I ground some fresh castor and added some vodka as a preservative. I made 1 quart. It does not have a strong castor smell like most beaver lures do. Did I ruin it by adding the vodka ? How should I prepare my castor to try some beaver lure recipes that I have ?

Clean castors don't need a preservative. A bit of the vodka will prevent mold from forming. Beaver castors like to develop mold.

You didn't ruin it by putting the vodka in it. I ground a five gallon bucket full of castor today and put in a cup of vodka for the mold preventative while the castor ages. I like to age my ground castor for 6 months to a year before I use it in formulation. It develops a very nice sweet odor, which is different from the pungent fresh castor smell.

Does fresh castor smell different than dried castor when ground ?

Yes

If you want it to have that dried castor “lure” smell spread it out on a tray with the bottom of a spoon very thinly and let it dry. Stir it up every few days and spread it out again. It will dry out and get dark. Then just rehydrate it with vodka or glycerine or both in combo.

Or you could age it like Paul described.

ED--note Pauls ratio----8 oz/5 gal--or 8 oz / 640 oz
Convert/DIVIDE that down to however much castor you had BEFORE adding Vodka...to figure how much you should have used.
Was your quart jar 1/2 filled with castor before adding fluid?

You may have to pour out some Vodka, basically....but you never told us HOW MUCH vodka you added. This SHOULD BE in your notes. Since Lure/baitmakers MUST keep notes so everything is repeatable.

I just poured "some" in......

maybe not the place for tis question, but I have a bunch of 2 or 3 year old casters all dried out. Can they be reconstituded andused, or are they junk?

When I get some old dried castors, I soak them in some burgundy wine and they soften right up. The wine seems to fire them up a bit too.

wine seems to have the same effect on me Paul. Lol

The more questions and solutions for beaver castor is fine by me.