Article: How did New Englanders make applejack?

In New England people used to make a strong drink from cider called applejack, but I heard they didn't do it by distillation, but by some sort of freezing. How does this work?

Distillation is a common way to make strong alcoholic drinks. The alcohol evaporates faster than the water and can be captured and condensed to make a stronger alcoholic beverage. But there is indeed another route, using ice instead of fire.

If you have a mixture of alcohol and water and it starts to freeze, you'll get ice on the top. Since water freezes at a higher temperature than alcohol does, the ice will consist mostly of water.

Similarly, if you put fermented cider out on a cold night and take the ice off the top ...

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