My First Rum

Anything to do with rum

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Pikey
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Pikey »

Old Town wrote:
..............I'm getting an aquarium heater too control my temp.
Get several ! :|
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Old Town »

Running some hooch with my pooch. He's keeping nice and warm by the stove.
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Re: My First Rum

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Old Town wrote:Next time I'm getting an aquarium heater too control my temp.
Aquariums have pumps, filters and air stones causing circulation that keeps the temperature even throughout the tank. I've only used one in a wash once and the wash and grain bed below the element stayed cold.

If you start a rum near the ideal temperature for the yeast, the yeast should take off and create more than enough heat as long as you stop it escaping by wrapping the fermenter in enough insulation. I use old bedding from charity shops. A really healthy ferment comes with other problems, like fountaining out of the airlock, (I've had that happen), and producing a lot of CO2. In a small room with inadequate ventilation, it might even be enough to kill you. I'm not doing that experiment for you.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Old Town »

I had a successful day stripped down 4 gallons of rum and pulled out a pint just too taste. It has a very bold flavor that I am happy with. Next step dilute it down to low wines and rerun. Thanks for the recipe ShineOn and thanks too everyone for the advice along the way. I'll let you all know how the spirit run turns out!!
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Shine0n »

Glad to see you've had success with the stripping runs, I know some of us got off topic and it shouldn't happen and I'll do my part to keep things rolling along on topic.

Do you plan to use dunder for the spirit run or just the low wines?
I think you should do the spirit run without and age your dunder till the summer so it can get the heat it needs to become it's own and you'll have the original recipe flavor to drink now and later.

Keep up the good work :thumbup:
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Re: My First Rum

Post by NZChris »

Old Town wrote:Next step dilute it down to low wines and rerun.
In thirty odd years of making rum, I have never had to add water to dilute my low wines to below 40% ABV for the spirit run. Did you shut down because it was nasty, or for some other reason?
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Shine0n »

Having ran a single pot you may not need dilution, as Chris said did you cut off early or did you run down low and dirty?
I needed to cut mine because after I diluted it it was still at higher than recommend ABV for safely running plus I went down to 30% after adding dunder or there abouts.

40% will be safe enough for you to run or at 40% add dunder and it will drop a bit more and make it that much more safe.
I ran mine to 10% and still needed to dilute, when you going to add that thumper?????lol
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Re: My First Rum

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NZChris wrote:
Old Town wrote:Next step dilute it down to low wines and rerun.
In thirty odd years of making rum, I have never had to add water to dilute my low wines to below 40% ABV for the spirit run. Did you shut down because it was nasty, or for some other reason?

Chris to be honest I don't know what proof it's at. I may not need to dilute it at all. I guess I should be more careful with my words before I post. I just collected both stripping runs in too my 5 gallon carboy. I ran pretty deep into the tails too where there was no alcohol taste at all. I'll syphon some out of the carboy later and get a hydrometer on it.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Old Town »

ShinOn wrote" Do you plan to use dunder for the spirit run or just the low wines?
I think you should do the spirit run without and age your dunder till the summer so it can get the heat it needs to become it's own and you'll have the original recipe flavor to drink now and later.


I think I'm going to stay away from the dunder pit until I get this rum recipe down. This was a rocky road for me but I'm going to give it another go here soon.
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Re: My First Rum

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Having my first rum and coke out of the pint I pulled from the stripping run. The molasses flavor is a little overwhelming to drink straight but mixed with coke it's not bad. I'm hoping when I do my spirit run it will tame the molasses flavor down a bit. All in all I'm pretty happy with the results at this point.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

It will be there even after the strip, just cleaner. Lucky you! Just remember, after the year it needs on oak, it will be awesome, much calmer, and blended perfectly. :thumbup:
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Saltbush Bill »

If it tastes like that now it will be good rum once aged.
Rum really does need oak and time ..............its fairly horrid straight off the still in my opinion.
Given enough time on oak that raw taste should turn to a mellow caramel.
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Re: My First Rum

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Well I guess I need to invest in a new oak aging barrel.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by nerdybrewer »

Old Town wrote:Well I guess I need to invest in a new oak aging barrel.
Or a once used Bourbon barrel...
Mine do very nicely in once used Bourbon barrels.
Cranky's spoonfeeding:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=52975

Time and Oak will sort it out.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Saltbush Bill »

If you dont have the money to buy a barrel get some medium toast dominos, or make some home made toasted oak sticks then oak and age in glass. It will still get better with time.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Shine0n »

I told ya is was a nice bold rum, lol
Once you do the spirit run it will be smoother and a little less bold but still with alot of flavors.

