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Making Rum

Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 6:19 pm
by old_red_eye
For quite a while I have made beer, plenty of wine (no kits) and lots of
vodka. For my drinking, I either have vodka and water or I buy whisky
essence (Top Shelf) and flavor it that way with pepsi.

I always wanted to make rum but never had the time or knowledge.
So now I have plenty of time and made my first rum mash thanks to
this forum.

I made my first mash with this recipe....

5 kg Crosby's Fancy Molassas
3 kg Lantic Brilliant Yellow Sugar
2 Sliced Oranges
2 tsp yeast nutrient
22 liters water
15 gm EC1118 yeast

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It took 2 weeks to drop from SG=1.110 to 1.000

Then I let it sit for 1 week to clear, racked the liquid off and distilled.

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These are the results of the distill process with 1125 watts of heat.....

0 min..........first drips.....................54.0 C
10 min........dribble.........................85.0 C
15 min........200 ml foreshots done...87.1 C
25 min........collected 400 ml heads..87.6 C....70%
50 min........collected 750 ml heart...88.7 C....68%
1.5 hr.........collected 750 ml heart...89.8 C....65%
2 hr............collected 750 ml heart...90.9 C....61%
2.5 hr.........collected 700 ml heart...92.3 C....56%
3 hr............collected 750 ml heart...94.0 C....49%
3.5 hr.........collected 1000 ml tails...96.0 C....38%
(last bottle was cloudy)

I will put the heads and tails in my next distill.

With these cuts the results were excellent in my opinion. I was very satisfied with it.
When the hearts are mixed together and cut to 40% it is a very smooth
rum with a definite molassas taste and smell.
A much better drink than the Top Shelf / Vodka mix.
Several people have agreed.

I took a branch of apple from a tree that blew down.....

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and I sawed it up on a table saw to small blocks about 3/8" x 1" x 2".
I toasted some of these in the oven at 200 C for 2 hrs (ones on the right).

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I soaked half my rum (at about 65%) on 6 of these toasted apple blocks.
After 1 day the rum was amber color, after 2 days I removed the apple and finished the rum.

Next time I will leave it longer but I just wanted to slowly see what happens.

This is the 40% rum, with and without 2 day toasted apple.

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I did not save the dunder or keep any backset. May do this later when I am more committed.

Now I put on two more identical batches. On one mash I pitched 6 tsp of
fermipan bakers yeast and the other with the same 15 gm of EC-1118.
I want to see the difference.
After about 6 hr, both batches are working quite vigorously.

I will keep you posted.

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ps: I have seen several recipies and procedures on various "panty removers" or liqueurs.
I also make these, this is my Triple Sec on the go.
It's just my opinion, but I find the vodka gets all the flavor
it needs after macerating for only 2-3 weeks.
Then add the sugar syrup and let settle for 2-3 weeks.
It seems to me that 6 months is more than needed.

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Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 10:42 am
by pothead
I like using just the out skins(colored part) of the citrus fruit. I take a potato/apple peeler, and peel the outers of the fruit, and soak just that in the hootch, that is the part that contains all the oils that give all the flavor. Th white pith will add a bitter taste, and the juice just adds a bunch of extra acid, and dilutes the product.

Give it a try...you'll like it.

I make a lemon/lime this way, it turns out a crystal clear green color, and doesn't need filtering at all. I soak for about 2 weeks, then add about a cup of melted sugar(sometimes less) to taste.

The recipe is in the wiki

Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 3:26 am
by old_red_eye
My book has recipies for both, using the scraped peels and using the whole orange.
I started with the scraped peels but found it to have more flavour from
the whole orange without any bitterness.

Re: Making Rum

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 3:06 am
by CoopsOz
G'day old red eye,
How is your rum going? Any shift on your cuts? I only ask because I took my last run to 50% and am a little concerned. It's currently "aging" on toasted oak at about 55%ABV and it smell's pretty ordinary. I'm worried I went too far. Have you any pointers?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:23 am
by old_red_eye
G'day.

I was going to update this post for the last week but have been busy
working and drinkin'. :)

The only difference in my 2 buckets of rum wash was the yeast.

As I expected, the EC-1118 yeast worked out from SG of 1.110 to 1.000
in about 2 weeks. The bread yeast worked for 3 weeks and final SG was
only 1.025. So the bread yeast I used could not handle as much alcohol
before it stopped working. Initially they worked at about the same rate.

After I pot-distilled them both (with the same cuts, etc as described before) seperately
I found both came out the same, I could not tell any difference in taste.
Of course I got about 1 liter less product with the bread yeast.

So my conclusion, either cut back on the sugar if using the bread yeast
because it won't ferment it all (waste) or just use EC-1118 (or other higher
tolerance yeast). I like more product so I will be using EC-1118 from now on.
But it is A LOT more expensive, $4 compared to $0.50 for 5 gal mash.
I can't get EC-1118 around here except in 5 gm pouches.

By the way, I saved 2 gal of what was left in the still and used it to start
another rum so I will see how that turns out.

The cuts I made on the pot-distilled rum seem ok. I was a little concerned
since another discussion on the reflux still cuts so now everyone that comes
here gets to smell and sample the different bottles to offer opinions.

The pot-stilled rum really has a strong acrid smell/taste for the first
(after fore-shots) 500- 700 ml (heads). However, over 20 people have
now tested the refluxed >92% sugar wash stuff and can't tell any
difference from about 250 ml to 4500 ml so my reflux must be workin'
good.

I just started the rum stuff so I don't have much for pointers except
"make lots", it goes fast.

Oh, this time I "aged" some for 4-5 days on the toasted apple and left the cover
off so it could breath. Maybe it's better, hard to tell, it's good to start with.
I think next time I will just color it with a small amount of molasses or
some caramelized sugar. I prefer quick and easy.

Re: Making Rum

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:25 pm
by zouthernborne
Red Eye, Just wondering if in that first wash you did, did you do a stripping run and then a spirit run or was this a single run and finished? Thanks. And nice details in that post. I actually enjoyed reading it.