Apple Jack Update

It’s been a long time since we talked about our Apple jack experiment, so I thought I would toss up an update.

Over the last year and a half, we’ve made, from scratch, our own apple cider. It sat for quite a long time waiting for us to complete the recipe, and about two weeks ago, it was finally done. Adrian then re-racked it and let it sit until the rest of the resin from the apples and yeast had settled to the bottom. Yesterday, he started the process of turning it into Apple jack.

We are utilizing the traditional method of freeze distillation. Freeze distillation is a process of concentrating the alcohol in a fermented beverage by freezing it, then removing the frozen material. Because water freezes before the alcohol, the more the beverage is frozen, the more water is removed, leaving a higher concentration of alcohol when the freezing process is complete. In other words, we’re going to freeze the liquid and pour off whatever liquid is left over, and repeat the process until we reach our desired alcohol content.

We will keep you abreast of the process and its ups and downs. Hopefully it will all work out exactly the way we hope, although when it comes to our crafting experiments, nothing every really does.