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 used a wine base and herbs including aniseed, hyssop, fennel, lemon balm, star anise, angelica, veronica, juniper, dittany and nutmeg in his Absinthe production. Besides using a blend of 13 herbs Czech company Sebor also uses 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 for the distillation of 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)
– Importance of 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. It is necessary to re-heat the mixture before filtration and dilution.
There is no requirement of distillation for the preparation of other recipes. For instance:-
– It is necessary to have 30g/ 1 ounce dried Wormwood
– 1 teaspoon hyssop
– One will need a tablespoon angelica
– 1 pinch of fennel seeds or anise seeds
– A teaspoon of lemon balm is necessary for it
– 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. The filtered wormwood should be mixed in the other herbs. It is necessary to filter it after 3 or 4 days. This is the real Absinthe.
Brewing Absinthe at home in these ways is not recommended. One cannot get the real Absinthe by simply mixing the herbs with alcohol.
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 are available with these things
– Their unique micron filtration system.
– An Absinthe blend includes grande wormwood, hyssop, anise seed, fennel seed, calamus, melissa, star anise and coriander seed.
– There is more herbal ingredients in Absinthe flavoring and finishing blend.
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 which is the chemical found in wormwood and was believed to cause psychedelic effects. After distillation a true Absinthe is produced.
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 prepared from traditional Absinthe herbs. Mix the essence with Everclear or vodka to have your own bottled Absinthe.
4 types of essence are available for making four different types of 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. A person can go through their website to get more information on how to brew Absinthe with their essences.