Kale Rum

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Oatmeal
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Kale Rum

Post by Oatmeal »

Time for a rum cycle! Last year I made some birthday rum, which will likely be more ready next year, out of some awful feed molasses that had oil in it.

This year I am making a white, so I can actually drink it for my birthday party, and some out of panela to put to bed, while hopefully generating enough feints to take a small stab at a high ester style.

Anyways over in googes green goo thread, zapata argued that adding kale could help enhance rum flavors and smells, so I thought I'd give it a go.

1 gallon blackstrap (evolved)
Roughly 10 lbs. White sugar
9 gallons water
1 gallon kale/ purple orach slurry (orach is a spinach analog that I am removing from my lawn). 1 bunch of kale from the market fits in my blender x4
Some oyster shells for good luck....
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by 8Ball »

Oatmeal wrote: Thu Jun 16, 2022 5:15 pm Time for a rum cycle! Last year I made some birthday rum, which will likely be more ready next year, out of some awful feed molasses that had oil in it.

This year I am making a white, so I can actually drink it for my birthday party, and some out of panela to put to bed, while hopefully generating enough feints to take a small stab at a high ester style.

Anyways over in googes green goo thread, zapata argued that adding kale could help enhance rum flavors and smells, so I thought I'd give it a go.

1 gallon blackstrap (evolved)
Roughly 10 lbs. White sugar
9 gallons water
1 gallon kale/ purple orach slurry (orach is a spinach analog that I am removing from my lawn). 1 bunch of kale from the market fits in my blender x4
Some oyster shells for good luck....
Oatmeal,
Interested in how this worked out for you. Did you do the panela as well?
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Bushman »

Missed your original post in June. Let us know how it comes out as I have used kale for vodka.
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Oatmeal »

So I've done 3 10 gallon ferments of 1 gallon molasses, the rest sugar, and 1 10 gallons of straight panela. The last molasses and panela + accumulated feints and a bit of fresh panela wash will be run through the pot when I ferment my last bit of panela in 2ish weeks.

The first runs were through a plate and short amount of packing. The kale vodka really has a nice "floral" aroma to it. Can't say it comes across in the white rum.

The panela wash and strip smell real nice, but could just be that way without the kale. I'll update when it gets run.

Probably going to try kale + honey here in a month or so.
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Renhoekk »

Oatmeal wrote: Sun Sep 04, 2022 7:32 pm The kale vodka really has a nice "floral" aroma to it. Can't say it comes across in the white rum.
I've seen kale popping up more and more as an ingredient. Is it a flavour thing? I can't imagine it having much in it that's fermentable
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Yummyrum »

Renhoekk wrote: Mon Sep 05, 2022 3:13 am I've seen kale popping up more and more as an ingredient. Is it a flavour thing? I can't imagine it having much in it that's fermentable
You're correct .
It's used as a Yeast nutrient , not as a source of sugar.
I've never tried it as I can't stand the farty smell of the stuff , I'd personally use other recipes ..... But that's me ... Many like Kale .It apparently makes an awesome Nuetral , but then , you are running it through a reflux still to strip all flavours out .

As for Kale and Rum
My opinion here .
If it's all Mollases Rum , I see no use for Kale as a Nutrient . Mollases will have that covered bar a pinch of Epsom salts .
As you reducing the Mollases and subbing in sugar , the Mollases will still have enough nutrients .

If you go really lite on the Molly , then you basically have a sugar heavy wash and you will need to add some nutrients .
Now this is where it gets funky to me . Are you after the subtle flavour remaining of the small amount of Molly or are you going to just reflux the shit out of it and make a Bacardi style Rum ?

That to me is where I feel the Kale could be either a hinderance or a help .
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Oatmeal »

Rather than nutrients, I was seeing if it would contribute to a more robust aroma through the ketones it brings to the table, a precursor to demascatone? It's worth reading zapata's take on it linked above.

I was also curious if it might contribute any vegetal or grassy notes that one might find in a fresh pressed cane ferment.

It's worth noting that even before distilling a kale flavor is not apparent at all...
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Oatmeal »

Finally ran the spirit run. Heated everything up to vapors escaping and then let it sit an hour, then compressed the early heads, ran like a pot until tails and stretched the hearts by refluxing at the end.

The panela really surprised me by dominating the whole run. Remarkably stable smell with little difference between the jars. Curious what tasting/cuts will reveal.

