Step 2 Preparing Ingredients: The apple concentrate should already be sanitary. I cannot stress the importance of sanitization. Some bacteria got into it and my wine turned into 5 gallons of vinegar. This includes your hands, carboy, and stirring stick. You will want to make sure that you sanitize everything that comes into contact with your cider. Step 1 Sanitation: The first step is also perhaps the most important and will be repeated throughout the process. Step by step directions on how to make Applejacks: Still (only if you are doing steam distillation) Large freezer if you are doing freeze distillation What you need: (click here to buy home brew kit)Īlcohol hydrometer (it is best if you have both a beer and liquor hydrometer)ĥ gallon bucket or kettle (really anything that has a wide top and is food grade plastic) Yeast nutrients (you can pick it up at your local home brew shop)Ģ pounds of sugar (depends on how much sugar is in your apple concentrate)ġ packet of yeast ( you can get wine yeast either at a home brew shop or online) Gallons of apple juice/concentrate (5 gallons = 18.9 litters) If you are really ambitious, you can press your own apples. In order to make Applejacks, you will first need to make apple cider. If you are interested in steam distillation, please check out the article on “how to make moonshine.” It’s the same process as making moonshine, except that you use apple juice instead of grain. For the purposes of this article, I will be discussing the process of freeze distillation. I personally believe that Applejacks is perhaps the most under rated spirit being produced in America today.Īs previously stated, Applejacks can be made either by steam or freeze distillation. With the use of a still, one is able to condense and the vaporized alcohol back into its liquid form.Īpplejacks is a truly great liquor that can easily be produced at home. Alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water. As opposed to freeze distillation, steam distillation is done by heating apple cider. Steam distillation: Many modern distilleries use stills and the process of steam distillation to produce Applejacks. All you need is access to a large freezer. Due to our modern technological advancements in freezing, you can produce Applejacks all year round without a still. The more ice they took out, the higher the alcohol content. The colder the apple cider got, the more it would freeze. Every morning they would go out and wipe off all the ice that had accumulated. During the colonial period producers would leave Apple cider out in the cold. Historically Applejacks could only be made during the winter (for obvious reasons). The word “jack” derives from the process of freeze distillation, which has historically been called “jacking.” Applejack was/is commonly distilled from apple cider.įreeze distillation: As you probably well know, alcohol freezes at a lower temperature than water. Applejack gets its name from the process and ingredients that are used in its production. As with whiskey, Applejack was used as currency during America’s colonial period. George Washing who owned one of the largest distilleries in America made Applejack. In my opinion, Applejack is one of the most under rated spirits in the world, which is sad since it has had such a long and storied history. This ensures that the quality and sweetness of the apples are at their peak.Applejack is a liquor that is freeze distilled, as opposed to steam distillation. Our Laird’s Applejack and Apple Brandies are made at the peak of the Virginia apple harvest, in early September to mid-November. Many varieties of Virginia grown apples are used, including Jonathans, Gala, Winesaps, Staymans, Pippins, and Delicious apples. Laird’s is never produced from concentrate or purchased juice. Only carefully selected, whole, tree-ripened apples, which are crushed, juiced and fermented at our distillery, are ever used in the making of Laird’s Applejack. With the disappearance of orchards in New Jersey, as of the mid-1970’s our entire production of our apple brandies is distilled in Virginia using only fresh Virginia apples.ĪppleJack is now enjoying resurgence in popularity, both as a beverage and as a cooking ingredient, which imparts a tantalizing and unique flavor to a variety of dishes. It is very close to the Shenandoah Valley, a great source of apples. The Virginia Fruit Distilling Co., as it was then called, was a large producer of fruit wines and spirits being sold in Virginia and the surrounding southern states. One was our current distillery in North Garden, Virginia, near Charlottesville. Post Prohibition business was booming so the Laird family acquired two additional distilleries in the early 1940’s.
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