What exactly is dunder?

[HDNB]

now that this is back from the dead, maybe some recipes for dunder pits is available!

i've seen some nasty looking photos in the forum of some gawdawful looking crap... that I don't think i've got a shed dirty enough to keep this stuff in...but if that puts out the best rhums, i'd be willing to try.

anybody got some tips, tricks and photos they can share?

[rager]

i second that. i haven't come across a lot of info on dunder pits.

[freshwaterjellyfish]

Thanx for the schooling..im educated in medical lab science for 4 yrs so its in my nature to experiment..ive been doing some wonky fermentation stuff you cant find mention here or google for that matter.but thats for future threads.
Ive familiarized myself with the tested and true and going to try Hooks
and Purgis (not sure if i spelt that right)..thanx
..double boiler..ive used that for other things, but hadnt thought of that for swill.
When i used the clearing agent, i should have used it with a recipe ive done prior. I used a different base sugar than usual.
This is a great thread to say the least. I hope more veterans chime in.

[freshwaterjellyfish]

I havnt seen images but for now im going to set a carboy aside (outside) for the backset. Im going to use a clean cloth so fruitflies cant make it in. Ill be skipping the clearing step (i mentioned earlier for sure though. If its a fail the toilet can have it.

[moosemilk]

now that this is back from the dead, maybe some recipes for dunder pits is available!

i've seen some nasty looking photos in the forum of some gawdawful looking crap... that I don't think i've got a shed dirty enough to keep this stuff in...but if that puts out the best rhums, i'd be willing to try.

anybody got some tips, tricks and photos they can share?

Started mine. Posted here.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 40&t=11585

Pic here again after couple weeks of how it's going. And smells good!

[moosemilk]

I havnt seen images but for now im going to set a carboy aside (outside) for the backset. Im going to use a clean cloth so fruitflies cant make it in. Ill be skipping the clearing step (i mentioned earlier for sure though. If its a fail the toilet can have it.

Don't give it to the toilet. Compost it. I use different parts for a garden each year. Rotate it around. Come from long LONG line of farming family from old country. Whatever part I'm not using, anything I can use gets tossed there. As long as it's biodegradable. Not worried about acidity because every single eggshell from the house goes there too. Spent corn. Veggie peelings. Backset. That stuff combined will give ya some awesome black soil. I get my tomato coming back up without replanting every single year.

[freshwaterjellyfish]

Ill give it to the worm bin...those wigglers eat everything.

[freshwaterjellyfish]

its been over a month since the carboys been sitting. the top is looking alot like i expected and smells decent.

[amberleaf]

WTF! my small head is going to explode!
I think ill ask for an alternative of using Dunder in a recipe im thinking of doing.
Being new to the distilling game, too many 'Also known as' and 'in the state of xxxx we call it xxx'
with a battered brain and learning difficulty due to illness ill get there
the thread is broadened my research, and enjoyed the replies.
No wonder you can get confused (like me)
ATB
Amber

[Boda Getta]

Not really interested in adding to the fray here, but............

Mostly what I know about the term dunder is what I have read from posts of the several, really talented rum distillers on this forum. These views are mine only and are taken from my reading of these guys threads. I believe that "dunder" is specific to rum; I don't recall any of these guys using the term dunder and back-set interchangeably. Back-set is commonly used in the discussion of distilling sour mash whiskey and it's purpose is to lower the ph of the mash. I pretty much always use back-set in preparing a whiskey mash h and have also used it to dilute the low wine before a spirit run and believe it adds some added taste and body (I could be fooling myself on this point) Overly simplified, both dunder and back-set are the liquid remaining in the still after a run, back-set from a grain mash and dunder from a molasses wash. The rum guys value their dunder, not for lowering ph but for the rum oil it contains. I suspect some of these rum guys really doesn't even consider it dunder until it is aged and becomes funky, the funkier the better, believing the older and funkier it is, the more desirable rum oils it contains. Years ago I toured a small rum distillery in the islands and remembering seeing their dunder pit. It was basically a concrete block open pit and was the nastiest thing I have ever seen, in the hot sun and totally covered with mold. I don't think any of us whiskey distillers would ever add anything like that to our whiskey mash, but they treated it like gold and referred to it as dunder.

I don't even know how trub entered this discussion. Back-set and dunder are a by product of distilling and trub is a by-product of fermentation. Any remaining yeast in back-set or dunder are dead as a door nail.

Don't get me started on what feints really are.

BG

[jb-texshine]

. I don't think any of us whiskey distillers would ever add anything like that to our whiskey mash, but they treated it like gold and referred to it as dunder.
BG

Ask mch how his corn funk is doing. ....

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

My bourbon backset. If it was rum, it would called dunder. But it's not, so it's backset.

My whiskey pit, all the same. This was 5 days into it. Gonna let it go to 2 or 3 weeks and get that lacto backset into my next run. Just can't decide if I should boil it, or toss it in fresh and get the bugs into the ferment.

Decisions. Maybe I'll do both.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Yep, that will make a good funk SCD, just toss it in fresh like a starter.

Mine still works good, bringing a powerful fermentation and lacto to every party.

[frunobulax]

I found THIS article on dunder pretty informative.
I've never made a dunder pit, but after reading this, and decided to try it, I think I'd add some calcium carbonate or slaked lime to it.

[rager]

ive got 2 buckets of dunder/booners backset in 5 gallon buckets that i havent opened up in at least a couple months with a top on. last time i checked it wasnt bad smelling at all. still kinda scared to open them up. ill take picturess if anyone is interested . if not ill let them be....

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

ive got 2 buckets of dunder/booners backset in 5 gallon buckets that i havent opened up in at least a couple months with a top on. last time i checked it wasnt bad smelling at all. still kinda scared to open them up. ill take picturess if anyone is interested . if not ill let them be....

Why even ask. Show that funk!

Beer guys have a "show us your infection" thread. Love it.

[DeepSouth]

ShineOnCrazyDiamond, if I didn't know better, I'd think you broke into my place and took a picture of my backset

[Jacxy]

This thread lasted six years. And then I popped up, and now it is a seven year running thread!

Anyway, I'm putting on a rum wash this weekend, and it'll be the first, so no dunder yet.