Back-porch apple jack

[jabberwalkie]

Growing up up in the sticks of Maryland we learned from our not so innocent Aunts and Uncles how to make "Cheap Booze". It wasn't uncommon for my friends and I to have a jug of hooch (cheap fruit juice, sugar and bread yeast), dandelion wine or just plain sugar water bubbling away in the back of our closets ( with balloons on top of our "fermenters" of course). Now, I in no means consider myself an experienced brewer and thus is why I come to you for your input and help. A long, long time ago I was introduced to "Applejack", an apple based spirit, from a friend who recently returned from a civil war reenactment. This libation warmed and numbed the senses but had a strong appley taste. I was told that it literally was just the first pressing of a local orchards apple cider (before pasteurization) left outside till mother nature herself froze the gallon jug solid. Then brought inside and drained for several hours while the liquid was collected. Since my first taste I have been enthralled by the idea of making this consistently for myself. With apple cider season closing the use of fresh cider is almost out of the question. So with a little research I have decided to go with this concoction :

5 gal apple juice
5 frozen juice concentrate (thawed)
1 packet wine yeast (most likely a champagne yeast)

let ferment in an enclosure (to keep out direct sunlight) outside till ambient temperature freezes my "must". At that point I will bring inside and let drain till the ice loses most of its color. If anyone searches my threads they will see my attempts at hard cider is minimal and lacking any satisfactory results. In my pursuit of not so childhood memories what i would like to know is if anyone has tried their hand at apple jack or even hard cider and if this hodgepodge recipe will work?

 

[Yooper]

You'll want to ferment the apple juice first, into wine, and then you can freeze concentrate it.

The idea is to freeze it, but not solid, and then remove the ice which is water and not alcohol. If it's just frozen solid, it will not work.

Sticking a jug of apple juice outside without fermenting it first will not work I"m afraid. I think the method you've described would be done in the fall, so the juice would ferment before freezing, not in the winter.

 

[BILTIT]

There are a few of us who post on her that make applejack. It is not real hard to do.

Ferment the juice using a wine yeast but be sure to have residual sugar after the yeast has topped out (best recipe i have used so far is 'pappys pub cider', 2lbs sugar/gallon using ec1118 yeast). This ends up with a final gravity around 1.02-1.03 which makes for a very good applejack once you freeze concentrate it 3 times (you need a fair bit of sweetness to offset the hotness). I freeze mine solid and don't have any issues with the thaw collection although it just takes some time to get going. Starting off with a wine (15-18%) makes the first thaw much easier versus a cider (only ~6%).

If you do a search you will find some current discussions on applejack.

 

[MarkKF]

The key to 'jack, imo, is to let it sit for months (years) after concentrated & bottled.

 

[BILTIT]

I will agree with this by what i have read although i drink mine right out of the secondary. It does get alot better at 1-2 months though.

 

[MindenMan]

Applejack is by far my favorite alcoholic beverage to drink and discuss. I use 3 gallons of Tree Top 3 juice blend, 6 pounds of Granny Smith Apple's juiced and 20 cans of FAJC headed for an O.G.of 1.100 or more, usually more and I use non-aggressive yeast as well as controlled temperatures. These batches cost around $60.00 USD each to make, so I want to taste all of the apple-y goodness possible out of each batch. I add 1/2 teaspoon of 3-acid blend per gallon right before freezing, and after jacking the flavor is crisp and not pucker-y. There is a fair amount of tannin added I am guessing from all of the FAJC, and the acid blend balances it all out is I can figure. Side by side tasting with and without the acid addition has the acidified batch with better flavor and mouth feel as well.

 

[BILTIT]

I will be trying my next batch with FAJC as the added sugar content. Up until then i have been using basic sugar for my og increases.

I too have found 1.100 is about the minimum OG i like, prefer to have atleast 1.020 for a FG before jacking.

 

[MindenMan]

As I have posted before, one of the members of my HBC uses sugar to fortify and his applejack is good, but it doesn't taste the same as the stuff we make; his is not bad by any means it is just different without the additional tannins and acid that ours has.
This is the great thing about being a home brewer/cider maker; we make what we like to drink and in some instances we really don't care if anybody else likes it or not. But when we do make something that people rave about, there is a deep sense of satisfaction in knowing (for the most part anyway) that we did something they likely cannot.