Light fruit rum theory - ideas/input?

[distiller_dresden]

Yo! I have an idea for a light rum mash I'd like input please:

8lbs dark brown sugar
24oz molasses
8lbs frozen mangoes
4lbs overripe bananas
5 gallons water


Once ready I am planning on putting 3 medium ripe bananas in the pot while I cook off, and then wash in the thumper as usual, but also some molasses in the thumper as well to increase that rich heavy sugar flavor to add an overall banana-dark brown sugar flavor to the distilled liquor I get out of the worm.

Thoughts?

[nerdybrewer]

Yo! I have an idea for a light rum mash I'd like input please:

8lbs dark brown sugar
24oz molasses
8lbs frozen mangoes
4lbs overripe bananas
5 gallons water


Once ready I am planning on putting 3 medium ripe bananas in the pot while I cook off, and then wash in the thumper as usual, but also some molasses in the thumper as well to increase that rich heavy sugar flavor to add an overall banana-dark brown sugar flavor to the distilled liquor I get out of the worm.

Thoughts?

I have a similar plan except I'll make a straight Panela rum using my backset loaded with probiotics and then put pulverized pinapple and rum wash in the thumper.
Let us know how your experiment goes.

[distiller_dresden]

I'm going to be mashing in tomorrow, I got some rum yeast off Amazon; I don't have a distilling store locally (I'm in Fort Wayne) so I don't have a lot of resources at hand immediately and have to use the internet. Hoping the yeast kit I picked will do well by this mash. I got

Home Brew Ohio HOZQ8-390 Fermfast Rum Turbo Yeast 107.5 G Packet

It had good reviews and I researched some it had good ratings, also seemed to come with everything I need. So even though I have my own nutrients I guess I won't need them this go round. Wondering how this yeast will work with my banana and mango additions, but we shall see. I'll report back how the mash performs when I filter and clear it, the night before I run it. Then I'll drop another report after I've stilled to say how things turned out.

Say - I've read about caramel or caramelized sugars, to add to finished liquors, would anyone happen to know the name of these products specifically? The caramel sugars to add to rums, or brandys for flavoring? So I can shop and pick some up...

[OtisT]

I'm going to be mashing in tomorrow, I got some rum yeast off Amazon; I don't have a distilling store locally (I'm in Fort Wayne) so I don't have a lot of resources at hand immediately and have to use the internet. Hoping the yeast kit I picked will do well by this mash. I got

Home Brew Ohio HOZQ8-390 Fermfast Rum Turbo Yeast 107.5 G Packet

It had good reviews and I researched some it had good ratings, also seemed to come with everything I need. So even though I have my own nutrients I guess I won't need them this go round. Wondering how this yeast will work with my banana and mango additions, but we shall see. I'll report back how the mash performs when I filter and clear it, the night before I run it. Then I'll drop another report after I've stilled to say how things turned out.

Say - I've read about caramel or caramelized sugars, to add to finished liquors, would anyone happen to know the name of these products specifically? The caramel sugars to add to rums, or brandys for flavoring? So I can shop and pick some up...

There are a few threads here that discuss using caramelized sugar (or sugar brittle), including different fancy sugars like coconut and other darker sugars. It is simple to make yourself and I learned how to make it from the internet. All you need is a pan, sugar, and time on the heat. Some add a few drops of water to speed up the melting of sugar. Otis

[Single Malt Yinzer]

For commercial whiskeys they use E150, For home use do what Otis says and make your own. Easy peasy. You'll just need to adjust how much to you desired taste. There's also a ton of flavorings available on Amazon if you want to go that route.

http://whiskyscience.blogspot.com/2011/ ... -e150.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Pikey]

I'm going to be mashing in tomorrow, I got some rum yeast off Amazon; I don't have a distilling store locally (I'm in Fort Wayne) so I don't have a lot of resources at hand immediately and have to use the internet. Hoping the yeast kit I picked will do well by this mash. I got

Home Brew Ohio HOZQ8-390 Fermfast Rum Turbo Yeast 107.5 G Packet


Say - I've read about caramel or caramelized sugars, to add to finished liquors, would anyone happen to know the name of these products specifically? The caramel sugars to add to rums, or brandys for flavoring? So I can shop and pick some up...

