Adventures in Applejack

[Benzine Prosper]

While not a common choice for imbibers, applejack (a style of apple brandy) is still readily available in most areas of the world, although not in my own backyard. Having become a fan of it while travelling across the United States and finding another variety altogether in Germany I found it's absence unacceptable and began to research producing my own.

I found out that the spirit was originally produced by farmers in central europe who had an abundance of Apple cider. The excess was stored in tin bathtubs and left outside over the long winter, the water and impurities freezing solid and the pure alcohol and sugars compressing in the center. The ice is chipped away and discarded and the process repeats, refreezing until the spirit would not freeze solid. The liquor was filtered, distilled and blended with spices to gain it's distinctive taste, then bottled to be enjoyed the next cold winter.

Now I reasoned that if bavarian farmers could make it in their bathtubs I can certainly have a crack at it myself. I've poured 8 litres of a good locally produced cider into plastic containers and stored them in my deep freeze at negative 25(c), where I'll leave them for a week before checking my results - will keep posted with updates.

 

[Cyclocat]

Good luck and let us know how you fare!

 

[Edcculus]

Freeze concentration is popular in a lot of styles. In beer, its Eisbock. Regular Bock beer is freeze concentrated once, leaving it around 9-10% ABV.

Applejack has 2 connotations. Most of what you will find commercially is a distilled beverage (presumably from hard cider). This is distilled by normal liquor distillation methods. Freeze concentration (as you described) is the other one. I'm pretty sure its much less prevalent in commercial products. Freeze concentration will get you to a much lower ABV. You also don't want to concentrate above 30% ABV.

I'm kind of confused why you are freezing the cider for a week? Also, you are using hard cider right? What you really want to do is freeze the cider until its slushy. Look for the harder side of slushy, not the wetter. That way, most of what is frozen is water. Once its slushy, pour out the cider into another container using a strainer to catch the ice. If its a little more frozen you can just upturn the bottle over another vessel to catch what runs out.

You want to avoid freezing it solid since everything freezes when you do that. Contrary to popular belief, freezing beer wine or cider solid will not result in only the water freezing!

Hope this helps!

 

[Benzine Prosper]

Thanks for the hint - I ended up with a solid block of cider and was scratching my head as to where I had gone wrong. I'm going to let this batch defrost, then try it again following what you suggested.

Also you had me confused for a second when you were referring to 'hard' cider, as I wasn't aware there was a 'soft' type...I assume you mean an alcoholic and non-alcoholic?

I'm also using three different brands and styles of cider and testing which works out best, an irish cider (magners/bulmers) a bretagne cider (Kerisac brut) and a local New Zealand variety. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Nishnabotna]

Thread subscribed. This sounds tasty.

 

[Edcculus]

Ah, didn't realize you were in NZ! Because of Prohibition in the US, something simply labeled "Cider" is usually just fresh unfiltered apple juice. What the rest of the world consideres Cider is normally referred to as "hard cider" here. Meaning its fermented apple juice. Just wanted to make sure you weren't just freezing juice!

I make a lot of homebrewed cider and have been thinking about trying this out with a keg. My idea is to set the keg outside on a night I know will dip below freezing. I plan on giving it a shake every once and a while so no huge ice crystals form, and to judge the level it has frozen. Then I'll overturn the keg and let it drain into another vessel. Not sure if I'll just go for 1 concentration or more. Offhand, I think I'd do one concentration round, then chill and carbonate the runnings in another keg.