Making Applejack and Winter Wine

Both of these drinks are very strong alcoholic beverages requiring a very cold winter. They are both based on a simple principle that is alcohol freezes at a much lower temperature than water. In the case of applejack the starter is hard cider. A barrel is filled with hard cider early in the winter and then allowed to freeze during the coldest part of winter. At the end of this cold period barrel full of hard cider that is spent outdoors all winter is opened and a hole is chiseled into the ice until it reaches a cavity inside that is full of alcohol. This alcohol is concentrated by the action of freezing the hard cider that you put in there at the beginning of winter. It depends on how cold that it actually gets is a function of how strong the alcohol becomes. The strongest alcohol is the result of a long and very cold winter. You can do the same thing by using a freezer the only difference is the freezer concentrates the alcohol instead of cold weather.