Applejack
Applejack (also called Apple Brandy ) is a spirit made from apples, nowadays always made as a fruit brandy . The drink was particularly popular in the British colonies in North America because it was relatively easy to make from a widely used raw material and was easier to store and transport than cider or apple juice, for example . Applejack was particularly popular in the states of the Northeast and the northern Midwest .
history
In some cases Applejack was distilled from cider, but more common was the so-called freeze distillation or jacking - cider was stored outside the house in winter and the frozen water was regularly collected so that the alcohol content in the liquid increased throughout the winter until the next spring it became a spirit. Nowadays, almost no Applejack is made using this process in the USA anymore, the few active manufacturers distill Applejack like other spirits.
The first place Applejack was made in bulk was New Jersey . Because of its often high alcohol content and unpredictable consequences, Applejack was nicknamed Jersey Lightning . Other nicknames were cider oil and lock jaw drink .
By 1830 there were 430 Applejack distilleries in New Jersey. Due to the concentration and the development towards larger operations, there were 60 distilleries in the southern part of New York State in 1890 and 70 distilleries in New Jersey have survived from 1892. Compared to calvados , the taste of the applejack is less subtle and sharper.
Home manufacturing of the Applejack was unreliable and the results of this process were of very different quality. Applejack therefore acquired a reputation early on for tasting bad, endangering health and leading to excessive noise. After stills and more professional methods of making spirits had spread throughout the colonies , Applejack lost its importance relatively quickly. In particular, the beginning abstinence movement and prohibition in the United States led to a sharp decline in the industry. At the beginning of the 20th century, thousands of apple trees were destroyed at the instigation of the abstinence movement, whereupon the apple growers concentrated on the production of table apples. Applejack almost completely disappeared from the American drinks menu after Prohibition.
The oldest spirits manufacturer in the USA, Laird & Company from Monmouth County in New Jersey , traces its continuous commercial production back to the year 1780 - except for the time of Prohibition - but records have been in existence since 1698 that show that in the Laird family Applejack was produced. Among other things, Robert Laird supplied George Washington's troops with the drink in 1760 . Until the 1970s, Laird's Applejack was pure distilled apple juice. In 2011, they produced about 95 percent of the Applejack made in the US. Their standard recipe consists of 35 percent apple brandy and 65 percent neutral alcohol with 40% alcohol. The Applejack is stored for two years before it is put on the market. Lairds also produces other Applejacks, which still only consist of roasted apples. The apples from which the Applejack is made are mainly wine saps , as these produce a particularly high alcohol content during fermentation. The most popular cocktail made with Applejack is the Jack Rose .
literature
- Harry Bischoff Weiss : The history of applejack or apple brandy in New Jersey from colonial times to the present . Trenton 1954.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Gerald Carson: The Social History of Bourbon , University Press of Kentucky, 2010, ISBN 0813126568 , p. 5.
- ^ A b Andrew F. Smith: Applejack , in: Andrew F. Smith (ed.): The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink , Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0195307968 .
- ^ A b Paul: American Apple Brandy at Swig Well , in: The Cocktail Chronicles , November 8, 2011.
- ^ A b Troy Patterson: Applejack , in: Slate , December 7, 2011.
- ↑ a b Frank J. Prial: One Family's Story: Apples to Applejack , in: The New York Times , May 4 of 2005.