Applejack: what is it, how is it made + 6 brands worth trying

Briefly about the drink

Applejack – A variety of brandy based on apples. Also known as apple brandy or Calvados. Often found in the US market, which is why it is also called the American Calvados.

brandy cocktails

How Applejack is made

The traditional production method includes the following steps:

  1. Preparation and fermented mash.

  2. The process of freezing fermented cider and then removing the ice (and water).

  3. Increasing the alcohol content in the final product. Starting with a fermented juice with less than ten percent alcohol, the concentrated result (after freezing) can contain 25–40% alcohol.

Applejack has historically been easier to produce, as freeze distillation is a simpler method of production compared to evaporative distillation, and does not require burning wood to produce heat.

The disadvantage of sublimation distillation, also called fractional crystallization, is that the substances remaining after the removal of water include not only ethanol, but also harmful methanol, esters, aldehydes, and fusel spirits.

Modern Applejack is made by fermenting apple must and then distilling it.

6 Applejack Brands You Should Try

  1. Laird’s Applejack Brandy

    Laird & Company is synonymous with apple spirits and three centuries of family tradition. The company produces the vast majority of all Applejack and American Apple Brandy brands on the market, which have been successfully drunk since colonial times.

  2. Black Dirt Distillery’s Bonded Apple Jack

    Made from Jonagold apples, Black Dirt Distillery is a 100% apple brandy that honors New York tradition.

    The drink has the taste of a baked apple with hints of caramel. Bottled from a new charred oak barrel, the apple jack is aged for at least five years to impress with its colorful aroma.

  3. Koval Apple Brandy

    Produced in small batches once a year, mainly from hand-picked organic apples.

    Approximately 7 tons of apples are involved in the process. They are then pounded (or ground into a coarse applesauce) and fermented.

    Once prepared, the applesauce is distilled and then aged in new American oak barrels for at least 6 months. 100% apples, nothing else.

  4. Copper & Kings American Apple Brandy

    An excellent copper-colored American apple brandy aged in Kentucky bourbon and Spanish Oloroso sherry casks.

    Aromatic, complex, with balance, sillage and depth. The real, not spoiled natural taste and color, may become slightly cloudy in the cold.

  5. Old Hampshire Applejack

    This Applejack is associated with the city of New Hampshire, in those days the colonists used the abundance of apples in the area for drinks and food.

    The drink is made from 100% New Hampshire apples (including Crispin, Cortland, Mackintosh and Honeycrisp varieties), which are then fermented with wine yeast.

    The resulting cider is then distilled twice in alembic and aged in charred barrels. The result is alcohol with a characteristic caramel color and whiskey-like notes of vanilla, cinnamon and cloves.

  6. St. George California Reserve Apple Brandy

    Cask apple brandy with soft honey and cinnamon notes.

    Made from a blend of local apples (Alameda, California) sourced from the only family orchard within 150 miles of the distillery. Produced in small batches.

What is the difference between brandy and cognac

Cocktail recipes with Applejack

Relevance: 29.09.2019

Tags: brandy and cognac

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