“Modern applejack is a very different product from what many still traditionally think of as applejack,” McConville says. No exploration of applejack is complete without also examining the colonial art of “jacking.” This laborious process increases the alcohol percentage of a fermented product so that it approaches or exceeds the threshold to be considered a spirit. “The category is an open book that the modern distiller is currently filling with their passion and drive to make something unique.” The History of “Jacking” “The possibilities for applejack are not hampered by tradition or regulation,” McConville says, citing possibilities ranging from barrel finishes to different apple varieties and styles of fermentation and distillation. Only the products that are labeled “blended applejack” are signifying that they’re produced with a majority share of neutral spirit.įor producers who aren’t trying to pull a fast one over on consumers, the flexibility that does exist can in fact be a positive. Modern usage though is trickier, because, as mentioned, a product calling itself “applejack,” may in fact qualify as a 100% apple brandy. “Historically in the US, applejack was often made from a combination of apple and neutral spirits, which was often done to produce lighter, blended spirits that were cheaper than all-fruit apple brandy,” Kneipper says. This style must contain only 20% apple brandy that’s aged for a minimum of two years, and can otherwise be blended with neutral spirits. However, the TTB does otherwise delineate the category of blended applejack. But conversely, the lax definition fails to establish a baseline of quality control, category-wide standards and consistency. The TTB’s lax regulations for brandy on the whole, and apple brandy as a sub-category on the one hand provides for flexibility (essentially they say apple brandy is brandy made of apples). “Modern American brandy is one of the few categories in the spirits world that is still left wildly open to the interpretations and imaginations of the distillers that make it, and apple brandy is no exception to this,” says Collin McConville, the head distiller of Rootstock Spirits. Laird’s Straight Applejack 86 /Photo Credit: Laird’s But their actual definitions are different, and this is of particular importance for the category of blended applejack. “I think this has started a renaissance in demand for handcrafted American apple brandy.”īut what exactly is applejack and how does it differ from or compare with apple brandy? And more importantly, which producers are worth checking out today? Applejack vs Apple BrandyĪpplejack and apple brandy are sometimes used interchangeably to refer to a spirit made from apples. “Apple brandy has been a part of American history since the 18th century, with George Washington himself distilling it,” he says. ![]() Rick Kneipper, the founder of Shady Knoll Distillery, believes this historical pull is now helping to boost a long overshadowed category. Later, during the the Revolutionary War, he ensured his troops were well fortified with the apple spirit during their time in New Jersey. As a matter of fact, the would-be first president of the country, George Washington – also a distiller, of course – wrote to the brand in 1760 requesting its applejack recipe. Laird & Company, originally based in New Jersey, has been producing apple-based spirits since the early-to-mid 1700s. In fact, these apple-based spirits perhaps have a greater right to the title as their history of production stretches back to before the country was even founded. Neither Applejack nor apple brandy is the modern force that bourbon is, but they have just as much claim to being America’s spirit.
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