Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Could you achieve the same result macerating the ingredients in a neutral?

How do you the milky look when adding water, I have got the taste but not the milky look

you need more star anis - i think.

Based on your previous post beaull, it sounds like you steeped the ingredients in neutral then filtered it rather than pot stilling it is that right? If so I don't think you're getting the concentration of anethol from the star anise that you should be getting and therefore you won't get the louche you're looking for


Cheers,
Prof. Green

Louche comes from dissolved oils in the ethanol precipatating out when the ABV drops.

I don't have a pot still but this tastes pretty good to me.

Ah, OK.

How long did you leave the botanicals in the spirit before you filtered it?

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

I have the milky look, I just put in more star anise and left it a bit longer.

A good result!

Cheers,
Prof. Green.

I'm not new to cooking or brewing, but I have a couple of questions about the recipe.

How much is a fistful of Star anise? I have read a blog that it is 1 cup. Is that about right? Sounds like a lot.


What type of cardamom pods are they. Green is immature, White are from Thailand, Black (brown) are from..... Blast... I can't remember. Maybe India or China.

Anyway, If someone could clarify I would sure put me at ease. I love Ouzo.
Thanks,
Dan

What temp or abv to stop ouzo run ?

danwbrews wrote:I'm not new to cooking or brewing, but I have a couple of questions about the recipe.

How much is a fistful of Star anise? I have read a blog that it is 1 cup. Is that about right? Sounds like a lot.


What type of cardamom pods are they. Green is immature, White are from Thailand, Black (brown) are from..... Blast... I can't remember. Maybe India or China.

Anyway, If someone could clarify I would sure put me at ease. I love Ouzo.
Thanks,
Dan

A bit late but might help in future. Just grabbed a fistful o star anise an it roughly 1 cup and weighed close to 50g.
I use green cardamom when I need it https://www.thespruceeats.com/all-about-cardamom-995599

Zzpop wrote:What temp or abv to stop ouzo run ?

I collect in jars and stop when output is cloudy. Then throw the previous jar or 2 away as well. Every still will perform different, u can’t run urs based on how someone else does it.

Wobblyboot wrote:

danwbrews wrote:I'm not new to cooking or brewing, but I have a couple of questions about the recipe.

How much is a fistful of Star anise? I have read a blog that it is 1 cup. Is that about right? Sounds like a lot.


What type of cardamom pods are they. Green is immature, White are from Thailand, Black (brown) are from..... Blast... I can't remember. Maybe India or China.

Anyway, If someone could clarify I would sure put me at ease. I love Ouzo.
Thanks,
Dan

A bit late but might help in future. Just grabbed a fistful o star anise an it roughly 1 cup and weighed close to 50g.
I use green cardamom when I need it https://www.thespruceeats.com/all-about-cardamom-995599

Zzpop wrote:What temp or abv to stop ouzo run ?

I collect in jars and stop when output is cloudy. Then throw the previous jar or 2 away as well. Every still will perform different, u can’t run urs based on how someone else does it.

Thanks, that makes me feel better. I just acquired a quarter barrel keg that I can move my heating elements to from my half barrel boiler. The smaller size will make this a little more affordable. Knowing quantities helps a lot. There's an Asian market close to me (on the way home from work ) that has great prices on spices .... some of which I wish I had an interpreter to help me find. :text-thankyoublue:

So far I've been making my pastis like this:
in a 2-litre bottle (the one on the picture was my first attempt 1 litre or even 70cl, can't remember)
100g star anise
three to five chips of liquorice (root)
a teaspoon coriander seeds
some rosemary leaves
20grs sugar (not sure-a long time ago)
fill in the bottle with neutral (I could find 40%ABV only)
leave it for a fortnight and filter it (racking is enough), I got the nice cloudy yellow colour, and the taste was OK but not strong enough, because of the 40% limit....
Now I've just finished my first spirit run based on Ted's FFV, I want to use a higher neutral, but following the same recipe, target: pastis at 51% ABV (like Pastis 51) or 45% like Ricard...
I got about 8 litres of neutral at 95% ABV, I stopped collecting when I saw the t° rising and the smell became also quite stronger, there were 50 litres of low wines at 40% ABV in the boiler when I started my spirit run. So it'll be 4 litres Pastis down to 45 or 51% ABV, not decided yet and 4 litres Gin down to 43% ABV... :obscene-drinkingdrunk:
I may try to use my gin basket to produce my pastis, but not this time.