Distilling Star Anise Liquor : Super Tasty, Crazy Easy

[@michaellindauer6274]

Hi Jesse, loved this episode as much as I love star anise. I’ve been making an infusion for a digestive for years I call “What the Pho’?” using all the spices of the Vietnamese soup, Pho’. For 750ml, that’s about 4 cardamom pods, 4-6 star anise, 2 tsp coriander, 4 sticks cinnamon, maybe 1/2-1 tsp cloves, 2-3 thumbs ginger, and I add ~4 slivers of licorice root for sweetness. No sugar. If you don’t overdo the spices, it gets better as it sits, but 3 weeks minimum.

[@weaktearecords]

I made some with anise and fresh roasted coffee beans. Coffee ☕ and licorice flavor work really well together

[@wysestone]

100% agree, did this a month or so ago myself.

[@JakeSmith-ps4vr]

definitely gotta try that!!

[@kruseyjr1]

I need to try that

[@McNuggets88]

Please share how you made it! This sounds great!

[@jakebenoit1458]

I accidentally discovered that coffee and licorice (anise) flavors blend really well together. I was making cotton candy and when switching flavors, sometimes they blend a little. Well with both of the strong flavors, I was afraid, but I ended up eating the clump of mixed flavors, so as not to waist, and well, let's just say I just do it on purpose now, and not with just cotton candy, I've made ice cream, gum drops, lollies, and even a little star anise in the coffee pot.

[@rossnesbitt972]

The Spanish version of this (Anis del mono) I've always 'Irished up' my coffee with. It's amazing

[@StillIt]

Nice!

[@bevharrod1829]

Mate . Started watching your videos about a month ago.. went and brought an air still . Going to start distilling my second wash today.. thanks for the content

[@annakingsley6773]

Another awesome video! 😊 I love black jelly beans and prefer my spirits straight, so no mixers or ice for me. If you do decide to dance with the green fairy and make absinthe at some stage and have trouble sourcing the fresh stuff, I grow heaps of wormwood for my chickens so let me know and I can get a bunch to you. Same for anyone else local too. In Wairarapa, New Zealand. Cheers!

[@TrizzaW]

Yes! I'd love to see an absinthe video 😍

[@klatlap]

I watch a youtube on this stuff the other day and woulfd love to give it a go.

[@Q_The_Rabbit]

After removing pits from 3kg of cherries, I used a macerating juicer on them & 250gm fresh pealed ginger. One each liter of invert syrup & sorghum syrup, pulp from cherries & ginger, & water to OG 1.079. 12gm WY3711. It is now bubbling away happily. How I do love my Still Spirits AirStill

[@Geeker011]

Just putting it out there, pomegranate and licorice goes REALLY well together!

[@Kstella2226]

Like pomegranate molasses?

[@nzlemming]

Awesome. Loved black jelly beans forever and Ouzo since I was old enough to buy it. No-one steals your drink at parties.

[@richardharris5083]

I like it with lemonade. Love The colour change .

[@mickjojic1141]

Been watching for a while and just got gifted an air still , this was super educational for me .

[@MrCornel454]

Grate video Jamie. I would love to see you try coffee this way

[@StillIt]

Yeah dude thats a good point. Will be interesting to see what carries over!

[@sanbe729]

Hey Jesse! could you make some high proof green absinthe?

[@StirlingLighthouse]

Doesn't absinthe make the heart grow fonder? Lol Good idea! 👍

[@richardharris5083]

Yes please 🙏 . Good choice 👌

[@peronik349]

You talked about the Greek drink (ouzo) but all around the Mediterranean Sea (for countries that tolerate alcoholic drinks) there are probably a hundred drinks with star anise. Each manufacturer putting their personal touch to the local recipe which remains centered on star anise

[@hydare]

Not ouzo rakı! This is Turkish drink not greek!

[@juliecole3861]

So love your descriptions of taste, its perfect as I feel like I'm almost tasting it with you and it makes me chase the taste more intensely. Cheers mate!

