I'm not sure if I should have this here or the survival forum.

I am making up a large batch this year of the Apple pie drink and was looking into putting it into mason jars to give to people over the holidays.
My question is,  Other than the vacuum sealing the jars, which I will do.  How can I prolong the shelf life of the final product?  Should I tell everyone I give it to to keep it refrigerated?
I would hate to have some one open it up and find some nasty mold floating on the top.
How should I prep the mason jars?  Will a simple wash in the dishwasher do the trick well enough?  Lids and all?
Wipe them down with everclear before filling them?
I also really need to do the math to figure out what the final proof of this stuff is as well.  Using 190 proof everclear.

Thanks for any advice.  Last year I only made a few 1 liter bottles and a couple of half gallon bottles and it was drank up not long after I made the batch.

1/2 gallon apple juice
1 1/2 gallonfresh apple cider
1 quart Everclear® alcohol
2-4 cups sugar
3 - 4 cinnamon sticks

Put the juice, cider, and cinnamon sticks into a pan and let simmer on the stove for about 2 hours (not boil).
Turn off heat, pour in 1 liter or 2/3 liter Everclear (no taste of alcohol) to the batch and pour into punch cups.

I also added a new cinnamon stick to each bottle.

I would think the combination of simmering and the alcohol would keep anything from growing in it.  

I would keep it like any standard booze, in the pantry, nothing special.  I would tell the people that you give it to, not to drink straight from the jar unless they plan on drinking the whole thing that night though.

When it comes to food safety I live on the wild side.

I made this, similar recipe, canned in wide mouth pint Mason jars.

I simmered the juice for about 20 min with mulling spices, pulled the spices out, and let it cool to well below the boiling point of ethanol (169F IIRC, not 100% sure). Something like 155-160F.

I sprayed my Mason jars with Star-San (common brewer's sanitizer).

My jars held a decent vacuum just from the 160F-ish liquid. I can pry the lids off by hand, but it's tough.

Nothing has grown in them so far. I've even left open bottles on the counter.

Calculating ABV is just a simple dilution, I can provide a derivation if you need it. I did mine to about 15% alcohol.

boiling temp is dependent on a number of factors, but I've always been told 153 is the highest temp you want to add the alcohol.


OP, I would strongly suggest that you wait longer before adding the everclear as you're losing alcohol.

Secondly, I've also been told that the length the mix will "keep" is dependent on temp it's stored at and % alcohol by volume.  The higher the %, the less risk it will go bad.

At ~85-90 proof, I've not yet had a jar go bad.  Typically kept in the fridge, but I've got a friend who kept his in his mancave, unrefrigerated, for nearly 6 months.  No problems.

Yeah, I might have been off on temperature. It's been a while since I've made it.

Thank you for all the tips.  
I plan on letting it cool a lot before adding the everclear so boil off shouldn't be a problem.
I like the idea of the spray on sanitation for the jars.  Might have to go looking around to find some of that stuff.  Do you think the restaurant grade sanitizer, the red stuff, would do the trick?  Its a no rinse setup too.

Where might I look for the star-san locally? or is it online only kind of thing?

call any home brew supply stores.

I will have to look around and see if any are around here.  I put a lot of pride into making things and I hate for things to come out bad.  Doing it right is well worth the work.

I jarred my Apple Pie in May and I just opened a jar last week and everything was A ok! I keep my jars in a cool, dry area.

i like using iodine sanitizers for my beer

I made some today..Was going to get a home brew kit, Sears said they were on sale for 26.99..Lo and behold they were 59.99, F that...Went to get ingredients for Mead, grocery store didnt have any big bottles of honey so I got the stuff for this instead.

I did,
1/2 gallon 100% apple juice
1/2 gallon cider
~1 Cup brown sugar
~1 Liter New Amsterdam 80 proof (Had a whole bottle laying around, figured it would be good for this test batch)
3 Cinnamon sticks

Came out tasting great - Next time im going to use a little more brown sugar and an extra cinnamon stick or two...and stronger vodka lol

That cinnamon stick will make it "hot" unless you remove it after about 3 days.

Cinnamon is fucking strong, relative to almost everything else. I would taste it daily and remove when you have as much flavor as you want.

Fruit can be left forever, as far as I know. (I have a bunch of jars with fruit sitting on the shelf, no problems so far after perhaps a year.)

I've always run it a good bit stronger, 40-45 proof.
Storage hasn't been an issue.  

1g Apple Juice
1/2g Cider
1/2g 160-170*
1¼ cup Honey
Cinnamon sticks to taste )2/qt

I keep my apple pie in a cool dark area in my closet. I have a few jars from last year, still taste grea! I just washed the jars in the dishwasher, then boiled the lids for 2min, filled the jars, then kept them sitting on the kitcken table overnight, then stored them away!

1 gallon apple juice
1 gallon fresh apple cider
1 fifth Everclear® alcohol
5 cups sugar
6 cinnamon sticks
1 oz apple pie spice

I bring the everything but the Everclear up to a boil then simmer for 30 mins.
Let cool then add in the Everclear and bottle.

I do keep it refrigerated tho...

Just use Vodka or Everclear.  They are great no-rinse disinfectants.  Put in a spray bottle and just spray on the jars.

Concerned his might get archived.

which part do ya wanna save?

I have been making that for many years.  I have one jug that is only corked and is near 15 years old.  Tastes like I mixed it yesterday and I think the honey and everclear kills any bad germs that may get in.  Don't worry to much about sealing it.

Glad to see this thread.  missed it the first time around.

TRG

Not so quick formula for those wondering on the final alcohol percentage:

I start by converting everything to milliliters.  There are ~946 mL in a Qt. and ~237 mL in a cup

multiply your mL of alcohol by the percentage of alcohol.

example, 750 mL of 190 proof everclear = 750 mL of 95% alcohol =  750*.95= 712.5 mL of "pure alcohol liquid"

add that to the rest of your mixture.  Dont forget that sugar melts down to about half its volume in liquid.

So,  if you use 3 qts of cider and 3 qts of juice, thats 6 qts, or 5676 mL of liquid.

3 cups of sugar = 1.5 cups of liquid or 237*1.5= 356 mL sugar

5676+356= 6032 mL of  "other liquids"

750 mL Everclear + 6032 mL other liquids =  6782 mL total liquids

6782 mL total liquids divided by 712.5 mL pure alcohol liquid = 9.52% alcohol concentration, or 19 proof

hope this helps someone out.

anti-archiving bump

Cool thread, I love my bourbon, but sometimes its nice to have something sweet.





I'll probably try to put something together in the 30-50% category in the near future.

Love drinking me some Apple Pie, but I've never made it.

Dammit. I had forgotten about this stuff. Now I have to make up a big batch for this upcoming winter.