Coming to realize that trying to encourage more demascatones needs to have a distilling protocol that supports their expression.

The final step in this rum cycle will be a small ferment usage the stillage and an attempt towards a higher ester rum using the feints and a thumper setup...
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by googe »

I started adding kale to my rum washes not long after I tried the kale wash, in my experience yummy is right, I didnt see the need in full Molly wash but did think it helped molly/sugar wash. I had the same.view as oatmeal that the kale didnt come through that I noticed.
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Bushman »

googe wrote: Thu Oct 20, 2022 8:01 pm I started adding kale to my rum washes not long after I tried the kale wash, in my experience yummy is right, I didnt see the need in full Molly wash but did think it helped molly/sugar wash. I had the same.view as oatmeal that the kale didnt come through that I noticed.
Googe I started a few years back growing kale after reading your approach. I had never grown kale before and it seemed like it never stopped growing. We were eating kale salads, making alcohol, and other kale recipes I found through a search. Made a pretty nice neutral however.
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Oatmeal »

Thanks for the kale recipe googe. It's the best one I've run yet (but also the only :shifty: )

Made my cuts. Was surprised at the character of the heads, was able to go much higher than usual with no burn. A bit more challenging to select jars as the panela flavor/smell was really dominant. Very fruity.

Is this common with panela?

It's also quite drinkable, unlike a blackstrap run.

Next run will be a 2 gallon with the spirit run stillage and 2 bunches of kale (10 times the vodka recipie), and the feints. Aiming to get some higher esters, and will be using a retort.

Heh. Probably need a few more years of learning to figure it out, but gotta start somewhere!
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Bushman »

Oatmeal wrote: Sat Oct 22, 2022 6:01 am Thanks for the kale recipe googe. It's the best one I've run yet (but also the only :shifty: )

Made my cuts. Was surprised at the character of the heads, was able to go much higher than usual with no burn. A bit more challenging to select jars as the panela flavor/smell was really dominant. Very fruity.

Is this common with panela?

It's also quite drinkable, unlike a blackstrap run.

Next run will be a 2 gallon with the spirit run stillage and 2 bunches of kale (10 times the vodka recipie), and the feints. Aiming to get some higher esters, and will be using a retort.

Heh. Probably need a few more years of learning to figure it out, but gotta start somewhere!
I am a little confused by your question. Did you do a kale run and collect in jars that previously were used on a rum run of Panela and had the residue still in the jars?
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Oatmeal »

The basic gist is that I am playing with the idea of kale increasing the production of demascatone in rum. If you look back you'll see my rum recipe.

So far I was struck by how prevalent the presence of the panela smell/ flavor was through all the fractions. Pretty much the same all the way through the fractions, much different than my other spirit runs where smells and flavors change throughout the run...

Is this common with panela rums?
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Dougmatt »

Oatmeal wrote: Sat Oct 22, 2022 7:48 am I was struck by how prevalent the presence of the panela smell/ flavor was through all the fractions. Pretty much the same all the way through the fractions, much different than my other spirit runs where smells and flavors change throughout the run...

Is this common with panela rums?
The Panela I’ve run smells and tastes different in each fraction to me. Yes the Panela flavor is there throughout, but some fractions for example will taste like banana (comes late) , others more citrusy (throughout) / pineapple (early) / butter (early), and yet other like toast (early - mid). Plus the mouth feel will change as well. So for me yes the fractions changed throughout, but I also note this “Panela” flavor that runs through it all the way which I think is maybe what you refer to?

I’ve run more Panela than other rum recipes but have done SBB with feed grade which I sort of remember the fractions being more distinct, and a fancy molasses batch which was early on and I didn’t take good fraction notes.

Edit: For me the “panela” flavor is citrusy, Re-reading your comments, I’m wondering now what you are getting and if it’s that or something influenced by the kale. What does it taste / smell like to you?
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Re: Kale Rum

Post by Oatmeal »

Great description dougmatt! I'm gonna put this in the odd effect category....is it the kale? If I do a control it won't be till next year, so not great science.

From the foreshore to the tails almost no change in the ester profile throughout the run: smells very much like the panela I used, mostly fruity tones that are apple/apple adjacent. Very much hid everything else, even any tails smell.

Damned if I wasn't talking a fall walk with the family and got the exact smell from a box elder tree dropping it's leaves.

My favorite part of distilling is it's ability to synthesize different smell and taste components!
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