How To Brew Absinthe
If you live in a country where it is hard to find real wormwood Absinthe, or you just fancy having a go at making your very own Absinthe, you will want to know how to brew Absinthe at home.
Henri-Louis Pernod made his Absinthe with a wine base and herbs including aniseed, hyssop, fennel, lemon balm, star anise, angelica, veronica, juniper, dittany and nutmeg. Czech company Sebor use a blend of 13 herbs, including chamomile and mint in addition to wormwood, and a 100 year old recipe to make their Absinthe.
There are 3 main ways to make your own Absinthe drink:-
1.Use a recipe to distill your own Absinthe liquor.
2.Use an Absinthe Kit with a blend of herbs and instructions.
3.Use an Absinthe essence
How to Brew Absinthe Using a Recipe
Distilling liquor at home is illegal in most countries unless you have a license and is quite complicated. Typical home-brew recipes include:-
– Wormwood (Grande Wormwood, Artemisia Absinthium)
– Green Anise
– Fennel
– Alcohol
The ingredients are first macerated for several hours, heated and then slowly distilled and then colored with extra herbs such as lemon balm, hyssop and petite wormwood. The mixture is then heated again, then filtered and diluted.
Other recipes do not require distillation, just a blend of herbs with alcohol. For example:-
– 30g/ 1 ounce dried Wormwood
– 1 teaspoon hyssop
– 1 tablespoon angelica
– 1 pinch of fennel seeds (could use anise instead)
– 1 teaspoon of lemon balm
– ¼ teaspoon each of caraway seeds and coriander seeds
– 1 liter of Everclear or vodka
In a bottle mix chopped dried wormwood with the alcohol and leave for 1-2 weeks in a cool dark place. Filter or sieve out the wormwood and mix in the other herbs. Wait for 3 or 4 days and then filter or sieve again. The Absinthe is now ready.
Brewing Absinthe at home in these ways is not recommended. Distilling is tricky and usually illegal and simply mixing the herbs with alcohol does not give a true Absinthe.
How To Brew Absinthe with a Herbal Blend Kit
There are many different herbal kits on sale online, for example the kits from Green Devil. Their kits include:-
– Their unique micron filtration system.
– An Absinthe blend containing grande wormwood, hyssop, calamus, melissa, anise seed, fennel seed, star anise and coriander see.
– Absinthe flavoring and finishing blend containing more herbal ingredients.
Their Deluxe kit also contains two Absinthe spoons, two Absinthe glasses, a 1000ml bottle, two bottle labels, two muslin bags for infusing the herbs, a poster and a pamphlet containing information and instructions.
They claim that their finished Absinthe will contain as much as 70-90mg of thujone per liter – rather a large amount of thujone, the chemical found in wormwood which was once claimed to cause psychedelic effects. There is no distilling involved so the Absinthe produced will not be a true Absinthe.
How To Brew Absinthe With an Essence
Absinthe essences are available to buy from AbsintheKit.com are an easy way to make real Absinthe at home. The essences are made from traditional Absinthe herbs and are already distilled. Simply mix the essence with Everclear or vodka and you have your very own bottle of the Green Fairy.
4 types of essence are available – one to make a classic verte Absinthe, one to make a clear La Bleue style Absinthe, one to make an orange flavored Absinthe and another to make a stronger more bitter Absinthe. They all contain real wormwood and are essences used by the Absinthe industry.
AbsintheKit.com also sell their essences in kits containing enough essence to make 14 bottles of Absinthe, bottle labels and a plastic measure. See their website to get more information on how to brew Absinthe with their essences.