Get toasty with AppleJack

[SunyJim]

AppleJack is a hard alcohol made by freeze distillation of hard apple cider.
Popular in Colonial times, also known as Jersey Lightning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applejack_(beverage)

I made a standard hard apple cider, no sugar. Nottingham yeast ended up at 6% alcohol. Putting 8 standard 12oz bottles into plastic 2Ltr Pop bottles I put them in my big freezer -2F and let them freeze.
Only the water freezes not the alcohol.
Taking the bottles out of the freezer I opened them and put them upside down into mason jars. to drip and melt for an hour. At the end of the hour clear ice was left in the bottles, and nothing but strong applejack was left in the mason jars.
The final product can be refrozen to remove more water.
There is a limit to freeze distillation alcohol based on temperature it is frozen at. the colder the higher the alcohol content.

For mine I ended at about 30% 60 Proof. WOW apple sweet hard alcohol. I recommend trying it, nice sipping liqueur

As for methanol concerns. Some fusel alcohols including methanol is created during all fermentation, beer, wine, cider, and mash for alcohols.
Freeze distillation or 'jacking' does not produce new methanol.
If I drank 8 bottles of cider i would have drank the same ethanol and methanol of my 500ml of final product of applejack (which i would not drink in one sitting anyways)

 

[jrgauthier]

I have made a hard cider that I'm working on jacking right now. I did-

5 gallons of cider
1 lb of brown sugar (light)
2 lb of turbinado
1 pack of champagne yeast

I got it to I think around 7.5 abv before freezing. I'm experimenting now with one gallon by freezing it. After I finish freezing I'm going to add a bit of Apple concentrate to give it some Apple flavor again.

Right now it almost just taste light champagne. It's extremely dry!

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[jrgauthier]

Sunyjim, what type of yeast did you use?

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[SunyJim]

nottingham, and you won't need the apple concentrate.
Jacking concentrates the apple flavour and sweetness as well as the alcohol.
At -2F -20C it is possible to get 38% ABV (30% ABW)

 

[jrgauthier]

I used EC 1118 and it really dried the crap out of the cider. I was reading on some other forums, I may have to back sweeten it

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[dallas996]

I used EC 1118 and it really dried the crap out of the cider. I was reading on some other forums, I may have to back sweeten it

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The last batch I did I used the same yeast but with a honey fortification. I let it sit sealed up for a few days unrefrigerated, then jacked it. After that I let it sit a few more days unrefrigerated. It just gets better as it sits and mellows. Now its almost gone and I have to think about pitching another batch for the spring...

 

[jrgauthier]

So letting it sit allows that dryness to mellow?

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[dallas996]

I have made 2 distinctly different batches in the last 2 years with ec1118, both of which fermented to 0 before I jacked them. After I jacked the cider it was very dry, sour and hot(alcohol). Both got sweeter and developed more apple flavor (substantially so) sitting sealed for periods of time in a moderately temperatured garage; thats been my experience. I suggest you give it a try; after you jack it, taste it and make notes; seal it up and let it sit in a dark 60ish degree space for 7-14 days and taste again and take notes. Do this a few times and you will be surprised. I remember my first batch 2.5-3 weeks in smelled like wet garbage but it actually tasted a hell of alot better (almost great) than the first taste! Then weeks of sitting go by and my friends wouldn't leave it alone it was so tasty and strong.

 

[jrgauthier]

I gotcha. Yeah mine has a very champagne-y taste. I added a bit of the Apple cider back into the fermented batch and it definitely taste better now. I'm going to let the other 4 gallons sit longer in a dark closet.

I only jacked one gallon and got about 750ml at about 18% abv

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[dallas996]

sounds about right, mine tasted like really sour, poor quality, white wine The last batch I did, (I posted the story somewhere here) was supposed to be a "rush" cider job for new year and I ended up with sour dry stuff. Let it sit in a bucket in my garage for a few (3-5) days while deciding what to do. Then I decided to jack all of it at once; just ended up ice scraping the top and re-stirring it every hour at about -10 in my deep freeze. reduced 3+ gallons down to about 1.3 gallons. Then pulled it out, sealed it up and let it sit in the garage for another few days deciding whether or not to jack it further. Ended up not doing it and just bottled it up and let it sit some more. We dove into into it a couple weeks after that and now I have less than a liter left. Time to make more after I finish the cider batch I'm on....

 

[dallas996]

oh yeah, on this last batch, my starting OG was 1.12! when I was done with the ferment it was sitting around 17% before jacking it! so I ended up somewhere around 55-60 proof. I'll post a pic.

 

[dallas996]

in a glass with ice from the other night.

 

[jrgauthier]

How did you get it so clear? Mine is fairly cloudy

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[phug]

I have a batch of cider that I earmarked for Jack as I was making it. started last weekend, 3 liters of juice, 2.2 lbs tablesugar, OG was higher than my hydrometer would register, and the hydrometer goes to 1.140, so we'll see how much sugar is left when the ec1118 gives up.

 

[jrgauthier]

The ec1118 dries the crap out of it. It will almost smell like champagne.

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[Schott703]

I've got this down to a science. 6 gallon primary cider recipe of your choice. 2ndary to a five gallon (glass) with just a few inches if headspace until dry. Transfer to plastic 5 gallon. Fill to the shoulder. Almost a perfect 5 gallons. Drop in the deep freezer 3 days min. It should swell to almost the top. Turn upside down over a 5 gallon pail. Wrap with some blankets. At 65 degrees, you will end up with around 1 gallon of jack after 24 hours. If you do the math by volume, you end up with 5x the dry alcohol content as you had in the 5 gallon. (Very approximate) to this I add a 12 oz tube of apple juice concentrate. It's terrific. If you use a brown sugar recipe, add a cinnimon stick to each 16 oz bottle you fill. (Seems to go best with brown sugar) One you try this, you will stop making hard cider and focus on jack!

 

[dallas996]

How did you get it so clear? Mine is fairly cloudy

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This batch I actually started with a clear apple juice; but I believe my clarifying came primarily from all of the time sitting in the cold because even my previous run made with cloudy juice came out this way.

 

[jimbostarr]

Has anyone tried Alcotec 48 HOUR TURBO SUPER YEAST to make a really strong cider (20% abv) then jacked the result?

 

[DirtyOTG]

^^^ I've wondered if "Liquor Kwik" yeast would be any good for an apple jack. It's a 20% also.

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[phug]

what are the manufacturer's notes on the turbo yeast/liquor kwik one? Depending on the flavours it imparts, you might just stick with ec1118 since it's listed for 18% and people have seen it go higher (21%), especially with staggered sugar additions.