Apple jack and aging

[siletzspey]

I made too much cider this fall ;-), so plan to downsize by trying my first batch of apple jack.

In my personal experience, aging cider 6-18 months really helps (!). With apple jack, can I jack and then age, or should I age and then jack?

I don't know if some of the magic that occurs during cider aging would be suppressed with the higher ABV of apple jack. Then again, apple jack may be so potent that the subtleties of aging will be lost.

--SiletzSpey

 

[MarkKF]

I made 5 gal. Last fall. Jacked last winter. Got 2 gal. Jack and drank half last spring. I'll drink the other half this winter. I think the one prob. with jacking early in the among of oxygen introduced during jacking. I'm tempted to mix the last gal. with another juice then bottle.

 

[SerifSansSerif]

I made 5 gal. Last fall. Jacked last winter. Got 2 gal. Jack and drank half last spring. I'll drink the other half this winter. I think the one prob. with jacking early in the among of oxygen introduced during jacking. I'm tempted to mix the last gal. with another juice then bottle.

Ferment strong (champagne yeast, premier cuvee step feed till they pretty much start to fail), ferment bone dry (or as close as you can), THEN jack.

Starting at a higher ABV will allow you to jack higher, and have more product as the result of jacking.

Fermenting dry will allow you to make a jack that isn't overly sweet as sugars concentrate when jacking as well.

Also, you might want to heat your jacked beverage up slightly till you start seeing some "fumes" coming off it (do not boil!!!!). Silly as it is, it might help to reduce some of the methyl alcohol.