Make Ice Cider POST fermentation?

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jkatz419

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Hello all! I recently took a trip to Montreal where I had some really great ice cider and want to make some of my own. I've made regular cider several times and have a good recipe/process for that.

Everything I've read about Ice Cider in the forums says to freeze the juice BEFORE fermentation, collect concentrated runnings, and ferment with a champagne yeast.

Could I instead do it like an Eisbock? i.e. ferment a hard cider to ~7% abv and then partially freeze it and skim off ice (leaving the alcohol/apple flavor behind in more concentrated solution)? Or would that strip out sugars/apple flavor?

Thanks!
 
Hello all! I recently took a trip to Montreal where I had some really great ice cider and want to make some of my own. I've made regular cider several times and have a good recipe/process for that.

Everything I've read about Ice Cider in the forums says to freeze the juice BEFORE fermentation, collect concentrated runnings, and ferment with a champagne yeast.

Could I instead do it like an Eisbock? i.e. ferment a hard cider to ~7% abv and then partially freeze it and skim off ice (leaving the alcohol/apple flavor behind in more concentrated solution)? Or would that strip out sugars/apple flavor?

Thanks!

Sure, that's called apple jack.
 
Could I instead do it like an Eisbock? i.e. ferment a hard cider to ~7% abv and then partially freeze it and skim off ice (leaving the alcohol/apple flavor behind in more concentrated solution)? Or would that strip out sugars/apple flavor?

Thanks!

It'll do the opposite and concentrate them. For small batches you could try freezing some in a PET bottle until good and slushy then invert the opened bottle to drain out the unfrozen fraction.
 
Yes, yes, and yes. I have made quite a study in the history and methods of making applejack, and I have had a few light bulb moments in the process; with the early New Englander residents leaving the barrels outside to freeze and thaw, and freeze and thaw, etc., etc. The outside of the barrels had a lot of temperature change where the middle of the barrels did not. What is my point, you ask? As the water on the perimeter of the barrels kept re-freezing, the ice that was formed would squeeze out the alcohol towards the middle of the barrel, raising the ABV% as high as the (low) outside temperature would allow. Why did I bring this up, you ask? My freezer is -10F, and I found out quite by accident the more days I leave the applejack to be in the freezer, the thicker the layer of golden orange alcohol forms on the top. I don't remove slush from a wide mouthed container anymore, I just put my jug in the freezer and wait 7 or 8 days until the layer stops getting thicker, and only pour off half of the volume of the jug ( usually 2 quarts). The left overs get made into spritzers, so nothing actually goes to waste.
 
Thanks for the info! How does Appkejack taste when compared to Ice Cider? Is one generally sweeter or drier?
 
Thanks for the info! How does Appkejack taste when compared to Ice Cider? Is one generally sweeter or drier?

It depends a little. The ice ciders I've had were fairly sweet (not grossly sweet, they were very enjoyable), I probably havent had a good representation of ice ciders though. I made an apple jack with a Belgian cider that had gold/amber candi syrup added to it.

I started with roughly 4 gallons of cider at around 7% and froze it down to 1 gallon, its not a linear increase in abv so I assume I'm around 30%abv. It comes off very whiskey/caramel/sour apple. It's not sweet but its not hot/dry like most hard liqours.

Applejack and Ice Cider are very different beasts in a way. Ice cider I usually think of more like a strong-wine and applejack is more like apple-whiskey. If I only reduced the 4 gallons I had to 2.5 gallons it would maybe come off more like an ice cider since the ABV wouldn't be so high. It depends a little on the starting product. If you start with a cider that fermented very dry it won't be very sweet on the other side, stop the fermenting cider with a lot of sugar remaining the applejack will become sweeter the more you freeze it.
 
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