Vodka/moonshine drink recipes?

Tubetec said:

If you wanted to make a punchy apple flavoured drink you could try freezing down a bottle of cider ,a lot of the water will turn solid ,
the alcohol will be concentrated along with the flavour into a smaller volume . Suppose you freeze it then decant off 1/2 the volume ,you'll have doubled the strenght,  1/4 the volume x4 the strenght etc  you will end up with something between 12% and 24% , now you can mix in some of the 'pure drop' from the still to make an apple liqueur . The market is awash with horrible green apple drinks full of sugar and synthetic crap , do your tastebuds a favour try the real deal.

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An old trick you must start with hard cider (I guess you are referring to commercial alcoholic ciders).  Many years ago I tried to make high alcohol beer with the freeze trick but never worked very well...

Every christmas season I brew several batches of hard cider from (cough) raw apple cider... but you have to find apple cider without preservatives (beer yeast works).

JR

PS: Beer hops are added to counteract the too sweet flavor of malt (that beer yeast eats to make alcohol).  IPAs (india Pale ales)  use higher alcohol and higher hop levels, both as preservatives, so they can make it all the way to INDIA and still be drinkable!

Im not 100% sure what you mean by hard cider ,does it just mean the kind with alcohol in it ?
Commercial cider here typically has somewhere between 4-6% alcohol .

Just a few extra guidelines that I left out in my previous post ,
Dont try and freeze a glass bottle of cider ,
Here we get 2liter plastic 'flaggons' , if your cider does arrive in glass repurpose a soft drinks bottle of the appropriate size.
release the gas pressure before you freeze it ,and pour off half a glass ,just to leave a little expansion space .
I usually lay the bottle down horizontal in the freezer, making contact with the floor , that way it starts to freeze from the end up.
Keep a note of the amounts that come out after you freeze vs what you started with ,with some basic calculations you can figure out a ball park % figure or how much added still alcohol will give a finished product of a given strenght .

Tubetec said:

Im not 100% sure what you mean by hard cider ,does it just mean the kind with alcohol in it ?
Commercial cider here typically has somewhere between 4-6% alcohol .

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Apple cider here is unfermented apple juice. Hard cider refers to fermented so alcoholic. If raw apple cider is unpasteurized and lacks chemical preservatives natural yeasts  in the cider will eventually ferment the available sugars. I made my first batch of hard cider in a dorm room closet back in the 60s.

Just a few extra guidelines that I left out in my previous post ,
Dont try and freeze a glass bottle of cider ,

Click to expand...

as long as you only "try" to freeze it, water expands when frozen.

Here we get 2liter plastic 'flaggons' , if your cider does arrive in glass repurpose a soft drinks bottle of the appropriate size.
release the gas pressure before you freeze it ,and pour off half a glass ,just to leave a little expansion space .
I usually lay the bottle down horizontal in the freezer, making contact with the floor , that way it starts to freeze from the end up.
Keep a note of the amounts that come out after you freeze vs what you started with ,with some basic calculations you can figure out a ball park % figure or how much added still alcohol will give a finished product of a given strenght .

Click to expand...

I enjoy my DIY hard cider at natural strength.

JR

PS: Commercial hard cider is a relatively new offering here, but i recall seeing it during business trips in the EU last century.

Tubetec said:

If you wanted to make a punchy apple flavoured drink you could try freezing down a bottle of cider ,a lot of the water will turn solid ,
the alcohol will be concentrated along with the flavour into a smaller volume . Suppose you freeze it then decant off 1/2 the volume ,you'll have doubled the strenght,  1/4 the volume x4 the strenght etc  you will end up with something between 12% and 24% , now you can mix in some of the 'pure drop' from the still to make an apple liqueur . The market is awash with horrible green apple drinks full of sugar and synthetic crap , do your tastebuds a favour try the real deal.

Click to expand...

That’s an interesting idea. A little DIY liqueur. My grandparents used to make raisin brandy in the old days. Apparently that stuff was pretty potent. No wonder my Opa has to have 3/4 of his liver removed.

We tried injecting vodka into a watermelon and freezing it once. That didn’t go so well. Years ago my mom told me they used to make Yukaflux. Throw a bunch of cut up fruit into a cooler with some booze (usually run for them), let it sit for a few hours, then eat the fruit and drink the booze. Apparently that will get you right knackered.

