ZRX Apple Pie Shine
(from a printed copy of an email on November 25, 2014)
Word for word as received from Jamie:
1 gallon organic apple cider
1 cup brown sugar
12 cinnamon sticks
4 whole star anise
Nutmeg (as much as you prefer, I never measure)
1 or 2 whole vanilla beans (again up to you I do 2)
Heat cider and sugar until boiling, stir until sugar is dissolved. Add cinnamon sticks and lower heat to medium,
cooking until cinnamon sticks "open up" add star anise, nutmeg, and slice scrape and add vanilla bean "guts" and bean carcass.
Turn heat off and let it cool, this takes forever so I actually make this late at night and finish in the A.M. just put the lid on it.
If you're in a hurry you can cool it quickly by placing pot in an ice bath in the sink.
When cooled, add 1 750ml bottle (5th for the old fogs) of Ever Clear or good moonshine, 1 1/4 cup butterscotch schnapps, 1 1/4 cup sour apple liquor and stir.
Bottle or jars, your choice, the local Natural Food store where I buy the cider sells it in glass jugs that I love reusing.
Mason or Kerr jars work. But the important thing is let it rest for at least a month to "settle".
All the sediment you saw was from the vanilla beans, nutmeg and the organic unfiltered cider.
Oh crap, forgot...I pour the cider through a colander to catch the star anise and cinnamon sticks and whole vanilla beans. Fairly fine one (colander).