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In my experience, cider is a bit contextual. I've heard and used it to mean both alcoholic and non alcoholic cider. But usually people default to mean a non filtered apple juice like you said. (Since we also have apple juice, but it's hard to think of it as anything other than super processed sugary drink)

Apple liquor/cordials are usually called just that, or more specific depending on the type of liquor (i.e., my family keeps a bottle of Apple flavored whiskey)

Things like apfelkorn probably just get wrapped up in the catch-all term schnapps, if not one of the above terms

Yes, schnapps.

"Apfelkorn" isn't actually schnapps, by my lexicon. I thought schnapps was basically synonymous with "obstler" - a clear, white spirit distilled from fermented fruit. I think of Himbeergeist, or Poire Willem. In Germany, it is legal to set-up a garden still, and make your own fruit spirits, without a licence; and that stuff can be very strong - much stronger than say a whisky at the bar. I've had this stuff served to me from a plastic watering can.

I believe apfelkorn is basically apple juice fortified with grain spirit (vodka, essentially). I think in some parts of Germany, it's customary to drop a shot-glass of apfelkorn into a litre-glass of pilsner (people do this with Jagermeister, for reasons I don't understand at all - why mix nice pilsner with nasty cough-mixture?)

There are sweet alcoholic products that are labelled "schnapps" that are more like fortified wine than spirits.

> apfelkorn is basically apple juice fortified with grain spirit

Here in the Upper Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc), there is a similar beverage called Apple Pie that's made with sweet apple cider, high-proof alcohol like Everclear and other flavorings. It's dangerously delicious: the apple flavor masks the alcohol, leading people to drink far more than they realize.

Since the area has a high number of people descended from German immigrants, your post has me wondering if that's where it originated.

> I have no idea what term USAians would use for spirits distilled from apple liquor, e.g. Calvados; or fortified cider, such as apfelkorn. I would be interested to learn.

Where I'm from (southeast USA) it's just referred to as apple brandy if the ABV is ~40%. If you've got something like a very sweet and low alcohol liqueur (15 to 30% abv) then it'll generally be called Apple schnapps.

Generally - I take Apple brandy to mean "Apple was fermented to make this liquor" and Apple Schnapps to mean "This is some fermented sugar with apple flavoring added"

There is also applejack, which is apple brandy, but named differently because it used to be made differently. Instead of using a still, they'd leave it out in the winter. Ice would form on the top, which would get tossed away, and the brandy would be what's left at the bottom. Now, even if it's called applejack, they use stills for healthcode reasons.

Thanks, I forgot about "applejack". I didn't know it was a kind of brandy (Calvados is basically brandy). And I certainly didn't know it was traditionally made by freezing out the water. I thought it was just another name for fermented apple-juice.

So I am now better-informed (HN is a good place to get better-informed!)

> it will ferment all on it's own

Yes. I live on a small farm with lots of wild (I assume) apple trees. We used to have a horse that would only eat the apples on the ground, after they had fermented. You could watch her drunk ass standing there, swaying slightly!

Apparently animals getting drunk on fermented apples is a fairly common thing. Who knew?

Apple orchards and pig farms go together. Apple sauce is considered to go well with roast pork.

In some parts, it is customary [citation needed] to run pigs in apple-orchards to scrump the windfall, and to feed younger pigs on the pulp left over from apple-pressing. I know pigs like to scrump fallen apples; I don't know if they get falling-over drunk. I'm not a country-boy.

Q: What's worse than finding a worm in the apple you are eating?

A: Finding half a worm.