I Made A Historic 1700's Absinth

I'm excited to make Absinthe. But not just any old absinthe. This recipe is 250 years old! Today I'm making historic absinthe from the 1700s.

Sign up to Clocks And Colours newsletter to be in to win a $500 voucher and a CTC goodies bag:

A HUGE thank you to Alan Bishop for making this project possible. You can listen to the full podcast where Alan goes into much more detail here:

Spirits Of French Lick:

Alans Youtube Channel:

"Brandy" Recipe (this is scalable):
95 L (25 gal) of water
14kg (30,9 lb) of sugar
1kg (2.2 lb) of raisins
1kg (2.2 lb) of oats

Macerate for 24 hours starting at 170 f / 76 c
2 L of 170 proof / 85 % "brandy"
90 g of wormwood
53 g of anise
53 g of fennel
26 g of mint
53 g of Lemon Balm
5 g angelica seed

Proof the maceration down to 40% ABV and pot still it. Take a small amount of "foreshots".
Collect down to 60% abv and keep as "hearts"
60% - 40% can be kept to distill again with the next batch of brandy
40% and down can be kept to distill again with the next botanical distillation.

Separate 48% of your hearts and heat to 140 f / 60 c and colour with:
2 g of hyssop
3 g of spinach
I macerated for 12min. You should either macerate much longer or double or even triple the amount of coloring botanicals as my absinthe was not colored heavily enough.

----------------------------------------
Because I lost 3L of the upper hearts my spirit was under proofed. I took some of the lowest hearts and redistilled them. Then blended them back into the highest abv hearts I had. Just don't spill your spirit and you won't need to do this. Sigh. Be careful people!

=============================
Links for stuff in this video
=============================

CTC Glencairn Glasses

Still Spirits Air Still

Use the code "STILLIT10" to get 10% an EasyDens at:
(Discount code valid until December 17th, 2022)

=============================
Popular Series
=============================

Safety Net
Want to jump into all grain but worried about the process or the amount of gear you need? This series is perfect for you. Real all grain mashes with a safety net and minimal equipment:

Meme Spirits
Goofing off with a mini still and some fun ingredients. Sometimes you just need to have some fun!

Distilling fruit and veg
Want to know what happens when you distill a potato, banana or apple?

=============================
Merch And Products
=============================

For hats, shirts, coins, Glencairn glasses and general paraphernalia visit the CTC shop

Still Its Teespring Page (Shirts and hats)

CTC - Into The AM Collab Shirt

=============================
Merch And Products
=============================

For hats, shirts, coins, Glencairn glasses and general paraphernalia visit the CTC shop

Still Its Teespring Page (Shirts and hats)

CTC - Into The AM Collab Shirt

=============================
More From Chase The Craft
=============================

Still Its Patreon Page:

Support Me With Youtube Memberships

CTC Podcast On Apple Podcast:

CTC Podcast On Spotify:

CTC Podcast On Stitcher:

Subscribe To The Channel Here:

=============================
Things & I Use &/or Recommend
=============================

Check out Badmo's Awesome Wood And Stainless Barrels:

The Cool Trippy Shirts Im Always Wearing:

T500 Turbo Reflux Still

Refractometer - Sugar

Refractometer - alcohol %

IR Thermometer

Induction Heater

Fruit Press

#distilling #homebrew #whiskey

I often include affiliate links in my videos and descriptions. This will not change the price for you at all, but the seller will give me a small kickback. Cool eh?

[StillIt]

Hows it going, team? I screwed a few things up! Apologies for the 1kg = 1.1 lb blunder. Its fixed in the description I cant fix it in the video :(

Alan has some constructive feedback also (his screen name is One Piece At A Time Distilling Institute).

- Petite Wormwood is a majour colouring componant. But its very hard to find. It will give a darker color
- Spinach would be dried and give better colour

[firbolg]

Swiss bloke here... I can't drink alcohol anymore due to my current PTSD medication but that doesn't take anything from the pleasure of watching your experimentations. Thanks for that!

[stefanbachrodt]

In Antibes, France there's a bar that's half underground and shaped as a dome made of chiseled rock, we simply called it Absinthe Bar since all they served was Absinthe. The variety was spectacular! Their concentrates were however so powerful and difficult to source that you would be limited to only 3 shots worth per sitting. I went 3 times and all 9 servings blew my mind. Their pickled onions and garlic was also some of the best I've ever had and made for an epic lil side dish. Good memories! If anyone reading this ever visits France, go find that place, you will not be disappointed!

