Brandy -- Another Product of Wine Distillation

choi

Sorry, I forgot to post TEXT to my posting of yesterday titled Nonalcoholic Wine. I added that this morning.  

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Note:
(a) brandy. Encyclopaedia Britannica, undated
https://www.britannica.com/topic/brandy
("Brandy, alcoholic beverage distilled from wine or a fermented fruit mash. The term used alone generally refers to the grape product * * * With the exception of certain fruit types, known as white types, brandies are usually aged. Aging in wooden containers deepens colour to amber * * * Beverage brandy contains about 50 percent alcohol by volume * * * Like other distilled liquor, brandy does not improve after bottling in glass]. * * * The name comes from the Dutch brandewijn ('burnt wine'), referring to the application of heat in distillation. Commercial distillation of brandy from wine originated in the 16th century. According to one story, a Dutch shipmaster began the practice by concentrating wine for shipment, intending to add water upon reaching home port, but the concentrated beverage immediately found acceptance.  Most wine-producing countries also make brandy. Outstanding French brandies include cognac, from the Charente and Charente-Maritime départements of France, usually considered the finest of all brandies, and Armagnac, from the Gers region")
(b) cognac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognac
(is a variety of brandy named after the commune of Cognac, France)

choi

Julia Moskin, A Shot of Elegance; From the Blue Ridge Mountains to Vermont, new distillers are reviving applejack, a drink that vanished during Prohibition, and giving it the polish of a fine brandy. New York Times, Feb 3, 2021 (in the Food section).
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/dining/drinks/applejack.html
https://mormonmediareviews.com/w ... s-in-sleeker-style/

Quote:

"Applejack was traditionally produced from the hard cider that was the everyday drink for most Americans in the 18th century. Naturally fermented and low in alcohol, hard cider was safer than well water, cheaper than beer and easy to make at home.  In this cool, fertile Appalachian region, as in most of the Northeast, apples were then far more plentiful than the grains needed to make whiskey.

"The original applejack, which many historians believe was invented by American colonists, was produced by a low-tech method called 'jacking.' Jacked spirits are distilled not by the usual method of boiling, but by freezing, and any household with a supply of hard cider and cold weather could make applejack.  With each freeze, the water in the cider crystallizes into slushy ice. Each time the ice is skimmed off, the concentration of alcohol grows, until what is left in the barrel reaches about 40 proof. That clear [note the color, o lack of it] spirit is applejack — not as strong as modern distilled spirits like vodka, but strong enough to last the winter. * * * applejack (and its aged version, apple brandy)

"Virginia and the Carolinas are as far south as most apple varieties can grow; they need a certain number of cold nights each year to flourish. * * * The original applejack was probably cloudy * * * aged applejack, or apple brandy. (As far as federal labeling goes, applejack and apple brandy are one and the same.)"

Note:
(a) online title: America's First Moonshine, Applejack, Returns in Sleeker Style.

(b) "MORAVIAN FALLS, N.C. * * * In this cool, fertile Appalachian region * * * Wilkes County"
(i) Moravian Falls, North Carolina
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravian_Falls,_North_Carolina
("at an elevation of 1 118 feet above mean sea level * * * Moravian Falls takes its name from a waterfall in the foothills of the Brushy Mountains. * * * there is no record that the Moravians ever attempted to establish a settlement in the area during the 18th century. Today the waterfall is a local tourist attraction")

A photo in this Wiki page shows you the waterfalls. Both the place and the falls are called Moravian Falls.
(ii) Moravia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravian  
(section 1 Toponymy: is named after its principal river Morava)
(iii) Moravian Falls. Visit North Carolina (an official website of North Carolina state), undated
https://www.visitnc.com/listing/ ... y-campground-cabins
("Enjoy a unique family camping and cabin experience with the tranquil sounds of Moravian Creek and the marvelous Moravian Falls, at 60 feet tall, with 2 levels and 50 feet wide")

The falls are in the course of Moravian Creek.
(iv)
(A) "Brushy Mountains are a mountain range located in northwestern North Carolina. They are an isolated 'spur' of the much larger Blue Ridge Mountains."  en.wikipedia.org for "Brushy Mountains (North Carolina)."
(B) Blue Ridge Mountains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_Mountains
("The Blue Ridge Mountains are noted for having a bluish color when seen from a distance. Trees put the 'blue' in Blue Ridge, from the isoprene released into the atmosphere. This contributes to the characteristic haze on the mountains and their distinctive color") (citation omitted).

