Applejack (beverage)

How To Make Applejack. High Alcohol Brew!

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• published: 25 Feb 2014
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Today we'll use a simple and easy recipe for making a special kind of hard apple cider, Applejack! Our recipe will be a modification of normal hard apple cider, allowing it to be mild in taste once brewed, but wonderfully appley once we turn it into applejack. Using such a process can save you tons of money on alcohol as well as give you a great relaxing drink. We'll cover ingredients, basics, tools, some tips and tricks, as well as a short video on my own brew and setup. Now the basics of brewing wine, beer, and hard cider is very old technology, almost as old as civilization itself, and the making of things like ice beer, ice wine, and applejack are almost 2000 years old. Basic brewing is taking the liquid of fruits, combining with yeast, and the end result is an alcoholic beverage. The making of ice brews, like applejack, is very simple in and of itself. All you need to make and ice brew or applejack is an acoholic beverage and cold temps. The major concept behind applejack is that water freezes before alcohol, so by taking hard apple cider(or beer, or wine) and placing it in freezing temperatures you freeze the water, pour off the alcohol, throw away the ice and you are left with a high alochol content drink! OK, lets cover basic items and ingredients needed : 1. 5 gallon water container(kind in a water cooler) 2. 2.5 gallons of apple juice 3. Jar of bread yeast 4. DAP(Diamonium Phosphate) 5. 8 pounds sugar 6. Plastic bag 7. String 8. Plastic tube The 5 gallon container can be of any type, but I suggest a water dispenser type, so if needed just make sure the container can be sealed. The apple juice can be store bought, homemade, or even a mix of different kinds of juices, just make sure it's 100% juice. The yeast can be of any kind, but be aware that using diff kinds will change the taste, sweetness, and alcohol content, thus meaning you will need to adjust various ingredient amounts to find a taste you like. DAP is Diamonium Phosphate and is yeast nutrient, which can be found at any brewing store, or online, although if you can't access this you can replace this by grinding up raisins and putting them in the brew, or bananas along with scrapings from the inside of the peels, or a number of other food items(search 'DAP brewing replacement'). Sugar is the basic fuel for our yeast, which they will eat, and excrete alcohol, but this can be replaces with molasses, corn syrup, agave nectar, or a number of other items(search 'sugar brewing alternative). Plastic bag and string are used to seal your brewing container to keep out any nasty wild yeasts which can give your brew an off flavor. The plastic tube is for siphoning off your brew when it's finished. The basics for starting your brew is quite easy. First pour the 2.5 gallons of apple juice into your empty 5 gallon container. Most apple juice comes in half gallon containers, so now take your 8 pounds of sugar and split it between 4 half gallon containers, then fill them the rest of the way with hot water. Shake the bottles up until the sugar is completely dissolved, then pour these into your 5 gallon container. Mix up the 5 gallon container, then once settled put it in a dark warm place(65-80 degrees F), add 4 tablespoons of yeast to the 5 gallon container, then place the plastic bag over the top of the 5 gallon container and seal by using string. After 24 hours take another half gallon container and add 4 tablespoons of DAP, then top off with warm water. Shake the half gallon container until the DAP is dissolved, then add this liquid to your 5 gallon container and re-seal. After 2 weeks you will have hard apple cider in the 5 gallon container. Take your plastic tubing and siphon off the liquid into containers, and place them in your freezer. NOTE : Be sure to never fill the container to be frozen fully, and to squeeze some air out of them, as freezing a full container of any liquid will result in the container leaking or possiblly spilling into your freezer. Once the liquid is frozen, pour off the liquid, throw away the ice, and what remains is high alcohol content delicious applejack! Here are some tips and tricks : If you want very clear applejack, then after 2 weeks of fermenting and before you freeze the liquid, siphon off 1 half gallon of cider, add 3 egg whites, shake until completely mixed into the half gallon, pour back into the 5 gallon container, then stir this completely into the 5 gallon container. Wait 3-5 days and the majority of any leftover yeast , along with the egg whites, will settle to the bottom of the container. Then you can continue with siphoning off the clear liquid and freezing it. If you would like even higher alcohol content applejack, try pouring off the liquid after frozen, then re-freezing the liquid again after disposing of ice....doing this 2 or three times can result in very high alcohol applejack. To sweeten add sugar to your applejack. Once it's up to room temp, add sugar and shake it up til dissolved