I've only made a couple AJs from 1gal containers....and my yield is about 1/3rd gal both times.....so I'm sure that would scale up accordingly.Not that I plan on making any as it's too high ABV for my liking but, how is the flavor after the jacking process? Do you still get the apple taste just with more puckering and burning? =)
And for those that are making five gallon hard ciders just to jack, what is your yield after? cost effective? I'm just curious.
I'm still researching making ciders and love reading all kinds of stuffs about it and recipes to try. That's how I found out this "jacking" stuff.
Yield from my 1st AppleJack adventure...doing a single freeze/thaw... Plus took the left-over ice & any residual alcohol etc & mixed with some FAJC. Those are 16oz bottles.
Next step will be to make a higher ABV cider specifically for jacking [emoji111]
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My freezer only goes down to -5F [emoji111]Now take all that you took from the 1st freeze/thaw and keep freeze/thawing it until it wont freeze solid anymore. I do 4 freeze/thaws and my freezer is at -23C, the 4th freeze cycle is a firm slush when i thaw it. I then put my freezer back to -18C and none of my AJ will freeze while stored in it.
You should get a hydrometer, then you know the alc. Content and dont have to guess. The only way to get a higher alc content is by freezing it at colder temp. I freeze mine to -23C and when comparing its freesing characteristics to commercial bought booze it ends up being ~35%. If you want stronger, you need colder freezes. I might try freezing some of mine when we hit -30C or colder outside to try and get mine up to 40% (although its plenty strong already). Dont forget, it will be hot. Aging helps this but its takes time. 6 months or more really helps. 1 year is a good start to help really tame the heat. Always put some away for aging from every batch.
Hmmmm....as pic in previous post shows...I store in plastic half gal containers and have never had an issue.UPDATE: Ok, so a couple months ago I experimented with my first batch of applejack. It ended up turning out quite nice! But, sadly it was only good for maybe a week or so after I had collected all my finished product. I believe it oxidized and turned quite bitter, even storing it in glass jars in the freezer. How can I avoid this for the next batch? If I can keep it from oxidizing like that, I'd be quite the happy person. Any suggestions to reduce air contact during the concentrating process, and maybe a good way to bottle and seal it when done? Starting a 6 gallon batch of the cider/wine today, so I've got a little while to figure it out, but not too long. Thanks!
For anyone reading this who decides to experiment with freeze separation of homemade or homebrewed alcohols, I would strongly suggest burn testing for consumption safety. While it is true that all alcohols produced during the fermentations will infuse to a 90+ percent, or minimum 180 proof end alcohol product, by lightning a small sample of the product on fire in a shot glass while inside of a dark room you can quick test for initial consumption safety. Anything that doesn't burn off as a blue flame, identical to natural gas from a stove, should be immediately discarded as it will immediately indicate other alcohols at an unsafe level for consumption. However it's not advisable to consume any quantity of a freeze separated chemical without additional testing for approximate ppm levels if the end product passes the initial flame test, as otherwise safe levels of ordinarily dangerous to concentrate or consume alcohols may still be present and accumulate to dangerous levels over the quantity consumed. Which is ŵhat led many states to attempt and suceed at defining the action you described as freeze distillation and making it an illegal activity. So once again, this is not advice... It's a history lesson that I do not recommend attempting, hope this helps and enjoy!Hello. So I want to make applejack from some of the hard cider i made a while ago. I have about 3 liters that are ready to be frozen to turn into applejack. Now I understand that making applejack would need us to freeze hard cider till the water freezes then wait for the alcohol to drip through a clothing or whatever. I'm familiar with the way of making applejack, I am just worried if it will not be safe to consume. I understand that the ABV will high and I should measure how much i want to drink with shot measurements. But the thing that is worrying me the most is the methanol and fusel alcohols. I read at some sites that freezing hard cider concentrates alcohol, all of them. Ethanol, methanol and the fusel alcohols. I need to know if that is true or not, and if it will have any effect on me drinking it. And if just simply freezing it and then taking the drippings dangerous and could make me blind, how do u seperate the ethanol from the methanol after you freeze it and let it drip?
Don't take it all the way to a no water extraction. Just do it a couple times and it will taste better.Hello. So I want to make applejack from some of the hard cider i made a while ago. I have about 3 liters that are ready to be frozen to turn into applejack. Now I understand that making applejack would need us to freeze hard cider till the water freezes then wait for the alcohol to drip through a clothing or whatever. I'm familiar with the way of making applejack, I am just worried if it will not be safe to consume. I understand that the ABV will high and I should measure how much i want to drink with shot measurements. But the thing that is worrying me the most is the methanol and fusel alcohols. I read at some sites that freezing hard cider concentrates alcohol, all of them. Ethanol, methanol and the fusel alcohols. I need to know if that is true or not, and if it will have any effect on me drinking it. And if just simply freezing it and then taking the drippings dangerous and could make me blind, how do u seperate the ethanol from the methanol after you freeze it and let it drip?
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