(c) quotation 1: "Applejack was traditionally produced from the hard cider"
(i) Home-made hard cider (natural hard cider, as opposed to draft cider which one buys from liquor stores in cans) has a range of 1.2% to 14% (achieved when sugar is added to cider before fermentation. See next).
(ii) Martin Lodahl, Making Hard Cider at Home. MoreBeer, Oct 23, 2015
https://www.morebeer.com/articles/making_hard_cider_at_home
("The [hard] cider you find in stores is called draft cider. This style is relatively new, dating to the mid-1960s. Light and effervescent [ie, carbonated], it was a commercial invention designed to save the dying English cider industry by competing with lager beers. * * * The cutting of ]hard] cider with juice or water is the primary difference between the farmhouse and draft styles of cider. Fermentable sweeteners are often added to the juice blend, enabling fermentation to produce alcohol levels as high as 14%. The fermented cider is filtered, then diluted with fresh apple juice, apple (or other fruit) concentrates, or carbonated water to a desired alcohol content, usually 4.5–6%. This process takes about one month")

What is the purpose of cutting? Cigarette makers do the same: because makers need to make a uniform product: same percentage of nicotine or alcohol.
(iii) This (b) is about difference in ABV between applejack and hard cider. The (c) is about how applejack was made of hard cider.

(d) Regarding quotation 2, about jacking.
(i) Freezing point of ethanol is -114.7 degrees Celsius (-174.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
(ii) vodka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodka  
("Since the 1890s, standard vodkas have been 40% alcohol by volume (ABV) (80 US proof)" )

(e) About quotation 3: "As far as federal labeling goes, applejack and apple brandy are one and the same."   
(i) 27 CFR § 5.22: "("The standards of identity [heading of § 5.22]. * * * Fruit brandy, other than grape brandy, derived from one variety of fruit, shall be designated by the word “brandy” qualified by the name of such fruit (for example, 'peach brandy'), except that 'apple brandy' may be designated 'applejack.' Fruit brandy derived from more than one variety of fruit shall be designated as 'fruit brandy' qualified by a truthful and adequate statement of composition."
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/tex ... .5_122&rgn=div8

The e in the URL ecfr stands for electronic.
(ii) 27 CFR § 5.22 means Code of Federal Regulations, Title (akin to chapter) 27, section 5.22.

Congress makes federal statutes. The executive branch of federal government then fills in the blank with its own CFR.

(f) "delicate, fragrant fruit brandies, including Quarter Branch apple brandy, are Ms [Becky] Harris's passion.  Like most modern makers of applejack, she uses a complex steam distilling process, describing it in terms opposite to the jacking method. [To create applejack:] Instead of removing the water from the [hard] cider, she says, the art is in removing the alcohol [through distillation, and COLLECT the alcohol in distillate (contrary to the making of alcohol-free wine] — with its fruitiness intact [which we know is difficult or impossible]. * * *  The Harrises send some of the finished brandy back to Blue Bee, where it is mixed with the cidery's own fortified apple wine and ginger eau de vie into a spicy dessert cider called Firecracker. * * * After distillation [and one gets applejack], Mr Harris, 50, takes over the barrel-aging process that gives Quarter Branch its amber color and deep flavor, a method based on traditional Calvados, the apple brandy unique to the Normandy region of northwest France. He prefers white oak from Minnesota; other producers are using charred bourbon barrels from Tennessee, discarded sherry casks from Spain and even peaty Scottish whisky casks, rotating the spirit among them to produce the notes of aged leather and young green apple, caramel and vanilla that make apple brandy naturally fragrant, sweet and delicious."
(i) cidery (n; First Known Use 1991): "a place where cider is produced"  
              (adj; First Known Use 1843): "resembling, suggesting, or having the characteristics of cider"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cidery
(ii) The coining cidery, as a noun, is modeled after brewery, it is conceivable.

(g) "When the grower John Chapman came through scattering the apple seeds that won him his nickname, it was not in the interest of providing colonists with more pies. It was because cider was both a lifesaving staple and a valuable form of legal tender — and because he was speculating in real estate, buying land that would later fetch a higher price with fruit-bearing orchards."

Johnny Appleseed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Appleseed  
(1774 – 1845; birth name: John Chapman; "The Fort Wayne TinCaps, a minor league baseball team in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Chapman spent his final years, is named in his honor. * * * One cool autumnal night, while lying by his camp-fire in the woods, he observed that the mosquitoes flew in the blaze and were burned. Johnny, who wore on his head a tin utensil which answered both as a cap and a mush pot, filled it with water and quenched the fire, and afterwards remarked, 'God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures' ")