Hard Apple cider

With the broken leg and a whole lot of boredom
I decided to make a batch of hard cider about a month ago .
Well it's cleared up rather nicely and is ready to bottle .
Here's my problem , I don't drink . Never much cared for the taste of alcohol myself . I only happen to have stuff to brew and bottle because I like to make ginger ale from time to time .

So those of you who like hard cider , do you prefer it dry or sweet
And carbonated or still ?

It's fairly alcoholic , better then 10% I'd guess , I don't have a hydrometer so it's just a guess based off the sugar I used .
I have plenty of friends who will be happy to drink it so just trying to get a read on what people prefer

I can't say I've ever had apple cider where I could taste the alcohol in it. I like mine dry just the way it its.

Hard cider is easy to make and you will get many different views on how one like it. I made some also. Some like the home made stuff, some do not.For me I take it how it comes.

Folks around here make apple jack when the weather permits. You take your hard cider and set it outside when temp is -20'ish below 0 and let it freeze. What is not frozen is poured off and drunk as apple jack

If made from my grandfather's fresh squeezed, then sweet and left cloudy and murky (kinda like scrumpy) with only small carbonation but if made from store-bought ingredients as dry as can be gotten and carbonated normally.
BDGR

If you like to make apple jack it is simple. You get the juice from the cider or the can juice or what ever the way you can get it,put it in something, not aluminum plastic is best , then pour your juice in it add sugar the more the higher the alcohol and then use bakers yeast. It will break down the sugar more then brewers yeast. Then stir for a few days and then let it work and then when done working can be use. If want dry use frozen thy of apple juice I found that will give a dry wine or what you like .

sweet and still for me.
(light sweet rather than syrup sweet though)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by square butte

What is not frozen is poured off and drunk as apple jack

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I learn something new every day:

I've heard of doing that in the home freezer with cheap wine to end up with more or less a hard liqueur .
It was called 'jacking' it.
That's probably where the term came from.

I must be in the minority, I like mine sweet and bubbly.

Looks like I'll have to do some dry and sweet and just go with a light carbonation .

unless you use a fake sugar, the "sweetness" you put into it will just become more alcohol. and your bottles will become grenades... i just cut the hard bubbly dry cider i make with come canned cider when I open it, plenty sweet and tastes a little more like apples.

Fermentation is real easy to stop with pasteurization :)

I tell ya what I got totally snookered on a bottle of hard cider once! got into a poker game on a Friday night right after I got paid, crack that bottle of hard cider up woke up in my own bed have no idea to this day how I got there (oh and did I say it was 40 years ago) and my paycheck was gone. That was some gooooood stuff.

I bet it was a nice hang over to go with the good time ;)

My neighbor made some apple pie moonshine and gave me three mason jar’s full. He told me the little jar he gave me is 180 proof and I haven’t tried it yet and won’t now. I normally take a couple sips off of them and put the jar away. Well, long story short, last week I drank almost a whole mason jar in one sitting. I woke up at 10 to noon The next day and I felt like somebody hit me in the stomach with a baseball bat. I walked into the bathroom and vomited up some nice electric light green slime with fresh blood a few times. Needless to say I was hung over and sick for three days. Can you say alcohol poisoning? I’ll drink the nonalcoholic stuff but I’m never drinking any apple pie moonshine again. I have definitely weaned myself off of it... The hard way.

I'm not sure you can freeze distill anything and get anything close to 180 proof .
But you can get close to 100 proof pretty easy . But unlike regular distillation ( properly separated ) you still have all the methanol And fusil oils that give you the hangover ... Google Apple palsey

My grampa never admitted to moonshining , but I have a strong hunch he might have done a bit back in the day .
He always said Apple jack was just a sipping liqueur, only a fool got the Apple palsey more then once