freeze distillation (moonshine cider)
11 03 2007
The one the left is the normal cider and the one on the right has been freeze distilled.
We had some friends visiting this weekend so what better way to celebrate than with alcohol. I’d been wanting to try this technique of freeze distillation with cider for a while but never got round to it. Basically you put your alcohol in a container then put it in the freezer. All the water freezes and you are left with a higher alcohol content and a stronger flavour.
Freeze distillation is a metaphorical term for a process of enriching a solution by partially freezing it and removing frozen material that is poorer in the dissolved material than is the liquid portion left behind. Such enrichment parallels enrichment by true distillation, where the evaporated and recondensed portion is richer than the liquid portion left behind.
Part of the reason I did this was that I was not convinced that the cider had much alcohol as it does not taste as if it does. However after the freezing process the change was considerable. It had definatly enhanced the flavour, colour and raised the alcohol content. It really works!
Although I did not end up with much compared with the volume that I started with what I ended up with was a much better drink. I am going to try it with the second batch of cider that I made as this was mostly Bramleys and although it’s not as bad as I was led to believe, I think that it could be turned into a far superior drink if distilled.
According to Wikapedia this process is illegal in many countries because a number of by-products of fermentation (fusel alcohols), which are mostly removed by heat distillation, tend to accumulate to an unhealthy level in freeze-distilled beverages.
From what I understand, this process was very popular among the New England colonies.
Barrels of apple wine would be set out in sheds during January and February when the temperatures where blistering cold. And, by first thaw it would be ready to drink. In America this drink is called Apple Jack. Freeze distillation is also refered to as the Mongolian still and is said to have been in use since the 7th century.
How does this stuff taste compared to bought cider? better? or not as good in a still-learning kinda way?
My boyfriend keeps telling me I need to try ‘real’ cider; I think wine, beer and cider are generally not nice (not a big alcohol drinker in general), but he keeps promising me ‘real’ cider just tastes like apples… hmmm
Oooh. We too have been tempted to try this to up the octane levels of our cider. I am seriously tempted to try, but, alas, all the cider was finished months ago….
I assume it will work with ordinary home brew? I have an out of date tin of bitter which stares at me every time I go into my garage…
Real cider does taste like apples, honest.
I used my own cider for this experiment and apparently you can use any beverage.
*g*
so you could make vodka more alcoholic?
Antony, I was one of your friends this weekend and I liked your cider. It was pretty sweet, and I knew id we drank a litre of it like in the olden days we’d have never made a whole weekend.
Good to see you anyway. I left my leads at your house I think. Could you check, and maybe you could make some use out of them!
Seeeeeeeeeeya!
It doesn’t actually increase the amount of alcohol, just the concentration. So if you and your friends drank all the cider, you’d be just as drunk as if you drank all the applejack.
Yes you are right, sorry, if you consider the volume you started with.
Is there any chance you could hook your blog into feedburner? It means that people can sign up to your blog by email as well as hook it into a number of feed readers. It would be great to get all these posts by email!
I’m glad to see I’m not the only person that enjoys rocket fuel. I also freeze distill cider - especially my super strong scrumpy which comes in between 10 and 12% ABV.
Freezing it two or three times gives it even more oomph and flavour, but you definitely do not want to drink a lot of it as it’s a real headache inducer. You have been warned!!
It’s the truth! If you want to kick up any type of alcoholic beverage, the freze method works just fine. I have done it with homemade apple wine and it brings it up a notch right below apple brandy. Not to mention the concentration of flavors. Go for it!!!!!!!!!!
Of course it’s illegal, and I wouldn’t DREAM of trying it - but if I did it would be with our own home made wines. I just happen to have an old book which details freeze distillation, but with the addition of filtering through “animal charcoal” then “activated charcoal” to get rid of the toxins. The activated is no problem, but anyone know where I can get some animal charcoal??
just fyi but charcoal will get rid of nasty tasting elements but also a lot of the flavour. WARNING! Charcoal does not remove any mentanol so if there is some already in the cider(almost unavoidable) and you freeze distill and then charcoal filter, you WILL have a stronger concentration of metanol, hence the wicked hangover;
Oops…. read methanol for the above