I have a couple once used barrels and it IMHO makes the rum smoother than a new one, use the new one for some HBB and after that put the rum in for 6 months. Mmmmm

Also, med toasted domino's are the ticket without a char just be careful to not over do it, it's alot easier to add oak than to remove it.
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Re: My First Rum

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The wife brought me home a slab of marble. Going to use this for my next rum ferment experiment. Thinking about doing one with shells and one with the marble and monitoring the ph..
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Re: My First Rum

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If you are interested in how much gets used, monitor the weight loss.
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Re: My First Rum

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I'm interested in how much marble/shells get used and the ph levels. Will one finish out faster than the other or will one stall or maybe they both fail?? I have a lot of questions after this experience!!
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Re: My First Rum

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My last rum didn't get any. I pampered my yeast and gave it Brix and temperatures it liked and it said, "Thank you very much, kind sir!", then scoffed all the fermentable sugars in three days.
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Re: My First Rum

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Old Town wrote:I'm interested in how much marble/shells get used and the ph levels. Will one finish out faster than the other or will one stall or maybe they both fail?? I have a lot of questions after this experience!!
Id like to see a 3rd ferment ..with no ph adjusting stuff in it , call it a control if you will.
If its not done that way you have learned very little.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Old Town »

Saltbush Bill wrote:
Old Town wrote:I'm interested in how much marble/shells get used and the ph levels. Will one finish out faster than the other or will one stall or maybe they both fail?? I have a lot of questions after this experience!!
Id like to see a 3rd ferment ..with no ph adjusting stuff in it , call it a control if you will.
If its not done that way you have learned very little.

Sounds like a plan Saltbush three ferments all made the same way other than the marble and shells. I got some time off in a few weeks for the holidays so I'll get everything rounded up and give it a go.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Shine0n »

NZChris wrote:If you are interested in how much gets used, monitor the weight loss.
That's what SCD did and the loss was significant, maybe because of the added sugar the ph has more of a tendency to drop? SCD also does larger ferments than the 25 ish gallon
I dunno :crazy:
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Old Town »

Going to do my spirit run this Saturday. I got some American white oak cubes for aging. I'll let you all know how it turns out.
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Re: My First Rum

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Old Town wrote:Going to do my spirit run this Saturday. I got some American white oak cubes for aging. I'll let you all know how it turns out.
Did you buy the cubes commercially or make them? My rum has been barrel aging for 8 months I probably should take out my wine thief and check it out.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Old Town »

I actually bought them, 20 dollars for a 1 pound bag. I should probably just make them next time and save some money.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by jb-texshine »

My best results so far have come with white oak"fingers" 3/4"x3/4"x4" toast and then char 1 finger per quart.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Stargazer14 »

I have two 5-gal buckets of a pineapple rum going (along with 25-gal of my regular recipe), the ferment stalled after 2 weeks shortly after I added the pineapple rinds,
after a week of nothing I added about 6 whole oyster shells and I am amazed at how fast it gets going again, bubbling within 10mins.
24hrs after adding the shells it is still churning away. Looking forward to running this, should be done in a day or so.
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Old Town »

Stargazer14 wrote:I have two 5-gal buckets of a pineapple rum going (along with 25-gal of my regular recipe), the ferment stalled after 2 weeks shortly after I added the pineapple rinds,
after a week of nothing I added about 6 whole oyster shells and I am amazed at how fast it gets going again, bubbling within 10mins.
24hrs after adding the shells it is still churning away. Looking forward to running this, should be done in a day or so.

Stargazer there is a member in the novice distiller section that has a thread needing some help with pineapple. Jollyrogertexas, I'm sure he would like to hear your thoughts on the subject. And yes the shells definitely get things fired up..
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Re: My First Rum

Post by Old Town »

jb-texshine wrote:My best results so far have come with white oak"fingers" 3/4"x3/4"x4" toast and then char 1 finger per quart.
My oak cubes are pretty small but if I put 4 or 5 of them in their it should be close to the same as your fingers. The package says to use 2.5 to 3 oz per five gallons. I won't have five gallons once I do my spirit run so five of them per quart sounds like a plan.
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