[@stillfrugal6618]

I too love black licorice especially the ‘jelly belly’ brand. As well,l love me some Jager. So what a nice easy way to make a lovely aperitif.

[@MeirbhinOConaill]

Jessie mate @11:07 thanking the patrons, edit missed the name list. I always think that's a classy touch. Love the videos

[@Rubberduck-tx2bh]

Black licorice RULES! Hey Jesse: would topping up with some water in the boiler stretch out the hearts some more?

[@zeldasmith1088]

I've been looking for a still and you have the one I think I am going to invest in that thing is simple to use.

[@Nexummusical]

Made it, taste it loved it! Thnk u for the recipe. Can you explain why its get a white colour when it gets cold? (Not frozen ;)

[@Phryxil]

Such a slick and easy little kit, thanks for the links!

[@thehoppyhour6297]

Great video Braj!

[@hectortheotaku3022]

Green absinthe sounds excellent 👌 👍😏vote for that

[@josecorchete3732]

More than glad to help you with the algorithm as you help me understand how alcoholic beverages work 🤗

[@barrygiddey9139]

Sweet combination

[@ericdellamater7583]

Love it. Hit a flavor that I truly love. Nice videos. Your getting so much better

[@Osmocote]

BLACK LICORICE FTW! I'm gonna try this.

[@oggyraverbabyghost]

I made a honey mead with just star anise & it tasted really good, I’ve not even tried or thought about distilling any alcohol yet but have been experimenting with mead for a few years & found 2 that are really good one made with star anise & another with morello cherries (which I’ve only tasted as my wife drinks it before I even get a glass)

[@peterevenhuis2663]

Here in Greece, I distill grapes with star aniseed in a steam basket above it as simple as that and amazingly good. No sugar the raw product on ice.

[@johngoodwin6800]

Brilliant. On my list list of to do things, with my next batch of moonshine.

[@wldtrky38]

I've always liked black licorice. This looks interesting, may have to give it a try. I have to order star anise, like most ingredients, no local supply.

[@deborahduthie4519]

If there is an Asian Indian food spices supply shop around, you can buy half pound bags of good quality Star Anise, rather cheaply compared to Health Store, or the cakes cooking section in your local grocery store. I filled a bottle with the Star Anise, filled it up with Gin then poured sugar to the top of the fluid. I left it for 3weeks and the nicest Zambucca Liqueur have tasted. Very rich and smooth.

[@wldtrky38]

@@deborahduthie4519 The consequences of a small Midwestern town. 1 1/2 hour drive to Kansas City to find anything like you mention. Thanks for the heads up and the recipe !

[@brendanwhite104]

Looking forward to tasting this one!!

[@heinobrummer1044]

I love watching this channel 😁

[@connorperkins641]

I like the orange idea. Maybe it would go good with some cointreau as a shooter? I'm thinking of flavours like in tiger tiger ice cream.

[@roytelling6540]

not started watching this yet! BUT YOU ARE A MIND READER!!!! Been at friends all day just got back, and I was talking about using Star Anise with my still and wounding what it would be like. the reason it came up was I just made Singapore fried rice and that has star anise in it. NOW going to watch this and see what you say

[@caverryan]

Nice! Ouzo is super tasty. Add it to ice and swirl till it goes cloudy; really brings out the flavor. If you have a go at a real ouzo, I’ve got a great anise seed based recipe with other botanicals that tastes like the real Greek thing. Been distilling it 10L at a time, probably my favorite drink.

