Applejack (apple brandy)

Brandy, in general, celebrates a rich history in Europe. “Brandewijn, or as we now pronounce it, ‘brandywine’ is an early Dutch practice of burnt wine for shipping stability,” says Jamie Oakes, a master distiller at Tamworth Distilling and Mercantile. The higher proofs made for easier transport and sale worldwide. “The idea was for the purchaser to reconstitute the brandywine with water to make a wine strength drinking spirit,” says Oakes. Some cultures just preferred the distilled (higher ABV) fruit spirit. Others made their own with fermented fruits. Apple brandy owes most of its roots to the Normandy/Calvados region of France.

Applejack in America

Applejack is the most historical of the American distilled spirits and is America’s first and original native spirit, long before bourbon and even rye whiskeys. In colonial times, thanks to an abundance of apples in the country’s Northeast, ‘apple cyder’ and ‘cyder spirits,’ as it was called at the time, were ubiquitous.

Apple brandy was first produced in colonial New Jersey in 1698 by William Laird, a Scottish immigrant who settled in Monmouth County. The drink was once known as Jersey Lightning. Laird's great-grandson, Robert Laird, who served in the Continental Army, incorporated Laird's Distillery in 1780, after previously operating a tavern. The oldest licensed applejack distillery in the United States, Laird & Company of Scobeyville, New Jersey, was until the 2000s the country's only remaining producer of applejack, and continues to dominate applejack production. In the 2010s, a number of smaller craft distilleries began to produce applejack in places such as New Hampshire, Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, New York's Hudson Valley, and Holland, Michigan.

Once popular in early America, applejack declined in popularity due to the rise of other spirits that were easier to manufacture on a commercial basis, including rum, bourbon, and whiskey in the 19th century and gin, vodka, and tequila in the 20th century. In 1920, with the beginning of the Prohibition era, Laird's ended the production of liquor and began producing apple juice. In 1931, John Evans Laird received permission to produce apple brandy for "medicinal purposes" and stockpiled its product until the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.

The renewed interest by the bartending community in classic cocktails, such as the Jack rose, pink lady, and applejack rabbit, have played an important role in spurring this increase in popularity. Jack Rose was popular in the 1920s and 1930s and made an appearance in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.

Production

The name applejack derives from the traditional method of producing the drink, jacking, the process of freezing fermented cider and then removing the ice, increasing the alcohol content. Cider produced after the fall harvest was left outside during the winter. Periodically the frozen chunks of ice which had formed were removed, thus concentrating the unfrozen alcohol in the remaining liquid. An alternative method involved placing a cask of hard cider in snow, allowing ice to form on the inside of the cask as the contents began to freeze, and then tapping the cask and pouring off the still-liquid portion of the contents. Starting with the fermented juice, with an alcohol content of less than ten percent, the concentrated result can contain 25–40% alcohol. Because freeze distillation is a low-infrastructure method of production compared to evaporative distillation, and does not require the burning of firewood to create heat, hard cider and applejack were historically easy to produce, though more expensive than grain alcohol.

Modern applejack is made by mixing apple brandy with a neutral spirit (essentially vodka) and then aging it in bourbon barrels for a minimum of four years. The nice apple aroma makes it perfect for mixing with warm cider.

Applejack is somewhat similar to Calvados, an apple brandy from Normandy, France, to which it is often compared. However, Calvados is made from cider apples, while applejack is made from apples such as Winesap.

Classic Colonial Applejack Hot Toddy Recipe

In a large jug, combine:

3 oz applejack
2 tbsp sugar
2-3 cloves
1- to 2-inch cinnamon stick
a thin slice of lemon

Now, fill the rest of the jug with boiling water.

Keep stirring all the ingredients until the sugar dissolves completely.

Transfer into old-fashioned glasses or mugs over apple slices, lemon rinds, and a whole cinnamon stick.

Serve hot or warm.