applejack - centrifuge?

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andye

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Hey guys.. first time poster. Nice forum ya'll got here.


I've been reading a bit on applejack here, and noticed that pretty much everyone here freezes their cider, then does the "upend the bottle over another bottle" method for draining off the liquid that isn't frozen. I dug up a little forum post somewhere and think i have a pretty great alternative to that, but wanted some input.

After freezing in my freezer, i chop up the frozen cider into a slush, and then stick it in a salad spinner. (after lining spinner w/ cheesecloth) I then spin, and am left with pure white ice. Bowl underneath spinner has all the liquid left over.

It's been working pretty well for me, haven't measured the alcohol % yet, but it has a pronounced alcohol kick to it.


maybe you already know about this.. but i'd love some comments/critiques!
 
Theoretically it works well from what I have heard, but it is illegal in the U.S. and I have never done it.
I'm a conservative and thus I don't care what you do in your own home, but you really do not want to talk about it in any public forum. And this board really takes that seriously.
 
I think you're mixed up Kauai! Freeze 'purification' is not illegal in US but distillation using heat to concentrate the alcohol is.

Also andye, have you attempted to re-freeze the liquid? Just curious because I have a salad spinner sitting around doing nothing!
 
Theoretically it works well from what I have heard, but it is illegal in the U.S. and I have never done it.
I'm a conservative and thus I don't care what you do in your own home, but you really do not want to talk about it in any public forum. And this board really takes that seriously.

Lets not spread misinformation. Freeze concentration is not illegal. Basic Brewing Radio did a podcast about it a while ago talking about the legal aspects. Until then, just about everyone assumed it was illegal.
 
Whoa whoa there kahuna. I understand the legality of what i'm writing here and have made my peace with it. If your uncomfortable with it then I suggest you don't resrespond to this thread!


I frozen the cider, spun the liquid out from the ice and then repeated once more. I'd say I reduced it from 14 cups to about 5.

Just sharing the knowledge....
 
OK, I always was told it was illegal, thank you for the correction.

In that case I am think about a basic salad spinner with a paint bag as a strainer?
Oh the mind becomes boggled at the possibilities.
 
If you're looking for material to use, just go to a fabric shop and buy a metre of 'muslin', it'll set you back about $2 AUS :)
 
freeze purification legal or not.....you still get "bad for the brain" alcohols, fusels and methyls. right?
 
freeze purification legal or not.....you still get "bad for the brain" alcohols, fusels and methyls. right?

No, because you aren't distilling it the same way as other spirits are made. I can't find it right away, but it probably has something to do with boiling the beer/wine and recondensing it that creates these alcohols.

Since you are just freezing it and removing the unfrozen portion, you aren't going to have problems with these alcohols unless they were present in the first place.
 
No, because you aren't distilling it the same way as other spirits are made. I can't find it right away, but it probably has something to do with boiling the beer/wine and recondensing it that creates these alcohols.

Since you are just freezing it and removing the unfrozen portion, you aren't going to have problems with these alcohols unless they were present in the first place.

Actually, that's very wrong.

Methanol is a byproduct of fermenting fruits high in pectin including apples. It's generally produced at a much lower rate than ethanol though, so in normal hard cider it's not a big problem.

Fusels and other higher order alcohols are also present at small levels in all fermented beverages.

In heat distilling you get rid of the bad alcohols by throwing away the first x% and last x% of your runnings since methanol boils at a lower temp than ethanol and fusel alcohols boil at a higher temp.

There's no way to remove the other alcohols when freeze distilling so they get concentrated along with the ethanol.

Methanol also takes 5 times as long as ethanol to be metabolized, it can take 4 days to leave your system. So if you drink a bottle of applejack a day for 4 days you end up with 4 times the methanol in your system.

That said, methanol and the fusel alcohols aren't usually a big problem in homemade applejack since the percentages are still pretty low and you'd have to drink a huge amount to get lasting side effects, but you may notice your hangovers are worse.

There are a couple ways to minimize the amount of methanol/fusels in your cider if you plan on making applejack.

  • Don't use pectic enzyme - Breaking down the pectins causes yeast to produce more methanol.
  • Fermenting at lower temps produces less methanol/fusel alcohols
  • Don't use turbo yeast - those big yeasts that advertise over 20% alc tolerance are made for heat distilling, they throw off tons of methanol/fusels
  • Don't ferment high abv - the higher the fermented abv, the higher the percentage of methanol/fusels. Over 10-12% abv you get a much higher percentage of bad alcohols. It's better to reduce multiple times than start out with a stronger cider.
  • Don't try for a final abv of more than 20-25% - If you want a higher alcohol content than that you need to start getting rid of the bad alcohols by heat distilling. It's not really a big issue since the average person can't freeze distill at low enough temperatures to get that high.
 
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