Apple Liquor?

Hi guys. I've got 5 gallons of cider brewing and am interested in experimenting with a gallon of it. I have read about people making "applejack" out of cider by freezing the water out of it, are there any other suggested techniques (other than distillation) that anybody has tried? ALso, if I attempt to make applejack by freezing the cider, will I need to up the alcohol in any way or just use the cider as is? I am picturing a strong apple flavored beverage that is enjoyable to sip slowly. Last question, for anybody that has made apple jack, how much jack would a gallon of cider yield? Thanks!

I posed this same question and felt a little silly when I got the answer.

Seeing as how the measurement we use for alcohol content is ABV (alcohol by volume) and that those measurements are in percents, it seems fairly obvious that if you freeze something, say 1 gal at 12% abv, then the only thing not frozen will be the alcohol, which in this case is 12% of a gallon. In reality though, the alcohol is kind of a slush and needs to be skimmed off.

I know, kind of a duh-moment, at least for me it was

mike

kinf of... so how much does freezing it yield? any other techniques?

Here's a link that mentions some techniques for applejack.

With regard to expected volume, I would guess that the freezing technique wouldn't be 100% effective at removing all of the water content from your cider. If you could remove all of the water content, you'd be left with 8-12% (depending on ABV) of your original volume, and the results would be nearly 200 proof...undrinkable in my book. More likely, I think you'll probably remove about 1/2 of the water content, thus doubling the ABV and halving the original volume (leaving you with around 1/2 a gallon of 16-24% ABV applejack).

Thanks Yuri. Iv'e got another question for ya if you're up to it. Have any suggestions for bottling the other 4 gallons? I fear that since it has been in secondary for 7-8 months I might not get the desired carbonation when I bottle. Do you recommend repitching yeast? If yes, what exactly does that entail? Thanks alot!

If ur making Apple Jack I'm sure u won't b able to carbonate it, unless u r force carbonating... I don't think u can easily get yeast that will survive 24% ABV let alone b able to carbonate. (Not to mention the fact that the yeast cells that r still in the cider will most likely lyse (rupture) during the freeze distillation process, if they don't die of the alcohol first.)

*ugg double post*

your remaining 4 gallons should carbonate fine if you prime with corn sugar.

So should I prime with the same amount of corn sugar that I would with beer? I'm thinking more. I'm positive that after all this time most of the yeast has settled to the bottom. I usually secondary a beer for a month or so, and the cider will be at about 6-9 months and it's absolutley clear. Maybe a little extra sugar, I really don't want to add yeast.

It will carbonate, regardless of how long it has been settling. You never get rid of all of the yeast. Just a matter of how long it will take with what's left. Since you probably want the cider to bottle condition for another 3-4 months, you should be fine.

I just realised that my post pretty much didn't mean anything cos I read ur question wrong... *sigh*, Yea u should listen to david, he knows what he's talking about.

This thread made me want to make some applejack so bad that I decided to take just about the rest of my cider and turn that into applejack (about 12 bottles worth = 4L) Now I don't have any barrels or anything so I decided to use four icecream containers, and I've been leaving the cider in the freezer and every 2 hours or so removing any ice with a strainer. I've reached a point where I'm down to two containers and they aren't really freezing very well - its like a slushy, and when I put it through the strainer, some of the liquid goes through, but there still appears to be some "stuck" in the ice crystals, making the ice a bit brown. What's odd though, is that although I've at the very least, decreased the volume to a third of the original, the applejack doesn't taste like its 21% (since the cider was 7%), this has me worried that I haven't done it properly. Or is it just that I don't taste the alcohol as much, because it's cold and because it's been made well and doesn't have too many fusel alchols that could give it that fiery taste. Or am I just expecting too much from my little old cider?

I wonder if my technique could be improved too... it's way too time consuming, cos at first I tried to just let it freeze overnight, in 2 ice cream containers, but I was just left with 2 blocks of ice and the tiniest amount of liquid left (like not even 100ml) - and it was just dripping out.