Apple brandy question

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Bhunter87

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I made apple wine, and had planned to make a few bottles of apple brandy, but when freezing it, the whole things froze.

I am at about 12% right now, so I know there is quite a bit of alcohol, I just can't see why it all froze? Not solid, just mushy. Is there any way to make the water separate better??
 
At 12% you'd be looking at little more than 76 to 77 Ounces of freeze separated alcohol. Or, little more a half gallon per 5 gallons.

That is IF you could separate all of the ice.
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
At 12% you'd be looking at little more than 76 to 77 Ounces of freeze separated alcohol. Or, little more a half gallon per 5 gallons.

That is IF you could separate all of the ice.

My question is getting it to separate, not the amount after separation.
 
My question is getting it to separate, not the amount after separation.

My point is, since I have to spell it out now, that you aren't going to have much too separate even IF you could freeze it harder. Thus, if the product is "mushy" then you have attained said separation and now you just need remove the ice from teh remaining product.

Most would have planned ahead and devised a bottom dump vessel for this but there is also always

Wire_Strainer.jpg


Others have used milk jugs. Filled the jug, froze it, and then puncture the sides for a drain. Or, just used a deep freezer and poured off the alcohol from the jug.

No matter what you do, it will be a lot of effort fort a little product.
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
My point is, since I have to spell it out now, that you aren't going to have much too separate even IF you could freeze it harder. Thus, if the product is "mushy" then you have attained said separation and now you just need remove the ice from teh remaining product.

Most would have planned ahead and devised a bottom dump vessel for this but there is also always

Others have used milk jugs. Filled the jug, froze it, and then puncture the sides for a drain. Or, just used a deep freezer and poured off the alcohol from the jug.

No matter what you do, it will be a lot of effort fort a little product.

I've never done this before and was excited about trying new things and learning more. Thanks so much for making me feel ignorant and telling me I'm wasting my time.

Cheers
 
I used the freeze a 1 gallon milk jug method. Got about 2 pints. kept one and refroze the other. got about 6 fl.oz. Let it sit for a year and it is crystal clear but it will be nothing like brandy. mabye a 20%ish icewine. I think the term is Applejack.
 
I've never done this before and was excited about trying new things and learning more. Thanks so much for making me feel ignorant and telling me I'm wasting my time.

Cheers

Given your responses, you are welcome.

Again, the point is that while 12% does "seem" like a lot in regard to beer, cider, wine, etc.. it only amounts to 24 Proof at best in a separated product meaning there is not much alcohol there to separate from.

The mushy consistency you are reffering to IS, most likely, all the product you will have from this method. I am all for "trying new things" but, seriously, what did you expect? With the volume post I was simply trying to illustrate a reasonable expectation of final volume from your efforts as a mean to explain the consistency of the product you have on hand.

Not once did I say you are wasting your time. Nor did I infer ignorance. You did that to yourself.

And to that, good day. Have fun with your "eis wine".
 
Well, if anyone has actual advice instead of pretentious babble, I'd appreciate it....

Thanks
 
Clann said:
I used the freeze a 1 gallon milk jug method. Got about 2 pints. kept one and refroze the other. got about 6 fl.oz. Let it sit for a year and it is crystal clear but it will be nothing like brandy. mabye a 20%ish icewine. I think the term is Applejack.

Also, apple brandy is... By all definitions... Distilled hard cider.... Look it up

Apple jack, ice wine, whatever. I don't care about the name...
 
True.
For more info search applejack or freeze distilation, although it is not tecinacly distilling.
 
Also, apple brandy is... By all definitions... Distilled hard cider.... Look it up

Apple jack, ice wine, whatever. I don't care about the name...

And yet, what you are attempting is not, by definition, distillation.

Look it up. Distillation requires, by definition, heat and evoporation. Otherwise, Eis Bock would be known as something else. Like, I dunno, Bock Gerstewhiskey.
 
GilaMinumBeer said:
And yet, what you are attempting is not, by definition, distillation.

Look it up. Distillation requires, by definition, heat and evoporation. Otherwise, Eis Bock would be known as something else. Like, I dunno, Bock Gerstewhiskey.

Guy... You have already said you are done with this conversation. I'm not sure if you just have nothing better to do, or just get off on being a pretentious dbag, either way, I'd rather get a response from someone who actually wants to help, not someone intent on discouraging everything this forum is all about.

Thanks
 
Guy... You have already said you are done with this conversation. I'm not sure if you just have nothing better to do, or just get off on being a pretentious dbag, either way, I'd rather get a response from someone who actually wants to help, not someone intent on discouraging everything this forum is all about.

