How to Make Your Own Holiday "Cheer", AKA Apple Pie Moonshine

So a while back I wrote about making apple butter using fresh picked apples courtesy of the North Georgia apple houses. I made apple butter and apple sauce to my heart's content, but then decided I wanted to make an apple pie. For whatever reason, I've never made an apple pie. Off to Pinterest I went to search for apple pie recipes; however, when I typed apple pie into the search box, a miraculous thing happened. The search box auto filled the rest of my phrase with apple pie moonshine. Not what I went looking for, but I sure did spend the next 30-40 minutes looking at different apple pie moonshine recipes. They ranged in difficulty from opening bottles and heating everything in a pot to actually making your own mash and all the other illegal steps involved. I wouldn't recommend the latter method. After perusing the recipes, I pinned a pretty easy one and decided to make it one day.

Fast forward a month or so. The Woodman went to help a friend de-clutter his parent's house. I guess they are pack rats. While helping, he came across a bunch of mason jars. A. BUNCH. Woodman's friend gave them to him, which he then brought home to me. After several bleach water soaks, a hand wash, and a run through the dishwasher, I had a lot of jars that needed to be used. And....what goes perfectly with mason jars? MOONSHINE! The holiday season was quickly approaching us and since we've been on a limited income, we've been giving homemade gifts for the last few years. I pulled up my saved recipe and got to work on this year's Christmas presents. (Sorry to our close friends and family reading this....I'm sure you're going to guess what your present is this year. But, if you hadn't figured it out yet based on pics I've posted on Facebook, then maybe you aren't good enough for my 'shine...) Hence, the inspiration for my post.

So, without further ado.....

Apple Pie Moonshine

You will need:

• The booze. 

For this recipe, you first need 190-proof Everclear Grain Alcohol. This stuff is no joke. It has warning labels all over the bottle about how flammable it is and how the bottle might explode. Apparently, it isn't even sold in some states. If not, get the highest proof you can find. Also, depending on how you want your moonshine to taste, you will need either vanilla vodka or some spiced rum. I used the vanilla vodka for my first batch and it gave the moonshine an apple pie with vanilla ice-cream on top taste to it! For my second batch, I used the spiced rum. You will need 3 cups of the Everclear and 2 cups of either the vodka or the spiced rum.

WARNING!!!!

Not going to lie- I made Woodman open the bottle. I was kind of scared!

• The rest of the ingredients

 Besides the booze, you will need 1 gallon of apple juice, 1 gallon of apple cider, 1.5 cups white sugar, 1.5 cups brown sugar, and cinnamon sticks. 

Other items needed are 9 quarts jars or any equivalent, a big stock pot, and a plastic funnel.

The procedure:

In a large stock pot(mine is a 12 qt. pot), add the apple juice, apple cider, both types of sugar, and the cinnamon sticks. DO NOT ADD THE ALCOHOL! For the cinnamon sticks, use at least 9 sticks. You will be putting a stick into each jar of 'shine, so if you use 9 quart jars, use 9 cinnamon sticks. I was using pint jars, so I threw in 18 sticks. Also, the first batch came out super sweet. I actually cut back and only used one cup of each type of sugar when I made the second batch and it was just fine. 

Over low to medium low heat, bring ingredients to a simmer, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Once it reaches a simmer, let it simmer for  30 minutes, all the while enjoying how awesome your kitchen smells. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool COMPLETELY. If you are in a rush, sit the pot down into a sink of ice water to help speed up the cooling process. Once completely cool, add in your alcohol and stir to incorporate. If you add the alcohol while the mixture is warm, the alcohol will burn off and you'll just have super sweet apple cider. 

Fish your cinnamon sticks out of the pot and put one into each jar.

Using a funnel, fill each jar full of 'shine. If you notice from the last picture to this one, I needed more jars than I thought. I even had enough for a small "quality control" glass.

Put your lids on and label your jars. Because these are gifts, I ordered labels from a company called Evermine. If I weren't giving these out, I would have just written on the lids!

Store in a cool, dark place or a fridge. This stuff tastes good the first day. It tastes great 2 weeks later. It tastes AMAZING after a month. Point to the story- let it sit at least 2 weeks. It needs to ferment a bit. The longer you let it go, the less of the alcohol you'll taste. 

I made one batch and let it sit for a month. About that time, my grandfather died. I remembered him telling me one time how he met my grandmother because he had to run moonshine over to her daddy from his daddy. He apparently ran moonshine all over the North GA mountains. Now, is this story true or just a tall tale? I'm sure some of my family reading this might be able to verify the facts. Either way, after his funeral, I had some of the moonshine in honor of him. I also wanted to do a little "research" on how strong this stuff was. 

Out of a quart jar, I drank about a third of it in one sitting. There was no alcohol taste to it at all. But holy cow...it sure does sneak up on you and packs a punch! So, as a disclaimer, don't drink and drive, and no underaged drinking!

Bottom's up!!!

PS- I just realized while typing this....I still never made my apple pie!!!