JohnRoberts said:

Apple cider here is unfermented apple juice. Hard cider refers to fermented so alcoholic. If raw apple cider is unpasteurized and lacks chemical preservatives natural yeasts  in the cider will eventually ferment the available sugars. I made my first batch of hard cider in a dorm room closet back in the 60s.as long as you only "try" to freeze it, water expands when frozen. I enjoy my DIY hard cider at natural strength.

JR

PS: Commercial hard cider is a relatively new offering here, but i recall seeing it during business trips in the EU last century.

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So I guess you were a pretty popular guy in the dorm! Or was that a fairly common thing back in the day.

I remember when Mikes hard lemonade hit the market late 90’s. People went crazy for it. I always found it way too sweet.

not that popular then or now...
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The new commercial drink fad is hard seltzer.... Whatever that is.

JR

JohnRoberts said:

not that popular then or now...
====
The new commercial drink fad is hard seltzer.... Whatever that is.

JR

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Hard seltzer eh? No idea on that one. I’m still waiting to try hard root beer

i have Clyde May's whiskey, if you drop some soda water, it tastes like Apple.  pretty nice!

i have these two as rocket fuel  ;D

kambo said:

i have Clyde May's whiskey, if you drop some soda water, it tastes like Apple.  pretty nice!

i have these two as rocket fuel  ;D

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expensive hand sanitizer?

JR

JohnRoberts said:

expensive hand sanitizer?

JR

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yup  ;D ;D ;D
but we dont use much on skin, causing dry skin, mostly soap and water!
i have regular rubbing alcohol too for bottles, boxes, delivery etc! . .

kambo said:

i have Clyde May's whiskey, if you drop some soda water, it tastes like Apple.  pretty nice!

i have these two as rocket fuel  ;D

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I’ll have to try that! I do like me the occasional whiskey sour.

Oh no Everclear. That took me to a strange place one evening. Never again

Just pitched yeast into some hard earned apple juice. We were crushing most of the morning. Mixture of three different apples with some feijoas from the back garden thrown in for a bit of extra aromatic content. Ended up with just over 40 litres (about 11 gallons). Hydrometer indicates that after fermenting to dryness should be about 8% alcohol. I usually use my dad's electric drill (and use my dad) with a sharpened paint stirrer to help chop the apples, but with the lock down on we had to just pulp then with a pole in a bucket.

Insomniaclown said:

I’ll have to try that! I do like me the occasional whiskey sour.

Oh no Everclear. That took me to a strange place one evening. Never again

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i wouldnt drink that....

this is a couple year old story...
after trying regular Clyde May's, i bought their 9 years old 58.5% alcohol version.
i thought it would be even better ! i was sooooo wrong... that thing is rocket fuel too...
while having some with soda water, and while i was still sipping it, only drinking 1/3 of my small glass...
I HAD TO RUSH TO KITCHEN SINK and get my stomach inside out! i got sick! badly...
i can drink bottle of Jack Dans in an evening no problem. i rarely get sick out of it.

so, couple of weeks later, i gave another try to that hardcore version of Clyde May's...
same result... couldnt even finish a glass of it... ended up in kitchen sink again....
making disgusting noises... i felt like i drunk some gasoline...

eversince, its been sitting on our kitchen... even if i am out of drink, i dont even think about having a sip!
but the bottle is cool tho

seems like, even if i dilute alcohol,  my body is not responding well to its original high alcohol content!

In Buffalo NY where I grew up there was a cider press just out of town. I love apples and miss being able to get fresh press cider.

I’ve never seen unpasteurized cider in the markets in NYC.
In Buffalo you could buy it in store’s unpasteurized. I wonder if you can now?

Gold said:

In Buffalo NY where I grew up there was a cider press just out of town. I love apples and miss being able to get fresh press cider.

I’ve never seen unpasteurized cider in the markets in NYC.
In Buffalo you could buy it in store’s unpasteurized. I wonder if you can now?

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With unpasteurized (and with no preservatives), you don't even need to add yeast to turn it into hard cider (the wild yeast in it will ferment it), just give it some time, but good luck finding that, they might not even be able to sell it that way any more. The first batch of hard cider I made in my dorm room back in the 60s used raw apple cider (from an apple farm in western Mass). 