Most of us keep clear of any yeast which says "Turbo" on it - If you can get some plain yeast - even Bread yeast - I'd use that instead - It should be ok with your sugar cotent. Run with your yeast if you want to, but beware of "off flavours"

Caramel is just Gravy browning - Crosse and Balckwell do it over here (UK) - it does Not taste sweet - just colours and comes as a liquid in a clear glass bottle - looks black, read label for ingredients you don't like the look of though. Cheap enough at normal shops.

Hope it goes well for you

[distiller_dresden]

I have some DADY distillers yeast a huge packet and yeast nutrients but after running a brandy on 20lbs fruit and getting subpar results I am concerned my run won't have the results I am hoping for, and I know after some reading that rums especially have special needs and results in the finished wash. After less than stellar results from DADY in my brandy I worry using it for a rum. I just want to make a good rum then flavor it after with some other things (I bought some panela brown sugar to add after the cook)...

Do you have any yeast suggestions for a rum, like a specific strain? I'm not sold to the yeast packet I bought, I can always not use it, it wasn't an 'investment'...

[Pikey]

I always used EC1118 for everything (including rum) - but last year tried the ordinary bread yeast after others were saying it was great. It was cheap, you can use loads of it and sure it worked fine for me - just off the shelf at the local shop will do - you can get it cheaper sending away for it but hey you wanna get fermenting right ?

[distiller_dresden]

Still waiting on ferment... do you want a rum in the still to be totally cleared, or would just good filtering leave some rum flavors/congeners?

I've read that it's better to run a rum wash asap when its ready or you lose flavors to evaporation, any truth?

My wash is more or less done, the molasses and brown sugar is done, it's not sticky at all and tastes of alcohol, I don't have a hydrometer so can't measure gravity. But my bananas mashed are capped up and that's all that's left, atop, very very barely bubbles; just kind of wondering if I filter now because I don't want to lose any congeners that may flavor the rum while waiting for the banana part to finally wrap up. The rest of it rolled through ferment super fast.

[nerdybrewer]

Still waiting on ferment... do you want a rum in the still to be totally cleared, or would just good filtering leave some rum flavors/congeners?

I've read that it's better to run a rum wash asap when its ready or you lose flavors to evaporation, any truth?

My wash is more or less done, the molasses and brown sugar is done, it's not sticky at all and tastes of alcohol, I don't have a hydrometer so can't measure gravity. But my bananas mashed are capped up and that's all that's left, atop, very very barely bubbles; just kind of wondering if I filter now because I don't want to lose any congeners that may flavor the rum while waiting for the banana part to finally wrap up. The rest of it rolled through ferment super fast.

I run it when it is done fermenting.
If I'm too busy I'll let it sit but "clears" isn't something that happens with my rum wash.
It becomes a little less thick with time.

[distiller_dresden]

So my rum was a SMASHING success, here's the recipe I mashed and ran, I got literally a gallon out of it, so it was freaking 20% ABV at 5 gallons:

1 gallon Grandma's Molasses (good stuff, not black strap, you can get a gallon of Grandma's molasses on Amazon for $24!)
2 lbs dark brown sugar
3 large bunches (approx 6 each) of ripened large bananas, they sat in a closed bag with apples for 8 days, mashed up
5 gallons water
3 tblsp yeast nutrient
1 packet Home Brew Ohio HOZQ8-390 Fermfast Rum Turbo Yeast 107.5 G Packet (bought on Amazon) I KNOW, but it made f'ing GREAT rum

I got 120 oz out of 5 gallons, so JUST shy of a gallon, took me 8 hours to cook, but worth it! And the hearts from the worm had unbelievable molasses and banana flavors, my dad and I are flipping out over the flavor of this raw white rum. I do have a thumper, which I filled with 26oz of the wash, and 4 oz of the Grandma's molasses (it's the high quality stuff). Using the higher quality molasses vs black strap I've found from a couple different runs makes a BIG difference in the richness and roundness of the flavor of the molasses you get in your finished product, take that extra step and spend the extra, it is WORTH IT. I can't wait to see how FUNKY my dunder gets now with that in there, then when I make a 2nd generation with the Grandma's and the funky dunder... The journey begins mon!