[@MinnicogLife]

Hey can you share your recipe? I love ouzo and I’ve been looking to make it

[@Basim_Daoud]

Arak actually is a bit better then ouzo

[@caverryan]

@@MinnicogLife Sure! Can't claim that I made it from scratch. It's based on this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nn2lnoWvrqeirrM. But, his botanical weights are too small. It's all personal taste, but I've found that these masses more closely match commercial ouzo, Metaxa in particular. 15 g anise seed 7.5 g star anise 7.5 g fennel seed 0.75 g cardamom pods 0.75 g whole cloves 0.5 inch cinnamon stick 10 g sugar 1 L vodka/neutral/grappa Roughly crush all spices, except sugar (DON'T GRIND, will make an unpleasant bitter flavor if you grind to a powder). Add to 1 L of 40% ABV vodka or other neutral (or grappa, if you can get it). Leave to macerate overnight. Strain into boiler and distill. There is an unpleasant acrid flavor that comes off with the "foreshots/head", but otherwise I don't make cuts, just run down until no more flavor is coming over. Proof to 40% ABV, add sugar, and let set for about a week before drinking. The sugar is personal taste. I like 10g/L, my wife likes more like 50g/L, my brother likes no sugar. Because of the anethole (a natural sweetener) it actually tastes fairly sweet without the sugar. I've also recently started adding 20 crushed coffee beans in with the botanical; very tasty, but not traditional. Seems like you could also skip the 24 hr masceration and just chuck it, spiced and all, into your boiler and go, but I've never tried it.

[@caverryan]

@@MinnicogLife If you try it, let me know what you think. It's definitely a work in progress. I feel like the cardamom amount might be a bit on the high side.

[@Obi_too_kenobi]

I would love to have your recipe Just started with distling and made a nice coconut 🥥 rum certainly for a first distiling

[@davidelourenco2537]

Here in Portugal we have Escarchardo that is something in this field but it takes a lot more sugar that will cristalize in the bottle.. Its great!

[@popefacto5945]

How do you drink that? Do you mix it or just take as an aperitif?

[@davidelourenco2537]

@@popefacto5945 usually after a meal, neat and in shot glass portion since it is very sweet. Very popular with the ladies. Lol

[@popefacto5945]

@@davidelourenco2537 I'm intrigued. Will have to look it up. Thanks!

[@jeckwhite9099]

Super interesting. Thanks Jesse!

[@baijokull]

I made my first proper gin yesterday and I had some star anise so I added what I thought was a small amount of it to my botanicals. Turns out I made a VERY anise heavy gin :D Not what I meant to make but not bad at all!

[@dimsimjimpym]

Same with a recent gin I did! One star anise in 4L of 40% and it cut through everything

[@StevenRowe-ps9vd]

No bloody air quotes thank you very informative I'm going to try both star anise and aniseed through the baby still tomorrow I really want a Pernod

[@BESHYSBEES]

I found the lower abv pulls out wood flavour, I use azeotropic 96% soak for a couple days then water down

[@martink9785]

I lovelovelove aniseed 🥰 it's been my full time flavour for my tobacco avoidance device. Must make this sometime soon 👍

[@johnblack9582]

you convinced me :) just bough a refractometer ive never heard of the before :) could you do ouzo next ??? ive been wanting to do ouzo but have no idea where to get some aniseed bush.

[@RiggerBrew]

use Olive Nation Anise Extract and you can balance the strength to Vodka. Also Sambuca is with Stare Anise and elderberries.

[@beetz1979]

I did one batch with 90+% tpw and one batch with 80% molasses rum, the rum was by far the tastiest. Soaked the star anise for 2 weeks in both, strained, diluted both to about 35% with spring water and a little sugar syrup, chilled and enjoyed

[@jek__]

Have you ever tried ultrasonic vibration? Ultrasonic vibration as a method of rapidly barrel aging alcohol is being adopted by large production companies right now. According to tasters the rapid aged whiskeys doesn't get all the full flavor profile of a long barrel age, but it's much tastier than it would be had it just sat in the barrel. Apparently just a few minutes in the ultrasonic vibrator with some wood chips is similar to hours or even days just soaking. I tried this once with some cheap vodka and whiskey barrel chips. It's weird, but fun! The outcome tasted like whiskey flavored vodka lol. For something like this where the goal is to steep a plant material in alchohol i think an ultrasonic vibrator might have an interesting and useful effect. You can get a cheap ultrasonic vibrator for $20 sold as a jewelry cleaner, though theyre often fairly small and might limit you to 0.5l batches. There are of course much larger ones but they get expensive. You seem to tend to do weird off the wall alcohol experiments so that seems possibly up your alley ;) Ginger might be a fun additive. Ginger vodka could be a nice way to make fortified ginger beer, if youre into that

[@kevinw.8240]

try making arak! its fairly easy and tastes amazing. As soon as you mix it with water it turns milky white and tastes like black licorice.

