Selfsufficientish.com

I've bought a 500ml bottle of 95%abv spiritus from the local polish shop, the plan is to water it down with 750ml water (making 38% spirit) and splitting it to add the following 5 flavours
Black Pepper
Ginger
Cinnamon
Lemon Balm
Thyme
Sadly can't do all 5 at once, I don't have enough containers to do that, but plan on doing the pepper and cinnamon ones to kick off with.
The lemon balm and thyme will both be from home grown herbs.

looking at the lemon balm recipe... I'd have thought you'd be better off blitzing the leaves in a blender with vodka then letting them steep in a jar.... increased surface area to extract the essence?

Increased pita trying to clear it. I've done infusions with blitzed leaves or powders in the past and not found any real benefit from doing so, except quicker steeping time, but with the extra clearing time it isn't worth it in my eyes, especially with it only being a 2 day steep anyway.

coffee filter?

Far too slow, it just gets clogged. I was tempted (still am) to get a buchner (vacuum) filter, but it's a cost I don't really need. The leaves should give up enough essence over the two days, if not I can always shred them when it comes to it, but I honestly doubt that it'll need it.

Ooohh - I didn't know they were allowed to sell 95% alcohol here - I used it in Germany (where you can buy it in pharmacies). I used to make cherry liqueur with it (cherries have too much juice to make decent liqueur if you just use brandy). It's also good to increase the alcohol content in rumtopf, which originally needs the 54% rum that you can't get in this country... (Except once at Lidl's!)

Out of interest - how much did you pay for it?

Yup, the typical version of high % alcohol you can get is absinthe, but you need to know where to look (on the hunt for spirytus I found out our local slovakian shop sell a 60% absinthe). The same with overproof rums, I knew a shop (a few actually) in York that sold Stroh 80.
It was £24 for a 500ml bottle, I've diluted it in 750ml of water, so 1.25L at 38%abv (stronger than a lot of commercial vodkas I know).

Thanks! Should I ever feel the need again to produce that kind of schnaps/liqueur, I'll know where to look!

Looks interesting. I'd be REALLY glad to hear how the black pepper and thyme ones turn out.

I'll be giving the thyme a quick check tomorrow, as it only needs a 3 day steep at the most. The pepper is going to take a bit longer sadly.

How does the alcohol duty work on high %age spirits?

About the same as for other booze, I suppose? £24 for half a litre would be a lot if it was normal spirits, so I suppose most of that is tax... (If you worked it out for 40% spirits, that would be around £10 for the same quantity, off the top of my head.)

I imagine Ina is right, I know most absinthe I saw in York was £30-£40 for 500ml, so I'm guessing the high price will be duty. I suppose it shouldn't bother the government too much whether the abv is 40% or 90%, they'll still get the same duty off it, just that the latter is in smaller volume bottles.

Yes - according to the powers that be, duty is calculated on the volume of alcohol. So the duty on anything containing, say, 25 mils of alcohol will be the same whether the overall volume is 100 mils, a litre or even an ocean.

The thyme is now bottled. First impressions is that it's an unusual flavour, not what I imagined it would be like, but not unpleasant. There's a sweetness to it, especially in the smell that I was really surprised by. It's a bit rough still, definitely needs a bit of aging.