I hope you all try and can reproduce my efforts because this recipe made an absolutely WONDERFUL rum on the first run without reused dunder, and you will be very pleased!

[distiller_dresden]

Okay so I've got 2.5 gallons of my dunder in 5 gallon bucket sitting to develop an infection, I'll be moving to my corn mash recipe development for the next month and working on it for at least 4 mash-ins, until I'm at a 3rd generation sour mash, before I return to rum, thus allowing my dunder to develop a funk, I hope.

I also have 5 32oz jars of dunder that were sterilized and are now sealed so that dunder is free of any infectious agent and can be added or opened later should my infection experiment go south.

On airing my jars of rum for 48 hours, what tasted from the worm for all the world like liquid molasses and bananas is suddenly nowhere to be tasted, damnedest thing and disheartening... So I have walked away for a couple days to see what develops, perhaps something I ate today affected my taste buds in such a way that I am not tasting as I was the day I cooked.

Looking to have my dunder infected such that my rum will have any or all flavors of: caramel, leather, fruity, peppercorn, burnt sugar, bananas, molasses

Infection experts need apply!

[Shine0n]

You said you have a new ph meter, good to have!
For the dunder, it is important to keep the ph at 5-5.5 for the infection to thrive, I kept mine there for a months then things got squirrelly at work and it got neglected for a while the I used pickling lime to raise it up and the pellicle came back so I did this a few times over a period of time and now it sits untouched. It's now an aged, infected dunder that will go in the low wines at 25% total volume for a spirit run when I'm ready.

The last time I used it it had a nice note of pineapple after distilling but over time it went away but the flavors in that rum are amazing, strong, buttery, molasses-e with a very pleasant nose to it. Unfortunately I'm out of that particular one so I'll get on a rum ferment soon but I have a bourbon I've been "not" getting to and need to after my vacation.

[distiller_dresden]

Oh, you're NOT adding this dunder to your ferment after a few days to work in the magic as I've been reading over in Otis thread? I was reading there that late in the ferment you can throw it in, once the yeast is established. Maybe 10% infected dunder, with a bit of molasses or sugar, let the good times roll?

I guess the three options are:
Into the cook for setting up the mash
Into the fermenting mash after it's established
Into the pot when you're preparing to distill

Have you ever done all three, or do you know the benefits/drawbacks of all three? I know one drawback of one, the mid ferment pitch, is possible infection and ruin of your ferment, but what of all those other pluses and minuses I don't know - GOD it's so intriguing I need KNOWLEDGE!!

[OtisT]

Oh, you're NOT adding this dunder to your ferment after a few days to work in the magic as I've been reading over in Otis thread? I was reading there that late in the ferment you can throw it in, once the yeast is established.

Warning. Be careful deciding to throw live infected dunder in your ferment barrel, and all your other stuff. It could get out of hand, so I have read. I know I am taking a risk with that.

I'm Subbed to see how your experiment goes. Otis

[fizzix]

Every once in a while someone has success with a turbo yeast, and distiller_dresden I'm glad it worked for you.
(der wo came to turbo's defense some time ago for fruit musts. Good enough testimonial for me not to dismiss it outright.)
The nanners was a nice touch too apparently.

[distiller_dresden]

Has anybody every tried White Star labs rum yeasts? Or for that matter, I have a line on a supply (well, I can order some, but I found it) 493 EDV rum yeast as well, and I'm wondering if anyone has any experiences with any of these? I won't be back into rum, with my dunder(s) again for a month or so, but when I am I am going to get away from the turbo I used and into a dedicated (and normal/non-turbo) rum yeast to develop so good esters....

[distiller_dresden]

Quick question, I'm about halfway through The Distiller's Guide to Rum. It recommends the WLP720 sweet mead yeast, and the K1V 1116 high ester wine yeast, both of which are available at the same website.

Between those two yeasts, and the EDV 493 I can get any of those before next month when I run my rum again (which I'll be getting blackstrap, which I hadn't known has more cane solids, as in more molasses flavor, as in more ester production), so if anyone has any experience on any of those 3 yeasts I'm open to shared thoughts.