[@denisdendrinos4538]

My fiance is going to LOVE this..... Nice one Jessie. Be interesting to see a proper ouzo being made - something I want to try but my new still too big and the small one was... well... inefficient at best.

[@Schoolofmonkey]

I finally got around to making this, it's freaking amazing, but I added 5g of licorice root along with the 20g of Star Anise, it tastes so close to Oozo, my wife doesn't usually like licorice type dinks, but for some reason she loves this, she's only had it with Lemonade, but she's wanting to try it in a lemon based drink too.

[@ryantaylor8195]

whereabouts can I buy one of those alcohol metres?

[@coconutfleetsleeper5717]

Raspberries, cherry and pomegranate all goes great with star anis each on their own, never tasted a destilate with them combined tho, might be awesome...

[@TheNumbers400]

Neat for sure. But raspberries and black licorice are made for each other. Def something to try.

[@patricioarte]

Delicious drink recipe with "Ouzo" called "Thalassa" (Goddess of the Mediterranean sea, meaning sea in Greek): A shot of "Ouzo" or anise liqueur, a shot of vodka, top up with pineapple juice. Serve in a Margarita or Martini glass with ice cubes or frozen ice. Spread half a dose of "Blue Curaçao" on top and add an orange slice for decoration.

[@ryanblystone5153]

Thank you

[@wysestone]

I want some! Love me some black jelly beans!

[@madwilliamflint]

That's interesting. Suggests a whole new line of experimentation.

[@scottcampbell96]

Try this with a lemon twist. It might be an odd combination, but I like it.

[@Basim_Daoud]

Arak and Ouzo are made first from grapes then the anise is added in

[@psylerious]

You should try a version macerated with 190 proof vodka and see if there's a difference in the flavors extracted. I did a project once trying to make chartreuse and I macerated some ingredients at 190 and some at 130 proof. I didn't distill since it was just for a liqueur but it was interesting how the colors and flavors were different after a couple days

[@neiluldrick1416]

Hey Jesse... love your content! One of the things you mentioned in this video caught my attention... that the most pure anise flavor came at the beginning of the run and then trailed off. I've 'heard' of that happening with runs of fermented fruits as well (not macerations, but rather actual mashes using fruit). Any advice on how to maintain that bold initial fruit flavor across the run? Keep up the great work!

[@workhardplayhard801]

I recommend starting with a few videos on making a fruit forward wine , like when you make black berry wine and it taste like wine not black berry , not that. You want to start with a finished wine that taste like black berries. I think there is a second pitch of fruit after the yeast calms down a bit, maybe the thinking is that alot of flavors are being carried away with the CO2 . I also need to watch a couple of these videos 😀. Also on a forum I scimed over there was mention of using a column in lieu of a pot still for brandy , something about compressing the heads and tails increasing the amount of hearts collected and even shifting where some of the fruity esters and other fruity terpenes fraction out into distillate, in other words being in the hearts not in the heads or tails . That said, the local liquor 🧚‍♂️fairy(if you know ,youknow😀) added a flavor infuser to the thump and filled it with a fresh peach puree and high quality peach schnapps dumped it twice once at start of , & second time guesstimate 1/2 way through the 💕 hearts. This definitely drives the fruit into the finished product and produced super tasty results some might claim it's cheating but if you don't have a column still, it will absolutely make a very fruity finished brandy. 🥂cheers

[@gamingdad87]

Looks delicious, ill be making some. Ill be drinking it straight though. I prefer my spirits neat. Although I did make your lemoncello recipe a few weeks back, and man that stuff is delicious with solo.

