APPLE JACK

[Catch 22]

I see quite a few posts on Apple Pie, but nothing on Apple Jack. Here it's apple picking time and one can get bushels of apples for under $8.00
I am making a batch as we speak and it has been in the fermenter for 9 days and still bubbling away. I tried Tatar method with a power drill and a sharp drywall mud bit, but that was a mess (the dogs liked it), so I went old school and used a cypress 4" post and just mashed it to a pulp. Took approx. 50lb of apples, 12lbs of sugar and 10 gals of spring water and pitched in 2 packets of EC1118 (which took off like a rocket and has not stopped) I punched down the head twice a day which was packed really tight from the fermentations below. The 7 day I took what solids that were on top still and squeezed them thru a fine nylon mesh and dumped that back into the wash and still bubbling away nicely I was wondering if anyone else has a recipe or have tried this? Made wild black berry the same way last month and it came out great and finished much sooner (7 days)

[pounsfos]

that sounds amazing, you should upload a photo of it,

we like photos of stuff (try to keep it low rez... under 100kb if you do)

[Catch 22]

I am gonna make another batch once this one clears and I take step by step picks. I was wondering if anybody added cinnamon or other flavor enhancers after distilling Like someone said on here "it's science, just not rocket science."

[Jimbo]

Why not try some apple brandy, squash em ferment em and run it. No sugar. Apple Brandy, Calvados, is some mighty tasty stuff aged up on oak.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =2&t=32309

[Catch 22]

Thanks Jimbo for the advise, How much water would one use on a bushel before pitching in the yeast?

[Jimbo]

No water. No sugar. No cooking. No nutrients. Apples and yeast. Grind em, press em, ferment em.

[Catch 22]

I took Jimbo's advice and here is my" Apple Jack Recipe" or "Brandy". I took a bushel of Apples assorted mixture (no Granny's)Since I did not have access to a press and using a drywall mixing spade made a mess, I decided to go old school on them with a cypress post and a bucket. (it's like NACAR here, We race with what we brought to the track)

Smashed them up to a chunky mush

The apples were some of the sweetest I have ever tasted, but there was not a lot of juice so I added 5 gals of fresh apple cider. I brought the cider up to 80 degrees and added to the apple mash mixture. Made a yeast starter with one packet of EC1118 and pitched that in after a hour of making and let it do it's thing

The next morning almost all of the water was out of the vapor lock, it was like a mini volcano, so now I push down the tightly pack apple cap twice a day

My first batch is still fermenting out after two week, after 9 days of this fermenting it was getting to be a pane in the ass pushing down the cap, so I took all the solids that were floating on top and squeezed them thru a fine nylon mesh bag and dumped what little solid that was left in the bag back into the wash for added flavor and yeasties. Took it from the primary fermenter and racked them into carboys, so I can try this new recipe I got going while it still apple season.

Plan is to run all the feint's I collected from the first batch and add it to my new batch I have going, run it, added some of my heavily toasted white oak and forget about till next apple season then give it a pull and see if the recipe needs any tweaking. Any thoughts out there? Has any one added cinnamon for added flavor?

Enjoy

[Bushman]

In apple pie the cinnamon is added to the apple juice with sugar then boiled cooled then added to the neutral. For my brandy I added cinnamon during the aging process for a month to give it flavor similar to adding vanilla beans to whiskey.

[Prairiepiss]

Apple jack would actually be a fermented Apple cider that has been freeze jacked. Using the very inefficient method of freeze distilling. Which is not recommended if you want something good to drink. So really you are making an Apple brandy. And is probably why you aren't finding info on Apple jack. Just thought o would throw that out there.

[appleshiner]

How many much yeast did you use as far as grams or tea spoons or some unit of measure