The Green Menace -- not so menacing after all

Absinthe revival through analytical chemistry

Further reading

I have never tasted commercial absinthe. However, a friend of ours has given us a couple of bottles of his homemade product. I'm not a huge fan of anise-flavored drinks, but I enjoyed this. Contrary to the comments in this thread, home production is possible, if illegal.

home production or home distillation? I guess no matter how you slice it, it is illegal to produce Absinthe at home. In general, It is legal to make liqueur at home for personal use provided it is not produced in a home still. Owning a still is illegal, last I heard from my blind, toothless moonshine-chuggin' auntie.

Queijo wrote:home production or home distillation? I guess no matter how you slice it, it is illegal to produce Absinthe at home. In general, It is legal to make liqueur at home for personal use provided it is not produced in a home still. Owning a still is illegal, last I heard from my blind, toothless moonshine-chuggin' auntie.

Owning a still is not illegal. Using a still to produce alcoholic products IS illegal. When I used to subscribe to Zymurgy magazine they would often contain ads for home stills for the purpose of making your own, AHEM, distilled water.

Flip

Queijo wrote:home production or home distillation? I guess no matter how you slice it, it is illegal to produce Absinthe at home.

Making drinkable absinthe requires distillation, which is illegal without a permit. However, since making absinthe is illegal in the U.S., you can't get such a permit.

Flip wrote:When I used to subscribe to Zymurgy magazine they would often contain ads for home stills for the purpose of making your own, AHEM, distilled water.

It's also legal to distill perfume. That's it -- it's not absinthe, it's wormwood cologne!

Oh, I'll have to tell granny.

Did your friends actually distill it or macerate the wormwood & spices in a liquor base?

This is a digression, but does anyone know about the Ethiopian restaurants in Chicago selling tej? Do they make it in house? I go to my favorite place fairly often and the tej is a little bit different every time. I have never asked where it comes from, because I kind of like the don't ask don't tell mystique of getting a bottle of tej in an unrelated, emptied wine bottle. I know making tej does not involve a still, but it does use fermentation to create alcohol... Anyway, it's something I've always wondered.

(A bit about tej)

Queijo wrote:Did your friends actually distill it or macerate the wormwood & spices in a liquor base?

Fully distilled, aromatic, wormwood perfume. He starts by macerating the herbs in Everclear, then distills.

I have his recipe, but I think the moderators of this board may not welcome illegal recipes. Google will find you some, however.