What would be...the best way to distill absinthe after you have let it sit for about a week or so? Just wondering, and how could I do it without 'professionial' lab supplies?

Would you mind giving more infor for your absinthe. Not trying to be nosy or steal your recipe but I have never seen absinthe calling for distillation. I have only seen recipes for useing wormwood with grain alcohol added never a need to distill.

The recipe was from Erowid under absinthe, the first recipe, and it said to make it more potent, it should be distilled.

As far as I understand distilling is only going to remove more water and increase the proof of your alcohol. Maybe Im wrong and it actually will increase the effect of the alkaloids but I am unsure. As far as I know though it would just increase the alcohol content of your absinthe. Sorry I cant be of more help-maybe if you try posting on totses Better Living Through Chemistry they be of more assistence.

Well the idea behind distilling something is this:

First you heat a concotion of solutions, until it reaches it's boiling point. Then the vapors travel along a path which at some point ideally is cooled by cold water, thus causing your vapor to condense and drip down into your receiving vessle.

The idea here, is that different things have different boiling points. By taking a measurement of what temp each fraction is coming over at you can change your receiving flask and thus isolate the different portions of your concotion.

In a perfect world you would have glassware with ground glass joints, consisting of a boiling flask, distillation adapter with thermometer port, condensor, 45deg angle with vac adapt, and recieving flask.

However, it sounds as though you want to attempt this ghetto.

In which case, you might consider constructing something out of copper tubing coiled in such a manner as to facilitate condensation. Then incased in a larger diameter PVC with some sort of coolant running through it. This will work as your condensor.

Now depending on what type of solvents you are boiling copper may or maynot be suitable for your application. Vinyl tubing will also work.

Use some sort of pyrex or equivalent boiling flask, attatch tubing to this via stopper and adapter, run said tubing into condensor, then take the OUT end of the condensor and affix it to your makeshift recieving flask.

(remember to make a hole in the stopper affixed to the receiving flask so that pressure can equalize.)

That should do it, as long as your condensor is long enough and cold enough, you shouldn't lose anything.

Goods Luck!

If you distill absinthe you are loosing the thujone in it and turning your precious absinthe into plain old moonshine.

quote:If you distill absinthe you are loosing the thujone in it and turning your precious absinthe into plain old moonshine.



Correct if candy is wrong, but if you look at the following. It appears that if you distill and collect what comes over between 86-84deg you should have nearly isolated the desired oil.



9533. Thujone.

4-Methyl-1-(1-methylethyl)bicyclo[3.1.0]hexan-3-one; 3-thujanone. C10H16O; mol wt 152.24. C 78.90%, H 10.59%, O 10.51%. A constituent of many essential

oils; present in thuja, etc. Equilibrium mixture contains 33% .alpha.-thujone and 67% .beta.-thujone: Eastman, Winn, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 82, 5908 (1960). .alpha.- and .beta.-Thujones

differ only in the stereochemistry of the 4-methyl group. Conformation: Hach et al., Tetrahedron Letters 1970, 3175. Chemistry: J. P. Kutney et al., Bioorg.

Chem. 7, 289 (1978); eidem, Can. J. Chem. 57, 3145 (1979); 58, 2641 (1980). Toxicity study: K. C. Rice, R. S. Wilson, J. Med. Chem. 19, 1054 (l976). Review: J.

L. Simonsen, The Terpenes vol. II (University Press, Cambridge, 1949) pp 32-52.

Colorless or almost colorless liquid. uv max (isooctane): 300 nm (.epsilon. 23). Practically insol in water. Sol in alc and many other organic solvents. LD50 s.c. in

mice: 134.2 mg/kg (Rice, Wilson).

Caution: Ingestion may cause convulsions.

l-Form, .alpha.-thujone. bp17 83.8-84.1 deg. d425 0.9109. nD15 1.4490. [.alpha.]D20 -19.2 deg. LD50 s.c. in mice: 87.5 mg/kg (Rice, Wilson).

d-Form, d-isothujone, .beta.-thujone. bp17 85.7-86.2 deg. d425 0.9135. nD25 1.4500. [.alpha.]D15 +72.5 deg. LD50 s.c. in mice: 442.2 mg/kg (Rice, Wilson).





[This message has been edited by mnm (edited 09-29-2003).]

True, that's the last time you'll see me giving an answer without looking the subject matter up.