Making Applejack from hard cider?

...1st attempt underway [emoji41]




After 1hr...

After 2hrs

Your picture looks good and the color of your a/j looks good too. What you may want to do next time is to split your draining containers to separate the high proof stuff from the lessor proof stuff. If I am using 1/2 gallon jugs, I thaw two at the same time, and usually split the collection three times; the first 6 ounces out of each jar get combined into one 12oz bottle, the second collected 12oz go into another bottle, and the third 12oz go into a third bottle. Depending on my starting ABV% three bottles may be all I collect at that time. I will defrost the "ice" and refreeze to collect the alcohol that is hidden in the leftover ice; I generally put that "washed out ice water" into a 12oz bottle with 3oz of FAJC and cap for aging. After a few months of aging, the "wash" cider tastes very nice and has plenty of alcohol too.

3hrs thaw...

Hrs 4&5...

Thru 6hrs...

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]

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.

I've step-fed apple wine (not cider) before. Kept alternating between frozen apple juice concentrate, then sugar, then concentrate. Any thoughts on doing this? Seems like it'd be a good way to get more apple jack from carboys.

I always have 6+ carboys full. It gets annoying because I have to bottle it to start anything new or step down a gallon in size (6 gallon strawberry chocolate with 3" lees to 5 gallon)

James0816 said:

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.

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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.

Cheers & good luck [emoji111]

bmd2k1 said:

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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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.

BILTIT said:

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.

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My freezer only goes down to -5F [emoji111]

Hello! I just had to sign up for this forum after finding this thread! I am in the middle of making my first batch of brewed anything, and it happens to be applejack. I used a 2 gallon bucket to ferment about 1 2/3 gallon of "organic unfiltered apple juice" with 5 1/4 cups of dark brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient, 1 teaspoon pectic enzyme, and one packet of Red Star champagne yeast. Let it sit in my basement stairwell at around 60-64 degrees for 25 days, siphoned it out to leave the sediment behind, sweetened with a couple cans of frozen apple juice concentrate and froze it in a bunch of Dasani water bottles down to around 0 degrees (Fahrenheit). Froze mostly solid, was easy to drain until left with mostly white ice which, much to the dismay of some of you, I tossed. Put what was left in the freezer last night and it's all slushy now. I'm hoping it will freeze solid again so I can easily thaw/drain it again- not sure what to do if it stays slushy. I tasted the brew directly after fermenting and it tasted extremely dry and smelled of strong wine- I'm guessing around 15% abv. First freeze and I'm at 3/4 of the total volume, so my apple slushy should be around 20% abv, but I would LOVE to get it closer to 40%. Any helpful hints or obvious errors in my ways so far? I will definitely be making another batch, probably starting a 5 gallon batch in about a week. May try to ferment it cooler and then let it age as some of you suggested- I would be super excited to be able to make a truly great drink to share with family. I'm sure I'll see some of you in other threads as I dive deeper into brewing and have more questions. Thanks for the great info!

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.

I leave mine to freeze for about 4 days before thawing on each cycle. I also toss the white ice leftover, just dont have the time to try and deal with it. I am already getting plenty of booze for next to nothing, i can afford to throw out the ice lol.

What could be done with the white ice?

Some use it in drinks or reblend it with weaker stuff as it still has alcohol in it.

BILTIT said:

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.

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Thanks! I definitely plan on getting some actual brewing and testing equipment for my next batch- my plastic bucket didn't have a great seal on it, but thankfully it didn't cause any problems. I'll be using a large glass carboy next time, and take measurements before/during/after as well. I found a switch on my freezer and have managed to get it down to -10F (-23C), and it seems to be doing better, the slush is firming up and some liquid is already separating out. I'll go buy some smaller glass containers for bottling and aging (want small containers to give as gifts), and will definitely set some back for later. Thanks again!

I've got two small batches of AJ currently aging...both with a cinnamon stick. Left is coming on 6months as of 12/13...right was just bottled 11/4.

I might jack up some of the D47 faux ice cider batch they are sitting next to...it will finish in the low 14% range early Dec.

Cheers! [emoji111]

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!

TDFbound said:

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!

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Hmmmm....as pic in previous post shows...I store in plastic half gal containers and have never had an issue.

[emoji111]

For

Moutaz said:

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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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!

I don't think that it is an easy task to get a high enough alcohol percentage with freezing so that the liquid can actually burn. It is almost impossible with normal household freezers.

I found an article on Eisbock which relates well to the production of apple Jack.

https://crescentcitybrewtalk.com/the-concentration-of-beer-by-freezing/

Moutaz said:

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?

Click to expand...

Don't take it all the way to a no water extraction. Just do it a couple times and it will taste better.