ISSUE 85, SPIRITS, Part 2: Apple Jack
Apple Jack
The name predates the United States, a designation for a high-alcohol spirit made from apples. There were two forms—the quick and dirty method had cidermakers leave a barrel of cider out in the winter cold. The water would freeze a cap on the barrel. This was removed—thrown away; the remaining contents of the barrel were highly alcoholic fermented apple juice. There were many regional names for it in New England: ice wine, blue fish hooks, crank. But true distilling came to North America, brought by French, Scottish, and English settlers. They began making apple brandy the way it was made in Britany, coming up with a smoother, more potent tipple. Because an immense number of apples had to be mashed and their juice expressed to make 1 gallon of Apple Jack.
Many of the brandy spirits distilled from fruit, if the machinery worked efficiently, had little intrinsic fruit flavor, and tended to be pure alcohol. But distillers of Apple Jack intentionally sought some of the intrinsic apple fragrance to persist—not seeking a pure white spirit. The Laird family of Scobeyville, New Jersey, prepared and sold it as early as the 1790s. The Ware family of Warwick, New York, distilled and offered it from 1812 onward. Orange County in New York rivaled New Jersey as the foremost producer of the spirit prior to Prohibition. Both the Laird Distillery and Black Dirt Distillery in New York still produce Apple Jack, reviving its manufacture after the Repeal of the Volstead Act.
In the early 20th century economic pressures caused the contraction of the manufacture of Apple Jack. Over and above the diminution in demand that occurred because of the swelling of the Temperance Movement in the ramp up to Prohibition, Apple distillers faced the harsh fact that spirits made from rye or corn cost only 1/4th of what it did to process Apple spirits. So in the 20th century only those true believers who reckoned Apple Jack and ancient and central dimension of American drinking heritage persisted in manufacturing it. Homestead manufacture of the beverage virtually ceased before Prohibition. [“New Jersey loses Apple Jack Fame; Orange County N.Y. Leading Producer,” Trenton Times (November 8, 1905), 6.]
Huge apple crops in 1870, 1872, 1888, and 1891 made those years the apogee of Apple Jack production in American history. In 1891 an estimated 10,000 barrels were released with eight distilleries in Burlington County contributing greatly. Josey Taylor’s Apple Jack stood foremost in public esteem, being the standard issue at New Jersey hotels during the Gilded Age. [“Apple Jack’s Big Crop,” Trenton Times (December 3, 1891), 6]. Most of these distilleries used Harrison or Canfield cider apples to create pomace.
The traditional method for making Apple Jack can be readily described: Throughout apple growing country stills were set up in processing sheds. At the top of the hill was a cidermill and press. Conduits connected the collection vats of the mill to the shed sited on the hill slope below. The shed protected the still and housed the storage barrels. “The apples are ground by horse-power. The mill and force being elevated above the vats, the juice runs from the pomace through conduits into the vats. There no pumping is required. The cider is left in the vats until it reaches a certain stage of fermentation, which is called “getting ripe” . . . . In the shed mentioned is the still. This is a large copper kettle, air tight, surmounted by a coil of pipe that passes through a tank of cold water. Beneath the kettle a slow fire is kept going, so that an even temperature is maintained. From the vats the cider is let into the kettle, where the steady heat converts it into vapor. This passes through the coil of pipe above which condenses it and discharges it into receptacles, the pure apple jack” [“The Fiery Apple Jack,” Montpelier Argus and Patriot (January 5, 1881), 3]. This distillate is transparent “white” and must be watered and aged to become potable. It is aged in wood barrels for several years, a dried charred peach or caramelized sugar may be added to the spirits to color and flavor it. Golden yellow Apple Jack commanded the highest price at the market.