[Squeeeez]

Your absinthe looks pretty similar to the rare traditional stuff that you can find when you know a farmer in the valley where it comes from, congratulations! :)

[wookieecantina]

The Green Fairy appreciates your hard work and dedication!

[sydthegoat]

I always thought the thujone in Absinthe would instantly turn me into an Avant-garde artiste and allow me to hang with the Bohemians, but all I got was bogans

[hipgnosis]

In regards to color, Petite Wormwood is also a major coloring and aroma component, although it's very hard to find. I suspect if you used it you would likely get a much darker color. The spinach would likely darken as well if the spinach were dried. Lemon balm also gives great color!

[TheBaconWizard]

Absinth Rouge is a thing. Finish it with hibiscus for colouring (it does affect the flavour in a good way) and potentially some rose petals. I just use a touch of rose-water in addition to my mineral water when proofing it down off the still and then add-in the hibiscus for colour.

[genghisken]

Always remember the old saying: "Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder"

[hipgnosis]

Great job Jesse, not a bad go at all for the first try! It has been awesome working with you!

[yannickalbert]

Very cool video !
Maybe you can try this receipe next time :

“Have a still that holds 24 bottles of good brandy. To these 24 bottles add a bucket of fountain water. Then put:
Two pounds of green anise
Two pounds of fennel
Half a pound of big absinthe
A pound of Gaula campana
Distill over low heat without leaving the still. Before distillation, the substances can be left to infuse in the eau-de-vie for 24 hours.
As the extract is distilled, two large, wide-mouthed glass jars are required; we put this liquor in it and then we share the following drugs which we infuse in it to give the green color:
A quarter pound of lemon balm
Half a pound of small absinthe
Half a pound of hyssop
It is left to infuse for four days in the heat of the sun, or on a stove if it is in winter. We then go through a felt hat; we squeeze the herbs tightly with both hands and put them back in the still for another cooking. »

Translated directly from old french, hope you understant everything. This is the Doctor Ordinaire's original receipe.

Have fun !

PS: Absinthe come from Val de Travers, in Switzerland, but it's not in Swiss Alpes ( believe me, I'm writing from there actually ;-) )

[rogerphillips]

I just made a version of this recipe, the product was pretty good, i fouled up the order for wormwood so i ended up with 50gm not 95 as the recipe says, i halved all the ingredients, so i macerated for 12 hours then distilled through my air.
still, all cuts except the tails where added there was no really bad tastes,
i added half the tails as there was a earthy, woody, herby taste which added to the subtle back ground tastes
Final product 79 abv, gonna leave it at that strength.
I had a sample 10 ml just with 3 ice cubes, wow, it tasted like a strong pernod with the extra back ground licurice and botanical taste, the product leuched well, love it, nice one Jesse.
For colour, i used some of the spirit and crushed up 3 large spinach leaves until the colour leached out and filtered through cotton wool back into the jar, got a lovely pale green looks fantastic.
Hope this helps anyone havin a bash at this.

[jodyrockhill]

Your on screen conversions to us Americans is both hilarious and appreciated

[realtyrocks]

I loved the 1700's. The parties were insane.

[bullionbacked]

As for production of the the expected green liquor, next time press the mixture of the spinach and hyssop before removal, this will draw out more color and make it greener.

[potzdonner]

Thank you! Great video, admirable work! As a dweller of the Swiss Alps, I should add a correction: Absinthe does not come from the Swiss Alps but the Swiss Jura mountains which are outside the Alps at the northeastern end of Switzerland. The Jurassians, as the Jura dwellers are called, are the proud makers of the (illegal until 2005) green fairy. I would not want to take that honor from them or make them angry. Otherwise they might curse the green fairy.
I have tasted many kinds of original Absinthe moonshine. There are different colors from clear to yellowish-green to deep green. I prefer it whitout water but its richness in flavors comes out both ways. So I sip some pure then add water to enjoy the rest. I do agree with the Ouzo comparison.

[lawrenceiverson]

To put on bottom to stop burning you can just bend a couple coat hangers to fit and keep bag off bottom !!!

[ericenos]

Absinth just bursts with flavor I can see why people loved it back in the day. Great video

[nonchip]

48 is a multiple of 12, which was used for essentially ever as an "everyday counting" base (because you have 12 finger segments you can point at with your thumb), so that measure might just been "some amount of dozens" originally and nobody bothered to round to 50%.

[SamwiseOutdoors]

My favorite spirit, made in a traditional way by my favorite distilling creator. What a happy Sunday.