Applejack – Or Apple Melomel Recipe

Many might remember the song by Dolly Parton with the lyrics:

“He lived by the apple orchard in this little orchard shack
His real name was Jackson Taylor but I called him Apple Jack”

Well, Applejack is actually a melomel made with honey and of course, apples and probably has ancient roots in Europe. If you’d like to try it, here’s a great recipe for it and yields about One Gallon:

3 lbs. honey
1 gallon fresh, no preservatives added apple cider
1 teaspoon acid blend
1 teaspoon pectic enzyme
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1 packet of champagne yeast

Boil the honey with 2 parts water (by volume) and skim off the foam on top regularly. Boil for about 15 minutes. After the honey and water solution has cooled, transfer this to a 2 gallon pail.

Add the cider, pectic enzyme and acid blend to the pail and mix well.

Combine yeast, yeast nutrient and orange juice in a jar. You are making a “yeast starter” and want it to sit for several hours after you’ve mixed it all together, until it starts to show signs of life with bubbles.

Add your yeast starter to the the pail. Cover the pail and allow it to ferment about a week.

Rack the to a 1 gallon carboy and attach an airlock. Allow to continue its secondary fermentation in the carboy.

Rack to a second 1 gallon carboy in about three months. If you need to top up any airspace, add additional cider.

Let your apple melomel age another six months before bottling. You may want to rack again before you bottle it. Give your bottled applejack another six months before opening and drinking.

Enjoy!