parish parish_AT_ntlworld.com wrote in message t...
Michael McNeil wrote:

Thomas Prufer wrote in message . ..
Or make your
own wine with it. (Don't freeze that though, as the apple-jack -or
whatever, alcohol will be full of a poison called fusel oil.)

/fusel oil/? Can you elaborate please? Does this apply to any frozen
alcohol drink, or just apple-based ones?

I'm no expert by any means. My homebrew comes out of a can. I don't
even have a fridge. But:

I believe it is produced in all fermentations but is especially prone
to be present in root crop ones where there is insufficient yeast
nutriment -unless you add it (ammonium phosphate I think it's called.)
It is the sort of liquor extract that also produces cloudy musts (from
too much pectin) although that will drop using the fridge to pulp your
fruit or veg instead of boiling it.

Brewmasters know when to stop the ferment before distilling or recycle
the first percentage of alcohol produced. That can't happen with
freezing the cider to produce applejack. The oil and the alcohol
separate from the ice formed and the drinkers get a bad head or in bad
cases can go blind. Apples, like root crops don't have enough
nutriment for the yeast either. I believe scrumpy gets to be so strong
because of the presence of certain creatures in the windfalls.

Again this all unsupported rumour.