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cant wait! my plants are growing and am anxiously awaiting to make some up. i am curious. are there any methods of testing the strength of the absintium (whats the chemical called????)?

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any pictures?

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wheres the calamus? calamus is very important to getting the full effect

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I too had begun to make personal absinthes with fewer herbs in the recipe because of ease as well as better flavor.

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Too many kinds of herbs tend to clutter the senses, aye. The only ones who get away with using dozens of herbs in my view are the Jägermeister people.

Neuro - you should see that louche, it's wonderful

You should give this recipy a try. It is a bit daring to go for mint prominence but in no way does it have the dreaded "chewing gum" taste of not a few commercial absinthes.

There is no comparing essences with herbs for distilling.

I'm downright euphoric, half absinthe and half the joy of having made this wonderful stuff

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Was your wormwood cut?Also was it store bought or did you grow it?

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Storebought, and it was cut in the sense of sliced, not "adulterated".

I've committed a barbarism
I've taken the 800ml that was left after a test taste with a friend (who liked it and was taken by pleasant surprise by Absinthe's "differentness") and dissolved 240 grams of sugar into it (in the proportion of 300gr to a liter) effectively turning it into a liqueur that can be diluted with 2.5 parts cold water to give an instant sugared absinthe.

When bought absinthe contains sugar, most often something is being covered up. Having made this one myself I know nothing is being covered up - I just wanted to experiment. As expected the oils stayed in solution. The absinthe seems to be euphoric, compared to other alcoholic drinks.

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When you say " steep " the herbs overnight,
do you mean just soak at room temp overnight?

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Also, when you make your wok still and turn the heat on the three liters, how do you heat control?
On high at first until it boils then down to low? steady medium? steady low?
How long approximately does it take to get the 1 litter out of three( using proper heating technique?)

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Wiccan_Seeker said:

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When you say " steep " the herbs overnight,
do you mean just soak at room temp overnight?

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Yup, if you do it by the book the recommendation is 12-24 hours.

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Also, when you make your wok still and turn the heat on the three liters, how do you heat control?
On high at first until it boils then down to low? steady medium? steady low?
How long approximately does it take to get the 1 litter out of three( using proper heating technique?)

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Basically I bring it to a boil on a high temperature, then turn down the gas to medium.

When I'm distilling wash (14% --> 50+%) I put 4 liters in the kettle, heat it up (lasts 15minutes) and then distill for 40 minutes.
In these 40 minutes I draw off a liter of typically 55%.
In the next 5 minutes I collect the distillate, throw out and replace the wash and start the process anew, so for me turning 4 liters of 14% into 1 liter 55% costs little under 1 hour, including heatup phase.

You need to optimize what works for you. Your pots and pans are different, your stove is different and unless you still 14% Turbo wash your wash will be different.

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Thanks