Been a while. I've been using the same old recipes for Cider as they work well and all the fancy stuff I've tried just didn't seem to work as well. That said, was having a problem with all my ciders for a while, using well water. Well has some mold in the system, had to go to using bottled water, or better yet, just purchase apple juice from Walmart.
Now how to make Apple/Cherry Brandy
First make Apple Cherry Cider - Instructions here.
Second if you don't have a still, buy some copper sheets and make one (or by one).
Instead of bottling the cider, Distill it. I distill it until the average proof is around 90 for the whole batch. I Stop when temp of the head of my onion top alembic still reaches 200 F, and last pint's ABV is around down to 20% - 40 proof. This keeps enough tails to have good cherry flavor. I prefer this to making strong double distilled 130 proof brandy,and cutting with water. Proofing with water to get the desired strength, leads to cloudy moonshine... err I mean brandy.
My old wood cask, needs to be torn apart and re-charred before it can be used again. Gonna have t learn cooper skills before I tackle that. But I've found another way that doesn't take as much time and produces outstanding results to create the same flavors as oak cask aging.
Mason Jar Aging
Your going to need Ball Mason Jars, or Kerr, or Anchor, standard moonshine... err canning supplies and wood chips. I get clean sanitized chips from the local beer brewing supply store. But I got some oak barrel stays from a cooper and plan on chipping them by hand and toasting them in the oven to see if it make a difference. For each jar I use a 1/4 cup each Dark Toast American Oak, and American White Oak Chips. I then age it in a quart jars that for about 2 weeks. I put jar in the freezer before I go to work, and put it on the counter when I get back home every day to simulate temperature changes over the seasons. This makes a very fine 90 proof sipping brandy with smokey overtones and smooth finish.
This jar has been aging about 3 days, I wait till all the chips have stopped floating and then add 2 days, before decanting into my preferred whiskey bottle.
I've had people ask me where I bought it and if it was an 8 or 12 yr old brandy. I didn't tell them it was newborn. I got the idea for mixed chips and freezer/counter from Copper and Kings article on American Brandy.