[@steviebboy69]

One thing I tried was putting 1 piece of a Choo Choo bar in a small amount of around 40 % ABV Vodka and it tasted like from memory Sambuca. It was sweet and Aniseed like and the spirit was a dark grey/black colour after steeping till the piece of bar dissolved. I don't know if they have the Choo Choo bars in other countries, but they have been around for ages in Australia.

[@deankundrata2300]

Off topic a little Jesse ,but have a question about adding banana to a gin basket it's a 4-in basket I'd like to run a rum with a banana flavor.. Do you think a 4in x 8in would carry enough flavor over in the sprit with it placed at the top of my column? 26 gallons of wash ran straight through the basket. Will it work or muck up my run?

[@olinseats4003]

So. Funnily enough, I used star anise, clove, and cinnamon with a little bit of oak to try to repair a bad run I made several months ago. I think it picked up an acetobacter in the late stages of fermentation, and I opted to distill it anyway. it threw some weird bitter flavors and had this oily cloying mouthfeel. So yeah. unpleasant. Hitting it with the strongest spices in my cabinet was sort of a last ditch effort to salvage it. I've been checking on it for a while and about a week ago I realized that It just finished maturing. It is absolutely delicious now. Anise does give it a flavor profile very similar to something between ouzo, sambuca, and absinthe. We made some amazing cocktails with it last weekend. I wound using it similar to absinthe and cooked up a recipe sort of like a Necromancer if you didn't want to spend a lot of money on all the specialty booze in the recipe. I ditched the Lilet Blanc and the elderflower liquer and replaced them with a cheap chardonnay and Master of Mixes brand Frose drink mix (think of it as strawberry peach sour mix) starting with a gin rinse in the glass and then mixing 2 parts white wine, 2 parts mixer, and 1 part anise spirit in a shaker and pouring it over ice. It was a nice balance of fruity and spicy without being overpoweringly boozy. Something about the sweetness from the mixer and the hint of botanicals from the gin rinse neutralized a lot of the heavy anise overtones and the oak in the spirit combined with the dryness of the chardonnay gave it a more clove forward flavor.

[@the_whiskeyshaman]

I’m one who can’t do black jelly beans. But I love that you made the video

[@colinmacvicar2507]

I drink Sambuca with orange juice. You get some weird looks at the bar when you asked for it but it’s really good.

[@roelofprinsloo3952]

I do a molasses rum aged on cinnimon, nutmeg and clove (halloween rum) that is amazing ,may try distilling again to see what happens

[@davidhinderliter595]

Sounds delicious! Might we take this and your recent botanical rum video as a possible lead up to a Jesse style absinthe experiment? Wink wink, hint hint!

[@duncanjames914]

Thanks for the video! At 3:00 you mentioned "a whole lot of Anise Seed balm". Did you also add Anise seed or was it just Star Anise? Thanks!

[@rabidraccoon1201]

AEC! Id love to see vapour extracted pastis.

[@StillIt]

Hmmm thats a interesting one my dude

[@elricthebald]

Had some star anise steeping in 48% for a week. (Have multiple herbs/spices steeping to make extracts to add to my homebrewed mead.) Damn, that stuff is mighty powerful. And as expected it turn completely opaque when proofed down. But very drinkable with some simple syrup. P.S. Anise in hot milk makes an amazing nightcap.

[@stephenclifford3971]

Ouzo is best with a splash of warm water!

[@danhunt3466]

Gotta love some anise

[@IanHorne1960]

It appears you have influenced a few to go out and buy the air still. I bought one too. I already have the Turbo 500 copper and boiler but this will be ideal for smaller runs. Is it safe to double this recipe??

[@nudgenz3831]

I just made it, turned out lovely with 20gm sugar, thanks Jesse. What could be done to add some colouring? Add some black jellybeans? Your thoughts..

[@nudgenz3831]

Poured into a shot glass, added an ice cube, and it louched, went white, so all sorted.

