Ballpark Botanical Weights

[rtshfd]

Lets say I have 120G of 40% neutral in a kettle and I want to macerate/distill base for an absinthe.  Considering that much spirit, what would be the expected volume/weight of G. wormwood, fennel and anise for, lets say, a generic recipe of .5/1/1 of all three botanicals respectively.  

I have a number in mind for each, and I know that number changes come with flavor implications/preferences based on the recipe, but the number I calculated seems rather large/expensive.  I'm obviously being generic and I'm not asking for anyone to speak to their proprietary recipes.  

The next question would be assuming 90% yield on the proof gallons above, how much p. wormwood would you color with?  How long? 

[bluestar]

I know we work with a much lower percentage of wormwood, to avoid high thujone levels. But that also reflects that we do a high fennel and anise concentration. I am not sure if 40% is high enough proof to start with in the pot to get full oil extractives from the seeds. I know we are almost a slurry when we distill, and distill it almost dry.

[rtshfd]

19 minutes ago, bluestar said:

I know we work with a much lower percentage of wormwood, to avoid high thujone levels. But that also reflects that we do a high fennel and anise concentration. I am not sure if 40% is high enough proof to start with in the pot to get full oil extractives from the seeds. I know we are almost a slurry when we distill, and distill it almost dry.

I should have been clearer.  The initial infusion will occur at 85%, and diluted to 40% for distillation.  

[Tom Lenerz]

Ballpark total recipe about 1 pound per proof gallon. Is that what you are getting?

[rtshfd]

1 minute ago, Tom Lenerz said:

Ballpark total recipe about 1 pound per proof gallon. Is that what you are getting?

roughly 1 lb per proof gallon of total botanicals.  Yes.  that is to say for 50 proof gallons I have 50 lbs of total botanicals for predistillation and coloring.  

[bluestar]

20 hours ago, rtshfd said:

roughly 1 lb per proof gallon of total botanicals.  Yes.  that is to say for 50 proof gallons I have 50 lbs of total botanicals for predistillation and coloring.  

We are not too far away from that, except while the same proof gallons, we are probably half the volume you are, since we are much higher proof. We are distilling at our maceration proof of 140.

[rtshfd]

1 hour ago, bluestar said:

We are not too far away from that, except while the same proof gallons, we are probably half the volume you are, since we are much higher proof. We are distilling at our maceration proof of 140.

You don't feel a need to dilute to ~80 for safety? That's an enticing prospect as the per run efficiency would be higher (more proof gallons in the kettle).  I'm trying to imagine the flavor impact of a higher proof run through a pot still on macerated flavors...

[bluestar]

2 hours ago, rtshfd said:

You don't feel a need to dilute to ~80 for safety? That's an enticing prospect as the per run efficiency would be higher (more proof gallons in the kettle).  I'm trying to imagine the flavor impact of a higher proof run through a pot still on macerated flavors...

No, but I have a bain marie, which is recommended for doing something like absinthe. I would never direct-heat that high a proof, agreed.

[captnKB]

1 zolotnik for every hekat of spirit is a good start