[distiller_dresden]

Going to be adding something interesting I found for beer making to my rum ferment to give it a go for flavor, because ginger and molasses go awesome together:

"Thai Ginger Candi Syrup, 1lb
Thai Ginger will intrigue you, draw you in, whisper in your ear "use me in your next crazy beer". Differentiate your beer from the pack with this Artisanal Candi Syrup that is cooked with exotic Thai Ginger during the cooking process. All mixed with the traditional rich, caramelized flavors similar to Belgian Style Candi syrup."

I'll be using dunder, some infected dunder in the pot when I distill, but hoping that the addition of this to the mash as well as some in my thumper (wash, 4 oz molasses, 2oz ginger candi syrup, 4oz infected dunder) will be creating a really interesting rum...

[Shine0n]

I'm sorry DD I've been on vacation and just peeking about the forum as much as the wife allows. lol

No I do not put infected dunder into my ferment, I use it in the spirit run at 20-25% total volume, say I have 7.5 gal low wines I'll add 2.5 gal dunder.

I do not always use dunder in my rums, sometimes I do single runs with the thumper and I still get a drinkable product that's plenty bold and good with lots of flavors (not bad)

If I were to use pure molasses for the wash I most likely would strip and rerun.

it took me all summer last year to figure out something that on my first feed molasses rum happened. My aquarium heater malfunctioned and heated up the wash to 130+°f (was a ready finished) when I ran it, it had the most wonderful buttery flavors and after that I just couldn't put my finger on where or how I got the flavors. That's when I got into the infected dunder area, after a few runs I wasn't getting the rich buttery flavors and got to reading and looking back in my thread and saw it!!! When I heated the wash back up to 135 and held for a couple hours, I let it cool naturally to room temp. Then I ran it nice and slow and BAM the super rich buttery flavors that eluded me.
I used just plain ole bread yeast, I've found it works well, has nice flavors in the rum and is CHEAP! That's my favorite part there as I probably over pitch but I doesn't matter, it's alot better than under pitching plus I reuse the yeast for up to 5 generations. By then there is sooo much yeast I need to harvest some out and keep refrigerated for future use.

[distiller_dresden]

Hey ShineOn, so you're saying after the mash has fermented and it's sitting in there waiting for you to pull it out, just crank your heater up to 130-135 for a couple of hours, then let it get back to room temp, then drain and cook her off. At least for you, that got you some really buttery flavors?

I'm going to experiment with that. Once I've tried it, I'll try doing it with infected dunder in it, then cook it (it can't hurt if it's literally the night before I cook) and see if that changes anything. But cart before horse, because that might be from your bread yeast, never know. I'm going to try either a high ester cabernet yeast or a really classic rum yeast the 493 EDV, I've looked high and low but I finally found some from a place in Aus and can get it in a couple weeks once I've ordered it. Once I'm back to rum, in about a month, I'm going to try the cabernet - K1V 1116, the 493 EDV, and the White Labs WLP720 before I leave rummin'. Hell I might even add bakers in there too. All the while each generation that tries those yeasts is going to be another generation my dunder grows; infected or not, each batch will be started with 'sterile' dunder to begin with, a gallon or 1.25 and starting PH of 5.5.

I'm also planning a spectrum of oaking, with French, Hungarian, and American to key in on various toasts to elicit different tastes I want from each, but balanced so it's not overly woody; no more oak than you'd normally use, just spread across three different oaks of various toastings. I am going to make /my/ perfect rum damnit lol!

[OtisT]

Hey ShineOn, so you're saying after the mash has fermented and it's sitting in there waiting for you to pull it out, just crank your heater up to 130-135 for a couple of hours, then let it get back to room temp, then drain and cook her off. At least for you, that got you some really buttery flavors?

I'm going to experiment with that. Once I've tried it, I'll try doing it with infected dunder in it, then cook it (it can't hurt if it's literally the night before I cook) and see if that changes anything. But cart before horse, because that might be from your bread yeast, never know. I'm going to try either a high ester cabernet yeast or a really classic rum yeast the 493 EDV, I've looked high and low but I finally found some from a place in Aus and can get it in a couple weeks once I've ordered it. Once I'm back to rum, in about a month, I'm going to try the cabernet - K1V 1116, the 493 EDV, and the White Labs WLP720 before I leave rummin'. Hell I might even add bakers in there too. All the while each generation that tries those yeasts is going to be another generation my dunder grows; infected or not, each batch will be started with 'sterile' dunder to begin with, a gallon or 1.25 and starting PH of 5.5.

