Jaggery/panela rum

[Chill-Stillin]

I have the good fortune of living in the tropics and have a friend that grows sugarcane and they make their own organic jaggery. So I have made numerous very small batches and absolutely love the stuff!
It ferments dry in under 48 hours using bakers yeast with a bit of dap and a B complex tab, temps here always hover around 30c! I use 4 kilos jaggery to make a 20 litre wash. According to what I read here that should be 3.2 kilos fermentable sugars(80%) and have an SG of about 1060 for an about 9% wash. Though my hydrometer read about 1077. And on the packing it says carbohydrates of which total sugars 98gms per 100. So am a bit confused...is the label wrong or my hydrometer malfunctioning?
On a side note I also managed to get around 7 litres of fresh sugarcane juice for free, threw in some bakers and 36 hours later it was ready to be stilled...got a litre of 50% rum that I would best describe as a fruity sugarcane juice schnapps! I am a single run pot still guy...have tried the 1.5 method but like the single.
My latest batch(20litre total) is without any added nutes...jaggery(4kg) dunder(20%) water and yeast(1/4cup)
I am learning so much from this site and am constantly reading something on here much to the chagrin of my better half!

[JesseMarques]

Your hydrometer is ok. I believe the label is also ok. If it is around 80% m/m carbohydrates and 98% is fermentable so you have 78,4% fermentable sugars
78,4% * 77 (from 1.077) = 60,36 --> 1,06036 sg
As you are using panela sugar and dunder you end up with a lot of unfermentables in your wash. Go by sugar content and will be easier to figure out your yield.
It's very comom here in Brasil to do a single run for cachaças, I like the results.
Also, I believe you don't need DAP nor vitamin B since sugar cane has everything for a healthy fermentation

[Chill-Stillin]

Thx, the 80% is from what I gathered on HD, the label says carbohydrates 98.96gms of which total sugars 98.13gms per 100.
Am trying without nutrients for the panela.
The fresh juice was hit with bakers yeast only. Have to wait 10 months for next years fresh sugarcane juice, until then this awesome dark organic jaggery is too good. Trying to harvest some wild yeast as well from some pieces of cane I picked up at the farm.

[JesseMarques]

Thx, the 80% is from what I gathered on HD, the label says carbohydrates 98.96gms of which total sugars 98.13gms per 100.
Am trying without nutrients for the panela.
The fresh juice was hit with bakers yeast only. Have to wait 10 months for next years fresh sugarcane juice, until then this awesome dark organic jaggery is too good. Trying to harvest some wild yeast as well from some pieces of cane I picked up at the farm.

Next time you put your hands on fresh cane juice be sure the canes weren't peeled, all the white stuff in it is yeast, you don't even need to put baker's yeast, in my country is very popular just adding a bit of corn flour in the top of the wash, I'm not sure if it's to give some good bacteria or yeast or just some kind of nutrient.
If you wanna try a cachaça yeast you may be able to find "ca-11" from the chinese angel yeast, or "canamax" from lallemand

I made a post about cachaça, if you get interested: https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... 11&t=79860

[Chill-Stillin]

Thx, I had read your cachaca thread already!
I will be sure to try without adding yeast next time, though I would be a bit worried as it also very humid here and would not want the juice souring due to long fermentation time with the natural yeast.
With the bakers yeast it took about 32 hours and the end result was/is amazing.

[JesseMarques]

Thx, I had read your cachaca thread already!
I will be sure to try without adding yeast next time, though I would be a bit worried as it also very humid here and would not want the juice souring due to long fermentation time with the natural yeast.
With the bakers yeast it took about 32 hours and the end result was/is amazing.

You can start a small batch with 1030 og just to grow more yeast doing 2 or more 3 propagations, then you put these yeast to ferment your bigger batch in one shot, you can achieve full fermentation within 18h using between 20 and 30% of the volume of your fermenter of yeast

[Chill-Stillin]

Wow, will try next time. May seek your help/advice when the time comes.

[JesseMarques]

Wow, will try next time. May seek your help/advice when the time comes.

I'll be glad to help!

[Corsaire]

I need to convince my wife to just pack up and move. You guys talking fresh made agricole/cachaca are making me jealous!
I've spent good money lately for some very good agricole but dammit I want to make some myself!

[Chill-Stillin]

Thx, I had read your cachaca thread already!
I will be sure to try without adding yeast

You can start a small batch with 1030 og just to grow more yeast doing 2 or more 3 propagations, then you put these yeast to ferment your bigger batch in one shot, you can achieve full fermentation within 18h using between 20 and 30% of the volume of your fermenter of yeast

Hey thx man, I basically did what you suggested but for the panela as I was a bit too late for more juice(some confusion with the farmers son)but i did find some nice pieces of cane covered in yeast that I used for fermenting the jaggery/panela. I wrote about it in 'what d'y all make today?' Thx for the suggestions it worked great

[JesseMarques]

Thx, I had read your cachaca thread already!
I will be sure to try without adding yeast

You can start a small batch with 1030 og just to grow more yeast doing 2 or more 3 propagations, then you put these yeast to ferment your bigger batch in one shot, you can achieve full fermentation within 18h using between 20 and 30% of the volume of your fermenter of yeast

Hey thx man, I basically did what you suggested but for the panela as I was a bit too late for more juice(some confusion with the farmers son)but i did find some nice pieces of cane covered in yeast that I used for fermenting the jaggery/panela. I wrote about it in 'what d'y all make today?' Thx for the suggestions it worked great

Thanks for your return. I'm glad to know that it worked for you!