Thanks

+1

unfortunately, giant dbaggery aside, his main point is correct. it's gonna be mush, and you'll have to figure out a way to separate the mush.

some people use cornies. freezing a corny, the ice forms a kind of jacket on the inside with liquid in the center, and then you can siphon it out. but if you're only doing a gallon or two, you'll have to get creative.
 
I've got a pretty decent idea I'll try when I get home. I'm going to freeze it into the mush, break it up as best I can, put into a colander over some container, and put back in the freezer. If I continually go and break up the ice without letting it thaw, the alcohol should work its way out.... Hopefully. I'll try it.

Thank you for the input. I assumed he was right... I just have trouble hearing [Mod Edit] It ends here.
 
Do you not want to distill it? If u want true brandy u will want to do that. Now thats the next thing im looking into
 
dcarroll86 said:
Do you not want to distill it? If u want true brandy u will want to do that. Now thats the next thing im looking into

It's illegal. You can do it with the right supplies, but it will look like you're cooking dope lol

You can't get info on hbt about actual distillation I don't think.
 
dcarroll86 said:
Ok ok. Wow. Didnt think id offend people w that comment

Not offended... Just like this forum and would rather not get shut down because of donk talk about illegal in home distillation....
 
I have'nt don't it yet but plan to. I saw a guy use a salad rinser to separate the two. It is a bowl with a colander insert that spins. The idea is to put in salad and rinse with water spinning the colander thus keeping the salad in the colander and forcing the water out of the colander into the bowl. You could put the slush into a paper towel and spin the colander forcing the fluid to the outside where the bowl will collect it.
 
I made exactly what ur trying to do and it turned out awesome...I had an apple wine about 12-14 percent with a lot of remaining sugar and then froze it in a milk jug for about a week and every morning while getting ready for work and every night while eating dinner I would set it on the counter and let it partially thaw to help draw the alchohol to the top. Then I inverted it into a large gatorade bottle with a funnel till I had two of them full then discarded the milk jug. Refroze the gatorade bottles and repeated the process till I filled a 25 oz container with the final product...after a 4 month rest in the fridge I have friends begging for their own bottle. It was fun and its very smooth and good surprisingly...hope this helps
 
First time brewing cider with the intent of making apple jack. My thoughts were to freeze gallon, then flip container and place back in freezer with a wire strainer and a jug to collect the good stuff using gravity to do the work.
 
To my knowledge distilling AND jacking are illegal in the US. Jacking leaves all of the fusel alcohols that are harmful in the liquor that can be mostly separated out by distilling.
 
garnede said:
To my knowledge distilling AND jacking are illegal in the US. Jacking leaves all of the fusel alcohols that are harmful in the liquor that can be mostly separated out by distilling.

I'm fairly certain jacking is legal in most of the US.

Jacking does leave the fusels, but they are equivalent to regular cider/beer/wine just in higher concentration. You'd have to really be drinking irresponsibly for it to be particularly harmful.

Drink the concentrated equivalent to beer and you're fine.
 
moto's law:

"if you mention freeze concentration on HBT, someone will tell you it's illegal and tell you to stop talking about it."
 
motobrewer said:
moto's law:

"if you mention freeze concentration on HBT, someone will tell you it's illegal and tell you to stop talking about it."

Lol, what I don't understand, after reading this thread, is everyone's ABV expectation. Pretty sure I don't want to be drinking straight ethanol.

40% looks like the upper limit most would want, so starting at a gallon you should get more than a bottle from 1 gallon.

Personally I go through a bottle of whiskey way slower than even 5 bottles of cider, so it seems worth the effort.

Makes me think the original responders were either trying to be difficult or have a big booze problem.
 
I'm fairly certain jacking is legal in most of the US.

Jacking does leave the fusels, but they are equivalent to regular cider/beer/wine just in higher concentration. You'd have to really be drinking irresponsibly for it to be particularly harmful.

Drink the concentrated equivalent to beer and you're fine.

I have always been tolt it was not legal, If someone can point me to the law that makes it legal, then I'll join the party. But till then I'll buy my apple jack.
 
garnede said:
I have always been tolt it was not legal, If someone can point me to the law that makes it legal, then I'll join the party. But till then I'll buy my apple jack.

In free societies laws only limit freedom, they don't create freedom. I realize I sound like a huge D-bag saying that, but there isn't a better way to put it so bear with me.