I'm also planning a spectrum of oaking, with French, Hungarian, and American to key in on various toasts to elicit different tastes I want from each, but balanced so it's not overly woody; no more oak than you'd normally use, just spread across three different oaks of various toastings. I am going to make /my/ perfect rum damnit lol!

Hi Dresden. I have found I can re-produce a Buttery flavor almost any time by using all Bakers Yeast with a Hot/Fast Ferment. I got the same "Butter' in AG whiskeys, Sugar Heads and Rums with this yeast/temp combo (all w/o dunder involved, though some used Feints in the spirit run wash). Not sure if this contributed to the butter but in each case, before I pitched yeast, I added Vit B, I adjusted PH up to 5.5 and I aerated the hell out of the ferment. Also, I covered the barrel to prevent most air flow and I never touched the ferment (no added Oxygen) once started until it was finished.

This buttery smell stuck around through two pot distillations as well as a Strip/light Fraction distillation. The Bakers yeast I used was Bob's Red Mill bakers yeast and I pitched near 85 F in an insulated fermenter. Temps would climb initially up near 100 F between 18-24 hours then would slowly cool off. I would typically leave my fermenter only partially insulated until the temp begins to drop, then I would fully insulate for the remainder. Usually, fermenting was done in less than 3 days.

Otis

[distiller_dresden]

Do I need to bump the PH of my dunder pit/bucket to 5-5.5 to get/encourage infection, or else never get one?

Also, don't you never add oxygen after pitch??

[Shine0n]

Sorry for the late response, yes that's exactly what happened and I do now. I use fleischmann's bread yeast with no added nutrients, dunder, anything.

There was a link I can't find now and it specifically mentioned the use of heat to bring out "buttery" esters, I can't remember exactly where it is. It may have been in a pm from a member or somewhere in my rum thread or the infected dunder thread but I'll look when I have some time today.

I'm about to rewrite my rum thread for ease of reading and will post 3 different methods of making my rum, Crow and I both have about the same recipe but he uses turbinado sugar vs my dark brown sugar, if that stuff wasn't so expensive here I'd use it but dB sugar works fine as it's coated with molasses anyway and ferments out just fine.

Now I have an account with webstaurant I get blackstrap and it has a higher sugar content than the feed so I'll knock down the sugar by 4 or 6 lbs per 15 gal batch.

Otis, I may have to try that yeast you speak of for a side by side comparison, you know "science" lol

[distiller_dresden]

Oh you have a Webst acct? I was getting ready to look into, I saw their supreme baking molasses at $35 per 5 gal bucket. How much is shipping wo acct, like do they gouge?

[distiller_dresden]

So this is going to be my rum mash-in when I get back to it:

yeast

ICV K1V-1116 (Montpellier) Lalvin

K1V-1116

Species : Wine
Fermentation Temp Range (°F) : 50-95
Apparent Attenuation Range (%) : n/a
Flocculation : Low
Alcohol Tolerance : 18%

Pitching/Fermentation : The K1V-1116 strain is a rapid starter with a constant and complete fermentation between 10° and 35°C (50° and 95°F), capable of surviving a number of difficult conditions, such as low nutrient musts and high levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2) or sugar. Wines fermented with the K1V-1116 have very low volatile acidity, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and foam production.

2.25 gal water
1 gal high quality molasses
1 gal blackstrap molasses
1.25 gal dunder
2 lbs Lyle's Black Treacle
? Tblsp potassium bicarb to balance PH to 5.5
1 can tomato paste
5 grams Fermaid K
1 servomyces capsule
1-2 drops olive oil

Will be fermenting at 93*F


According to calculator I should be close to an ABV of 17% here; pretty excited when I get back to rum mashing...

