Advice needed from Rum Gurus

[Hound Dog]

OK guys, I like rum and have made some OK stuff with some of Sugar Daddy's good stuff. I was in the local Southern States today (a farm supply co-op in the area) and found this molasses.

A friend of mine who runs a farm turned me on to the fact that they carry it. For $17 a 50# bag I figured it was worth a shot to see what it would produce. Any advice? Use it straight? Add sugar? Don't use it at all? Since it lists 38% total sugars, should I use a little more than twice as much as I would with just sugar? Figure I will give it a go later this week.

[DAD300]

Show us another pic with the ingredients list.

I want to see how they get the ACID DETERGENT FIBER.

[Hound Dog]

Show us another pic with the ingredients list.

I want to see how they get the ACID DETERGENT FIBER.

I am afraid the package information is not much help......

[NZChris]

Their website won't help you much either.

You could make up a small ferment to see how it goes and what it tastes like. I do 500ml test ferments, more than enough to float a hydrometer in so that you can work out the % of fermentables by the SG drop.

[Hound Dog]

Yea, their website was useless. Unless of course you actually use the stuff to feed livestock That's just crazy talk though..... Who would do that?

Heck, I just figured I would go for broke and mix up two barrels to see what happens. Like you say NZ, I have some sugar on hand to adjust the SG. I'll just wing it. I figure if the cows eat it, its not going to kill me. If I don't ferment it I don't have anything to do with it but feed it to the deer so it's worth a shot. Might be some good stuff.

[rager]

id say go for it!!! don't for get to add the nutrients needed for a good rum ferment. read up on pugi yeast bomb if you already havent

[DAD300]

Actually looks good.

Make up a test quart. About a third of a pound in a quart of water, couple tablespoons of sacraficial yeast and bring it to above 150F. Wait to cool to 80F. Check ph, adjust if necessary and add a teaspoon of good yeast.

I bet you don't need any nutrients but watch the ph.

[Hound Dog]

Yes. I didn't need any nutrients when using Sugar Daddy's panela so I didn't figure this would need any. I forgot to look for ground oyster shell at the feed store. I will give them a call or swing by tomorrow and see if they have any. Thought I read in some past threads that they were kind of self balancing so thought I would give them a shot. If not, I have calcium carbonate that I always use. I'll give it a shot this weekend and see how it goes.

[NZChris]

Any calcium carbonate will do and it doesn't have to be fine. Egg shells, sea shells, I use whole sea shells coz I live near the sea and I can weigh them before and after to learn how much gets used by the various ferments I do.

[Hound Dog]

Well, I don't know.... I guess the fiber is ground up straw or grain hulls or something. It looks like the molasses is soaked up on this stuff. I dumped a bag into a 20 gallon fermenter and started adding hot water. It became a sticky slurry. I scooped half of it over to a second fermenter and filled up with water. After mixing, I added about 8 pounds of sugar to each one to get the SG reading to about 11%. I tossed in a little calcium and some egg shells then pitched some bakers yeast. We'll see what happens. The filler may make it taste like a hay field or it may come out good. I will have to see. I am sure it will ferment. It will either make a good rum or make a nasty tasting parts cleaner/charcoal lighter fluid.

[acfixer69]

Remember that dried stuff from another forum with several member giving to it so I wish you well.

AC

[Hound Dog]

Remember that dried stuff from another forum with several member giving to it so I wish you well.

AC

Yea, wasn't sure. Eh, for $17 a bag it isn't the most money I have ever wasted. I have bought $50 bottles of booze that sit decorating my bar shelf because they are disgusting .

It is bubbling like hell though! We'll see soon enough.

[Hound Dog]

Well I have never seen anything like it. That crap dropped from 11% to under 5% in 24 hours. No I didn't use turbo yeast, just plain old baker's yeast like always. One barrel has a cap of crap all floating on the top while the other is just a few inches below the surface.

I'll see if it stalls. I don't have any PH test strips.

[Hound Dog]

Well the stuff fermented out in three days. I racked what I could into buckets and set it in the cold garage to clear a bit. I doubt this will turn out. It is some foul smelling ferment . I figure I will run it through my current rig with lava rock before I break it down and start my rebuild. If it is no good at least I will have some alcohol I can water down and do cleaning runs with when I do my rebuild.

After racking off what liquid I could I dumped the lees in the woods. It looked like half a barrel of saw dust all mucked up in there. I don't think I could recommend this to anyone.

[Greig56]

This mighn't be the newest post but reading here gives me a question I haven't asked or found. I keep reading about oyster shells. First ground each time added/ground then added or large pieces added to a rum wash? If large pieces added do they survive to be reused? Next, strictly oyster shells or can mussel shells be used instead?

[dieselduo]

you can get crushed oyster shells from almost any feed store pretty cheap

[rad14701]

Greig56, used oyster shells can be cleaned and reused without issue...

[S-Cackalacky]

Most any kind of seashell will work. I generally use whole scallop shells. The idea is that they dissolve in the wash as the PH goes down and bring it back into balance. If you don't live near the ocean, most aquarium shops carry them for decorating aquariums. Most any kind of shell will work - they're all calcium carbonate (as far as I know). I like the whole shells because I can fish them out and reuse them. You could probably wrap the crushed oyster shells in some cheese cloth, but they're so cheap, why bother.

[Hound Dog]

you can get crushed oyster shells from almost any feed store pretty cheap

Yep, you can get a big sack of the crushed shells and coral for about $15.

[Hound Dog]

Well the stuff fermented out in three days. I racked what I could into buckets and set it in the cold garage to clear a bit. I doubt this will turn out. It is some foul smelling ferment . I figure I will run it through my current rig with lava rock before I break it down and start my rebuild. If it is no good at least I will have some alcohol I can water down and do cleaning runs with when I do my rebuild.

After racking off what liquid I could I dumped the lees in the woods. It looked like half a barrel of saw dust all mucked up in there. I don't think I could recommend this to anyone.

I see I never followed up here. NEVER use this crap! It was disgusting. I tried to use it for a cleaning run but had to reclean just from this nasty ferment. Couldn't control the puking, couldn't take the smell. Had to stop the run and start over with vinegar. Just don't try it.