How to Make Apple Jack - Ice Distilling Apple Cider at Home!!!
Author: Whats4Chow
Recipe type: Distilling
Cuisine: American
Apple Jack has been around since the beginning of America. Ice distilled from apple cider there was no need for infrastructure or elaborate equipment, which made it the perfect solution for those times. The term jacked up comes directly from apple jack where the ice distilling process jacks up the alcohol content resulting in an apple brandy with an alcohol content anywhere between 20% and 50% ABV. Today, with the exception of a handful of craft distillers, apple jack is made with a blend of apple cider and commercial alcohol.
Ingredients
- Apple cider
Instructions
- To start, pour your cider into suitable food grade bottles. This cider is presently about 7% ABV. Place the bottles in your freezer overnight. Remember not to tighten the bottle cap as the bottle may burst in the freezer.
- Once frozen, you will have a bottle of golden ice.
- Remove the bottle cap and invert the bottle in a measuring jug. You will notice almost immediately some liquid will drain from the bottle. This is the alcohol and a the syrupy flavor component of the apple cider that does not freeze along with the water content.
- I am going to jack my alcohol content up to around 21%, and to achieve this I will collect 1 third of the original volume of liquid. In other words, this 1 liter bottle will yield 330ml of jack at around 21% ABV.
- As the runoff passes the neck of the bottle it will cause an air block, so you need to lift the bottle every few minutes to allow the runoff to escape into the jug.
- If you missed the introduction video about ice distilling you can click the onscreen link. This will give you a full explanation of the alcohol calculations and process.
- Now I've collect 330ml of runoff. This runoff is the apple jack.
- You will notice the ice in the bottle is now very pale as almost all of the alcohol, flavor component and color component have drained.
- Notice how beautifully clear the result is, with concentrated color and flavor. A taste test will reveal the quite obviously stronger alcohol content.
