Just finished, er, jacking. Yep, jackin' it in my kitchen.
Impressions:
-Jesus, this stuff is strong. The ice cider it was based on was already pretty potent but this is just hellacious. It tastes like someone melted apple jolly ranchers in whiskey.
-The viscosity is pretty high. Much thicker than a grain spirit or even brandy. It's kind of like rum. Perhaps a lower sugar initial batch would make it thinner.
-I got back about 1/3 of my initial volume. Toward the end some of my ice wasn't giving up it's apple-ness and the rest was melting, though. If my jug that i was distilling from was less contoured than the apple juice jug i used, it would probably have yielded about 2/5 of my total as liquor.
-Although it burns going down, it does not literally burn, putting it below 51% alcohol. HOWEVER, a lit match placed in it flares before going out, so it's close.
Overall it's a neat experiment, but I'm not sure if I'll really repeat it. Unlike cider it's not something I think I'd drink with great regularity. On the upside, bottling it let me try out my new capper, so for the first time in my life if someone asks me what I did on my lunch break I can say "grabbed a whole bunch of liquor and headed for my Ferrari," and that's pretty rad.
