Home Distiller

Look up H. H. Cousins for another rabbit hole to go down. Now that is a deep rabbit hole thanks for that one. It has certainty given me ides on how I can increase flavor by esterification. From how it reads there is no real wrong way to make flavor in rum as long as it is not producing poisonous co...

Think I will stick to no pH control as reducing organic acids will result in lower ester levels in final product the opposite of what i want to achieve. The last rum run recently was a strip of 260lts with high % muck volume and long secondary fermentation 45 -50 days. So no cuts as of yet but the s...

Thanks for pdf link it was interesting to read the chapter on sugar syrups and confectionery. I could be missing something but from the pdf section on sugar refining it states they use lime (calcium oxides) to control pH by neutralizing organic acids. So to infer this to a muck pit / high ester rum ...

I've been reading up on homemade vinegar for this very reason. My understanding is that acetobacter converts ethanol to aceditc acid pretty slowly. I think that 4-6 week range is probably ideal as too much ethel acitate starts to smell/taste like solvent. Here's a good article on the use of cane ac...

No i don't control the pit pH. Only control measures put in place are a fine mesh bug net to keep out fruit flies and the like and a reduced opening to the air of 75mm. it was much easier to make a small bug net plug than to cover the entire top. Should I be controlling the pH? mite have to take a r...

My muck pit is a 220 ltr barrel kept at a 28 degrees centigrade using an aquarium heater. It is kept open to the air and has been inoculated with sugar cane and has fruit peal, fruit scraps and resistance starch added periodicity. The resistance starch was made by boiling potato and rapidly cooling ...

Sorry I should have stated it had been distilled via a cooling management column set to output 80% ABV. I have tried pot stilling it but found the tails come in far to early and a lot of product is lost. The column helps me hold back the tails for longer

just some documentation of current rum experiments. I have been experimenting using slatbushbill’s all molasses recipe. Procedure: • Clean fermentation until complete (no change to recipe) • Addition of live dunder / muck (varying % amounts of fermentation volume) • Secondary fermentation. (varying ...

Update on the apple grappa rum dunder experiment Fermentation: Apple pulp re-hydrated with water and live aged rum dunder (muck) during primary fermentation using wild yeast and muck the pulp was pressed and sugar added along with DAP. Distillation equipment: pot still Distillation procedure: stripp...

So each year we grind and press apples for 4 products 1) Apple juice fresh and frozen 2) Alcoholic cider (wild yeast) 3) Apple brandy 4) Apple grappa (cant think of a better name) The apple grappa or so we call it cant think of a better name. Is the leftover pressings rehydrated and fermented on the...

When I usually make 100% corn wash it's done with enzymes. But on this occasion I was in a rush thought the enzymes had been added. But the packets had fallen down the back of the bench and had not noticed. In the morning checked for starch and it was positive. Now all the heat had gone. Options wou...

I wouldnt expect any wash made with 100% dunder to ferment without having some major PH issues. Yes I understand that dunder is acidic but at a pH of 3.5 I would still expect it to ferment as I have started this yeast off in beer with a starting pH of 3.1 and it fermented out dry just a little slowly

The next fermentation experiment is use fresh dunder as the 100% of liquid element instead of water and also do a mixed fermentation as before with muck That's very brave. I don't recall anyone else here doing that. Watch your pH and oxygenate well. A commercial rum trick I've heard about recently,...

IMG_20220618_112353.jpg This is a picture of the last fermentation just before it was emptied. The lid was sealed but opened regularly. Mite try what I have on the muck pit as a lid next time 25mm bung hole covered with a very fine bug net to keep the fruit fly's out. Had a bit of an infestation once

Doing a secondary ferment using aged muck is what I've been doing for the last yr or so.. I don't use fresh dunder in my ferment any more, preferring doing a secondary instead.. I do add some wash to the spirit run instead of dunder or muck.. I only do the secondary for 14 days, never went 21 days....

My current plan is to use my CM still with a packed column but tune the dephlegmator to output spirit in the 80-85% range after reading what others have done on plated columns. So has anybody tried this and what where your outcomes I do my rum ( panela/fancy molasses/with secondary fermentation ) u...

Time to report back on progress. Run 1: still charge 25Lts @ 45% of existing rum combined with 15Lts of aged muck. Results odd astringent flavour gone and some nice tropical fruit hints Run2: as above but muck replaced with water. Results odd astringent flavour gone and much less tropical fruit Have...

There is your problem ....no copper..........use plenty, the more the merrier. IMG_19000401_153810.jpg IMG_20220606_015118.jpg Equipment set up will be column from the CM still packed with copper mess with this pot head on top. This gives me max surface area of copper. Then rerun existing rum. Spli...

Thanks for the reply. That is a good point I didn't have any copper in boiler / vapour path. I mite try re-distilling it. Options for set up are 1. with the the column I use for reflux packed (copper mesh) and a pot head on top of that. 2.use the copper dephlegmator directly on top of the boiler wit...

Hi I have been trying to perfect a heavy Jamaican style rum and have been using a 50Ltr keg pot still. But have been getting an odd off taste coming through from my reading this is rum tails smearing even when running it very slowly. My current plan is to use my CM still with a packed column but tun...

About 1 year old it has has raw sugar cane and banana peals added

Long time lurker first time poster. My interest in home distilling started when I was just a kid helping my father make beer, wine and spirits. Currently have a few projects on the go and will post in the relevant sections of the forum in due course.