First Spirit Rum Run - after 12 months of novice trials.

[Jimy Dee]

Folks

Long reckoning comes at last. I dived into this hobby just over 12 months ago and I discovered that as a beginner you should aim for a source of fermentable sugars readily available in your own locality, preferable something not all-grain until you have your teeth cut at fermenting and running your rig a few times, etc etc.

All-sugar washes I gleaned from reading were not optimum for quality product when using a pot and thumper. So for me, molasses was my discovery as it is cheaply purchased in my local agri co-op, easy to ferment using readily available bakers yeast which is the bees knees for fermenting molasses. When buying the molasses (not being a farmer) I told them I have a horse that is a picky eater and I need the molasses to coat its food. This stops any further probing. I think by the end of the winter they thought the poor nag was anorexic.

Anyway I did alot of rum stripping over the winter, ending up with 50 to 60 liters of rum strip. This weekend was my opportunity to do a spirit run. My lovely wife and kids gone for the weekend to the out-laws so I had a straight run at it with no interruptions.

The rum strip was circa 50%ABV, so I cut it down to 30%ABV by adding molasses wash. I did not add dunder - didn’t know how this would affect taste over and above wash - for another time maybe.

I reduced strip to just under 30% ABV by adding 3.5 to 4 liters of molasses wash to 8 liters of rum strip. My 12 liter stainless steel bucket worked a treat for these quantities.

I run a 50 liter SS beer keg pot with a 25 liter SS half beer keg thumper and a liebig.

I put 40 liters of the 30% ABV into the keg - will not do it again - I will put 36 liters (3 x 12 liter SS buckets) the next time, as the 40 liters was just on the high side. 15 liters of the 30% ABV was in the thumper.

I took around 70 minutes for the first drips to appear. I took 150 mils of fores off. It should be noted that I took 150 mils of fores off on all the previous stripping runs also.

I collected in jars each 350 mils volume. I was like a child waiting to see what %ABV the first jar of distillate would register in at. Background being that it took me a while to learn initially that rum strip generally starts off in the low 60s %ABV and down wards from there. For the life of me I did not know where I was going wrong - how was everyone reporting of getting into the high 70s%ABV (and higher) using a thumper ? I learned that these type of high %ABVs would come with the spirit run, not the strip run.

I was relying on my alcometer as I am not (yet) able to see cuts with taste, smell and feel, but I was sure going to have a crack at it today.

Alongside my still I had written down on a small piece of paper the following
1 drip per second for fores
Steady drip for heads
Pencil led stream for hearts
Collect tails as fast as u wish

Now reading Pugi’s Rum thread (thank you Pugi) I was not going to collect tails as fast as possible for my spirit rum run as I wanted to collect in an organised fashion deep down into the tails (finishing under 20%ABV). From Pugi’s thread his still gives hearts between 85% ABV and 50% ABV. 50% to 40% is not for use (wet cardboard business) and not to be reused for rum again, however from reading his thread I gathered there are tales of spiritual awakening, leprechauns, little folk, mysterious happenings and a raft of other good stuff only us distillers appreciate from 40% to 20% ABV. I almost strangled the blasted cockrel cock-a-doodling in the barn as I anticipated such wondrous things to come out the spout of my magic lantern!

Anyway, I digress with thoughts of hallowed rum oils.

I had previously broken my alcometer and I had another beer alcometer in the parrot which went from 73% to 28% ABV. I popped it into my parrot and to my absolute delight it vanished down into the bottom of the parrot. Now as for what %ABV distillate my rig started turning out, god only knows, but it was away higher than 72%ABV and a mile away from the low 60s and 50s of my stripping runs.

Bottom line - the ball was in and the game was on. Lets fight.
I knew I had a long day ahead of me as I was in for a long SLOW spirit run.