[@flyingwombattv]

Cracker vid as usual mate! U reckon some cocoa nibs would pair nicely with this one? Also think u may have forgot to add ur patroons big blue list of names near the end there? Or maybe it’s just not showing up on iPhones

[@TheKruse601]

Please do ouzo. Best after dinner drink ever

[@AvrahamYehuda]

Hi jesse, thank you for the video. Could you mention the ambiance temperature at your shed? Recently I purchased the same mini still as yours and i think at certain temperatures she doesn’t work well.

[@pingu99991]

I feel a pumpkin spice meme spirit coming in the autumn lol. I know you've done that flavour before but the air still seems perfect for making a low effort seasonal cocktail spirit that'd be accessible for newbies.

[@benmac940]

It's the middle of winter, you've got a long time to wait for autumn

[@allanrichard3987]

Knowing what you know now about heating the gin botanical in the air still and covering for two hours, would it work better for this as well?

[@arni1975]

Hi Jesse, loved the video....have you considered adding a touch of salt?...like in some of the Dutch licorice?...just an idea lol

[@adamjackson82]

You're not far off with the anise/orange combo. A Harvey Wallbanger uses Galliano L'Autentico (vanilla and anise forward), vodka, and orange juice, and is one of the most popular cocktails of all time. 🙂

[@jeremylastname873]

Perhaps try it with some cold clear water?

[@fxopl6041]

What do you think about the series Master Destillers (on Dmax in Germany)

[@HBCrigs]

I wonder if sweetened with molasses and not white sugar if it would be like straight up licorice

[@TheAlanFletcher]

I am using star anise with some distilled sake, how do you work out how much sugar to add, Also really enjoying the videos, fun and very informative at the same time

[@andyn3532]

I'm just two weeks into brewing a star an8se mead and was thinking of fortifying it with a bit of neutral spirit

[@jakebenoit1458]

I have 4 children and they all know to save me their black jelly beans because they are my favorite.

[@smntsn]

Make Turkish "raki" . So different taste but good when bacon on grill and acidic foods like pickle or... Tip: It must turn white when adding water :))

[@zatravelexpress3397]

When i did stilling my 50L still had a 5L thumper where i dropped my star anneseed ending up with a nice liquors flavour.

[@patximartel]

Galliano (liqueur with strong anise and vanilla flavours), OJ and Vodka is a Harvey Wallbanger

[@bevoburn]

i don't like black licorice, but i love me some Ouzo and Arak. Would a TPW be a good base spirit for that?

[@pauljackson5602]

I have mine over ice but it also goes well with black current. I don't add the sugar when I make it.

[@Miata822]

I am totally on board with doing a real Ouzo. The stuff I can get here just isn't the same as I had in Greece.

[@OffroadButcherBBQ]

Keep it straight, after dinner, your on the money

[@crabmansteve6844]

20g star anise 20g aniseed 15g fennel seed 10g licorice root 7.5g Angelica root 1-2 cloves 1 small cardamom pod Let it macerate in 2l spirit for at least 48hrs. Distill, sweeten to taste.

[@perjessen5209]

Jesse, "ouzo properly" is a slight misnomer. Ouzo is essentially industrial ethanol with "glykanisou" added for flavour, mostly popular with tourists. Instead, for a truly traditional Greek spirit, look up tsipouro, which comes with or without glykanisou.

[@kamoboko86]

Give me a run down of your most basic starter kit. That small still and a hydrometer to test apv?

[@boredbakedpanda4207]

You should distill loose leaf tea into a sweet tea alcohol.

[@needleofsalt]

should try mahia sometime when you have some appropriate fruits, dates figs jujubes, to hit with anise. probably hard to find a recipe

[@needleofsalt]

anyway we drink a lot of arak either neat or iced with 2:1 water to Arak, might try just sugar

[@oomwat6101]

When are you going to make absinthe?

[@StillIt]

It's coming! I decided I needed to bring in a expert to do it justice