Statutes that prohibit "distilling" are often defined to include only the use of heat and evaporation. Freeze distilling is a misnomer since it isn't technically distilling.

The reason they are illegal is the public health concerns surrounding evaporating ethanol around heat (fire) and possibly doing it wrong and concentrating fusels (public safety), neither of those concerns exist in a greater degree than homebrew in freeze "distilling".
 
I have always been tolt it was not legal, If someone can point me to the law that makes it legal, then I'll join the party. But till then I'll buy my apple jack.

It is illeagal to those who define it as distillation. It is, however, not distillation by definition. Thus, it is legal by ommission so long as your local jurisdictions do not prohibit the home production of wine, cider, or beer.

For example, for years the Oklahoma laws provided for the home production of wine and cider but did not specifically include beer. Therefore, it has always been illeagal by exclusion until the powers that be amended the law to specifically include beer.
 
I just looked up the Minnesota statute and apparently it is not legal to make mead in MN without a license:

". 9.Unlicensed manufacture. Nothing in this chapter requires a license for the natural fermentation of fruit juices or brewing of beer in the home for family use."

Jacking would be explicitly legal in the winter if you put cider outside. :)

Distilling isn't defined in the statute.

Vegetable wines, like carrot wine, is also not technically legal.
 
I just looked up the Minnesota statute and apparently it is not legal to make mead in MN without a license:

". 9.Unlicensed manufacture. Nothing in this chapter requires a license for the natural fermentation of fruit juices or brewing of beer in the home for family use."

Jacking would be explicitly legal in the winter if you put cider outside. :)

Distilling isn't defined in the statute.

Vegetable wines, like carrot wine, is also not technically legal.

Ayup,

Our laws changed just this year and despite multiple revisions to get the approval through with the inclusion of transportation for events the lobbies still dropped the ball and omitted mead to ilegalisation.

37-520A
The Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission is authorized to issue, upon application of a person who is twenty-one (21) years of age or older, an annual personal use permit which when granted authorizes the holder thereof to make, store, possess and transport for personal use, low-point beer as defined by Section 163.2 of this title, beer as defined by Section 506 of this title, fermented non-distilled ciders, and wine as defined by Section 506 of this title. The total volume of each authorized beverage made and possessed for personal use in a given calendar year shall be limited to a volume less than two hundred (200) gallons. The term “personal use” as used in this section and Sections 163.1 and 505 of Title 37 of the Oklahoma Statutes means the individual making beverages pursuant to a valid personal use permit issued by the Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission produces such beverages solely for his or her use and consumption, for consumption by his or her family and guests, and for transport to and use at organized affairs, exhibitions or competitions, included, but not limited to, homemaker contests, tastings or judging’s. No beverage made pursuant to a personal use permit shall be sold or offered for sale.

So, they amended the definition of wine to appease the lobbies.

40. “Wine” means and includes any beverage containing more than one-half of one
percent (1/2 of 1%) alcohol by volume and not more than twenty-four percent (24%) alcohol
by volume at sixty (60) degrees Fahrenheit obtained by the fermentation of the natural
contents of fruits, vegetables, honey, milk or other products containing sugar, whether or not

other ingredients are added, and includes vermouth and sake, known as Japanese rice wine;

You will also note the 24% limit on alcohol content.
 
Wow, you guys need a personal use license.

Mead looks like it is in the definition of wine since it mentions honey as a fermentable.

Ours doesn't appear to allow transfer or distribution to judges for competition.

I must be missing something.
 
I'm am so sorry, I'm not a bery good tiper. I meant I was make hard cider with the intent of jacking-off. I didn't mean to start this legal uproar. By the my Bigbrother I live in Utah. ROFLMAO
 
Wow, you guys need a personal use license.

Mead looks like it is in the definition of wine since it mentions honey as a fermentable.

Ours doesn't appear to allow transfer or distribution to judges for competition.

I must be missing something.

Ayup, it's free for now tho.

And, no, we can produce mead now. But only after some legal persuasions.
 
This thread has gone wildly off topic.

We allow discussions of freeze concentration. We do not allow any discussion of distillation by heat (or vacuum).
 
This thread has gone wildly off topic. Please keep it on track.

We allow discussions of freeze concentration. We do not allow any discussion of distillation by heat (or vacuum).
 
garnede said:
But till then I'll buy my apple jack.

Freaking love Apple Jacks! Sometimes I pour a big bowl and wait for a few minutes until the milk gets soaked up a bit so I can drink the apple cinnamon goodness after I eat it all... wait, what are we talking about?
 
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