Every winter when I make a few batches of hard cider I have to work to find cider that is only pasteurized and not loaded up with preservatives, that would kill my added yeast.

JR 

JohnRoberts said:

With unpasteurized (and with no preservatives), you don't even need to add yeast to turn it into hard cider (the wild yeast in it will ferment it), just give it some time, but good luck finding that, they might not even be able to sell it that way any more.

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When you could buy unpasteurized cider in the supermarket  it was always somewhere on the spectrum between sweet and hard depending on age.

kambo said:

i wouldnt drink that....

this is a couple year old story...
after trying regular Clyde May's, i bought their 9 years old 58.5% alcohol version.
i thought it would be even better ! i was sooooo wrong... that thing is rocket fuel too...
while having some with soda water, and while i was still sipping it, only drinking 1/3 of my small glass...
I HAD TO RUSH TO KITCHEN SINK and get my stomach inside out! i got sick! badly...
i can drink bottle of Jack Dans in an evening no problem. i rarely get sick out of it.

so, couple of weeks later, i gave another try to that hardcore version of Clyde May's...
same result... couldnt even finish a glass of it... ended up in kitchen sink again....
making disgusting noises... i felt like i drunk some gasoline...

eversince, its been sitting on our kitchen... even if i am out of drink, i dont even think about having a sip!
but the bottle is cool tho

seems like, even if i dilute alcohol,  my body is not responding well to its original high alcohol content!

Click to expand...

Yikes! I think I’ll be giving Clyde May’s a miss. Although I don’t think I’ve ever seen it

I drank about a capful of ever clear after already having a few beers in my system. It was not a good feeling. I kept it down, but that was the end of my night, and the last time I ever touched the stuff. I’ll put Absinthe on the “never again” list as well

JohnRoberts said:

With unpasteurized (and with no preservatives), you don't even need to add yeast to turn it into hard cider (the wild yeast in it will ferment it), just give it some time, but good luck finding that, they might not even be able to sell it that way any more. The first batch of hard cider I made in my dorm room back in the 60s used raw apple cider (from an apple farm in western Mass). 

Every winter when I make a few batches of hard cider I have to work to find cider that is only pasteurized and not loaded up with preservatives, that would kill my added yeast.

JR 

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If I understand this correctly, you can buy a bottle of unpasteurized cider, let it just sit there to naturally ferment, and then you get hard cider. If it’s pasteurized you can add some yeast to aid in the fermentation so long as the preservatives don’t kill the yeast. Is that about right? I might have to try this as I am very intrigued

I would think the best place to find good cider for this would be in the Organic section at the grocery store, or one of them fancy all organic/fair trade hippie stores

Found this meme on the web. Seemed fitting

Insomniaclown said:

If I understand this correctly, you can buy a bottle of unpasteurized cider, let it just sit there to naturally ferment, and then you get hard cider. If it’s pasteurized you can add some yeast to aid in the fermentation so long as the preservatives don’t kill the yeast. Is that about right? I might have to try this as I am very intrigued

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exactly, but you are at the mercy of whatever wild yeast is in your area. In the old days (before my time) that how they made homemade wine, in an uncovered container.

I don't trust wild yeast, and if not careful you can make vinegar instead of hard cider.

I brew beer in 5 gallon batches, and after fermenting a batch the bottom of my fermenter has about a half inch of yeast in the bottom. I will pitch 2 or 3 gallons of pasteurized apple cider into the dregs of the beer batch, and it ferments down in only days. Generally I would be worried about that much air space in the partially filled fermenter, but with that much yeast, it quickly cranks out CO2 purging the air out of the fermenter. I use a bubbler to let excess CO2 out while not letting room air in.

I would think the best place to find good cider for this would be in the Organic section at the grocery store, or one of them fancy all organic/fair trade hippie stores

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Look out for preservatives, Vit C (ascorbic acid, citric acid, etc) is OK, Potassium Sorbate doesn't outright kill yeast but it inhibits reproduction, so no bueno.  Check the label. I only find one brand at Walley world without yeast killing preservatives but thats all I need.

JR

Found this meme on the web. Seemed fitting

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I’ve just learned about this “wild yeast” idea when I got into a little isolation baking, and had to brush up my yeast knowledge. Sounds like voodoo magic to me

Thanks for all the info on making hard cider John. Might be the next experiment I take on once I master croissants.