

Grand Wormwood 27 g = 1 oz.

Lemon Balm (Melissa): 7.5 g = .27 oz

Hyssop 6 g = .2 oz

Petite Wormwood (Artemesia Pontica): 6.7 g = .25 oz

RECIPE FOR SWISS CLANDESTINE:

(for one litre)

25 g Grand Wormwood

60 grams Green Anise

40 g Fennel

10 g Coriander

5 g Angelica

1 liter alcohol:

add water and distill

Finishing:

10 g Petite Wormwood

7.5 g Melissa or Lemon Balm

7.5 g Hyssop

TROUBLESHOOTING:

If you nd that your still is stripping out too much of the anise/fennel/wormwood, or if it doesn’t
louche properly, it’s probably best to start over. However, if it is close to drinkable but not quite
there, you can try adding some Star Anise to the liquor and let it sit for a few days. Break up the
pods into little pieces and add them to bottles of your inadequate liquor. You might also add
Coriander and Fennel Seeds.

Keep tasting it regularly, because Star Anise is very strong. Its avour will slowly overwhelm the
original, for better or worse. It will also begin to colour your liquor a light brown. This is natural,
though of course not ideal.

When giving Absinthe to friends and acquaintances be sure to inform them of the proper way to
drink it. If taken too strong, it will be unpleasant.

The biggest threat to production is your own lack of patience. If you can learn to appreciate the
process for itself you will certainly be happier with yourself and your liquor.

I’m happy to help out if you are still confused: rhortx@hypnoid.com

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