Thanks Michael. Happy cider-making!

The difference with applejack is that applejack is freeze distilled hard cider. In other words, the alcohol and all other components of alcohol are concentrated by the freezing process. For ice cider it is fermented AFTER the juice is concentrated - so the alcohol and its components are not concentrated. We do not know why one would experience any greater level of headache from ice cider than cider based on alcohol dosage. Thanks!

Thanks David and Rachel!

Thank you

Good one Bjorn!

Yes - that is about correct.

We do not re-freeze what we have drawn off the jug and we are not re-freezing what's left in the jug. It can be fermented into a very watery/low alcohol cider. You can further concentrate the cider by re-freezing it but we have not done so.

Hi. So the yeast you use will usually indicate the alcohol tolerance range on the label. Higher alcohol tolerance will make it more boozy and less sweet. It is probably more ideal to use a yeast with a lower alcohol tolerance to get the ABV to 13 or14% and a more traditional ice cider profile. We've used Lalvin 71b, Lallemand 58w3 and Lalvin D47 successfully but they sometimes need more time or nutrient to ferment successfully. Other more robust yeasts like Lalvin DV10 and EC1118 - have higher tolerances and are more reliable for a strong ferment but if you want that more traditionally sweet ice cider profile, the fermentation needs to be arrested otherwise it will get to that 18+% range which is not ideal. Good luck!

@@Number12Cider Thank you for a long and good answer! I will definitely try to make a sweet variant with around 14% ABV.

Hi. Freezing the already fermented cider is a method of distillation. Instead of adding or concentrating sugars you are simply taking non-alcohol liquids out. That's how apple jack was made traditionally. You can end up with a much higher alcohol product this way because the outcome does not depend on how much alcohol yeast can tolerate so yes, it would taste different. Give it a try and let us know how it worked!

Hi - fermentation should be slow and at a cooler temperature like 52 degrees f if possible so you should monitor it until it stops. Also, frequent racking can help to slow the fermentation to a stop. We are not specifically aware of a yeast that stops at 8 or 10%. Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast has a tolerance of 11%. Wyeast Cider yeast has a tolerance of 12%. Lalvin also has products that work at a lower alcohol tolerance. You will have to look at the specifications of yeasts and find the best option.

@@Number12Cider thanks. I'm about 1 week in using lalvin 71B yeast. One batch started at 38 brix the other at 33 brix.

​@@Number12Ciderupdate. I used 12x1.5 ltr cartons of apple juice from concentrates. This gave me 2x1 ltr batches to try. 1st ltr started off at 38 brix and ended around 28brix using 1118 yeast for about 4 weeks before the yeast died. Good ice cider but not sweet enough.so took another 1.5lrt carton.froze it and took 150mls of 35brix off and mixed into the 1ltr ice cider. Fantastic drink. Not as good as ramborn. But very happy for home made product..2nd 1ltr batch started at 32brix used 1118 yeast ended at 20brix. It's drinkable.but in my opinion it's not good

Love it! Keep on doing it - sounds like you are really gaining good experience.

We are not expert at the science of distilling but... we understand that in traditional distilling, distillers discard the "heads" and "tails" which are undesirable and harmful forms of alcohol. Traditional distillers heat the product to distill it to something like 200 degrees f, and this process yields alcohol concentrations of 70 to 90%. With freeze distilling you do not have the ability to discard those components so they stay in (if they were present in the first place). We do not which, if any, of those undesirable components exist in the product absent the heating process of traditional distilling. We understand that you can achieve alcohol levels of upwards of 40% by freeze distilling - so much lower than with a still. A step below is ice cider. You can get very high brix from concentrating the juice but yeast will not tolerate alcohol levels of much higher than 16 or 18% so that is about as far as you can go with freeze distilling. As a practical matter, we do not discard the undesirable alcohol components when we ferment apple juice either but it is also much less concentrated and again, not sure what elements of those "heads" and "tails" come from the distilling process and what components are there in the first place. Thanks!

@@Number12Cider Agree. The fuciles are there, just more concentrated when you "jack". You would have to drink a lot to get sick. This is meant for sipping.

@@jdesmond4101 Ok thanks! We were hoping to try this sometime soon!

Paul - no dumb questions on this site! :) It is two ways of measuring the same thing. We have gotten used to both of them such that occasionally we refer to SG and occasionally we refer to Brix without thinking about it. Most hydrometers have both a brix and and SG scale. Its kind of like metric to imperial.

Cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermenting apple juice. Vinegar is a non-alcoholic liquid/beverage made by exposing cider to acetobacter, which oxidizes the alcohol and turns it into acetic acid. When you turn cider into vinegar it is cider vinegar.

@@Number12Cider Thanks but how to expose cider to acetobacter

We are not exactly the experts on vinegar making but a "mother of vinegar" as they call it, can be purchased for vinegar making. Good luck!