I started off collecting with 350 mil jars (just under ⅓ of a US quart). I ran the first 3 jars at a slow drip for approx 3 hours - I was arsing around and generally getting settled in - arm chair in the stable, coffee etc. I brought the laptop with me into the stable in the barn where I run my rig and made the mobile phone a hotspot for connection to the net, and I started writing up this report as the day went on. What simple things float our boats, and mine was under full sail - fueled by the wind of spirit alone. I then gathered myself and upped the heat to develop a small stream for jar numbered 4 at 14.30 hrs.

I collected 15 jars. (total (5.25 liters / 1.4 gallons) I then realised that there were liters galore to be collected (thanks to an email from a distilling guru who gave me plenty guidance - he knows who he is - thanks a mil)

I changed to 750 mil collection jars, upped the heat and collected 19 of these jars.(total in large jars 14.25 liters / 3.76 gallons) This brought me up to 23.30 hours (started collecting at 11.oo hours), so I called it for the night, turned off my rig and went to bed.

Just before going to bed, I opened the copper piping going into my pot to equalise pressure in my rig (just for 5 mins) as I had previously seen where the change in pressure with the rig cooling down over night caused the contents of the thumper to be sucked cleanly into the pot. I also put out my jars on the kitchen table and opened the lids to let them air for 2 days or so.

The following morning (07.30hrs) I jumped out of the sack, went down stairs and on entering the kitchen I was greeted by the most divine smell of rum airing in the jars - really lovely fruity sweet stuff. Out to the barn and I gave the burner a kick in the bum and up it popped with a nice flame. I was expecting drips in the next hour and as I checked during this period I realised that my thumper was not thumping/gurgling. My suspicions were right - the contents of the thumper were sucked back into the pot over night despite what I had done only 8 hours earlier.

Turned off the heat, and let is cool. I took 5 liters out of the pot for the thumper, but this time I also added 10 liters of water to the thumper. I had read that water in the thumper can lead to a cleaner spirit. I was going to find out today.

I collected another 6 jars of 750mil each and quit collecting when it hit 50%ABV. I collected remaining tails down to 40% in one container and in another the rum oils from 40%ABV down to 20%ABV to be used for separate use in the future.

After the whole process was finished and all distillate collected, coupled with 2 days airing, knowing nothing about making cuts I stuck my nose into the individual jars and took 3 x 5 liter demijohns as drinking likker.

Now as for oaking and aging - thats another study in its own right. I am going to let it sit until at least Christmas, and hopefully with 6 months ageing it will have mellowed out a bit

On reflection I ran the rig a little too slow, but thats what the hobby is all about - learning by doing, studying and improving going forward.

Thats all folks. Thanks for reading. Jim

[Corsaire]

Congratulations! Sounds like a succes to me.

I'm sure you'll learn to make cuts soon enough. Now I'm thinking of doing a rum run

[Pikey]

Lovely write up
Might try taking the laptop out there myself next time

[Jimy Dee]

Thanks folks. Any suggestions as to flavoring ? Is oak the way to go?

[Still Life]

Thanks folks. Any suggestions as to flavoring ? Is oak the way to go?

Can't speak on other methods, but oak has really improved my stuff.
Small charred oak casks for me. But the chips in a jar are good, too.

[Antler24]

Thanks folks. Any suggestions as to flavoring ? Is oak the way to go?

I bought a small box of charred and toasted oak stick on eBay for like $20, works great. I use them for ujsm first, then reuse them in rum.
On oak your spirit will taste like sap at first, at about 4 months in you'll think you've ruined it but just wait, it'll really gets good at a year or more.

[Shine0n]

Congratulations Jim, sounds like if you hadn't liked rum before you might wanna start now. Lol

Nice write up on your experience, I think you'll enjoy the fruits of your labor with joy. Blending will be another treat, as long as you keep the jars that don't make it at first as you may see that some of them just may compliment things in a blend at the end.

I'm honored to have been a part of your experience, you've come a long way from the beginning and now you know things that will never be forgotten. Only goes up from here!!!

Now on to the next chapter
Shine0n