[distiller_dresden]

After aging on light toast French, medium toast Hungarian and med American, the banana from the mash seems to have come back, and some rumminess as well. Not as strong as I'd like, so I've decided the first couple batches of rum I did with the turbo yeast, both with a bunch of bananas in the mash, to combine them. Then kind of copying Pugirum I put a slice of pineapple, 2 cloves, 6 peppercorns, 12 frozen black cherries, 4 prunes, 12g of dark raisins, 8g light raisins, 3 dried apricots, and a vanilla bean all in cheesecloth to age, that was about a week ago. Got plenty of flavor and pulled that yesterday. Added 1/4c panela, tblsp molasses and maybe 2 tblsp homemade caramel. Diluted I have 1.20 gal 85 proof, it's dark but just see-through, and it has a really pretty red tint. There's in my opinion a harmonious blending of the essences I added on top that brought out the rumminess, making it come out and stand as a darker warm base of brown sugar/caramel rum flavor under a juicy fruit nose. I'm leaving the oak in longer to eek a little more out of it, but I think the cubes are probably spent, there's definitely oakiness to the rum and there are the flavors mostly from the Hungarian just noticeable when you look for them, butterscotch, sasparilla, that the cherry notes seem to bring out more. It's definitely not, at least I don't suppose, like any traditional rum, but I like this and am glad I have a lot of it.

My next rums, when I'm back to it, will be my purist go and I'll make white and oak without much tinkering, and I have the dunder to work with them too.

I've found oaking my liquors in glass, shaking daily once or twice, and I leave them in front of a north-facing sliding glass door, the temp changes are really making the oaking go very quickly.

[distiller_dresden]

I think this weekend will be a return to rum, adjusting the recipe a tad:

1.25 gal water
1 gal 100% juice pineapple juice
1.25 gal dunder
? Tblsp potassium bicarb to balance PH to 5.5
1 can tomato paste
1 gal high quality molasses
1 gal blackstrap molasses
2 lbs Lyle's Black Treacle
5 grams Fermaid K
1 servomyces capsule
1-2 drops olive oil

Will be fermenting at 93*F


Dunder is sterilized and in sealed jars at moment; will be added to 20L pot with water and pineapple juice to bring PH to 5.5 at room temp, then heated to near boiling, heat turned off. Adding tomato paste, fermaid K, and servomyces capsule. Adding to ferment container. Then adding brown sugar, molasses (both), brown sugar, stirring. When temp reaches 88F will pitch yeast. Starting with K1V-1116 wine yeast--

ICV K1V-1116 (Montpellier) Lalvin
K1V-1116

Species : Wine
Fermentation Temp Range (°F) : 50-95
Apparent Attenuation Range (%) : n/a
Flocculation : Low
Alcohol Tolerance : 18%

Pitching/Fermentation : The K1V-1116 strain is a rapid starter with a constant and complete fermentation between 10° and 35°C (50° and 95°F), capable of surviving a number of difficult conditions, such as low nutrient musts and high levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2) or sugar.

This ABV should be around 13%

Hoping maybe the pineapple juice might give me a carryover bit of brandy effect, little bit of a pineapple 'ghost' in the finished rum may be interesting if it happens. I also have my funky dunder ready to use when I cook off, which will go in the pot and in the thumper. I don't have any sulfuric acid though, so it will have to hopefully do it's funk thing as it is on it's own... About a week and a half from when I'll be cooking this off, so I have that long to take suggestions and formulate a hypothesis/plan as to how best to use that funky dunder at that point of setting up the still and doing the rum distillation.

[distiller_dresden]

Well the rum return mash-in is going to be delayed; I ran my apple brandy and used that fermenting vessel to mash-in my 'juicy fruit' brandy mainly because I wanted to use some apple backset, and our deep freeze had started to make a 'buzzing' sound, I had 21lbs of frozen fruit in 3lbs bags in there for months, since around Jan/Feb. I wanted to use up all the fruit at once, give the freezer a break assuming that mass of fruit was taxing the freezer, and so the 'juicy fruit' brandy was born.

Anyhow; in my tub I'd use for the rum I have a deathwish wheat germ variant -
20oz toasted wheat germ
4.5 lbs light DME
1.5 lbs light LME
5 lbs invert sugar
1 lb Lyle's Black Treacle
1 lb Caramel 60L malt
4.5 gals water
.25 gal cornflake/corn (from gen3) backset w/trub
.75 gal white grape peach 100% juice
Redstar champagne yeast @74F

^^This slow-poke is still fermenting off, despite the foam-cap near-crashing Wednesday, then kind of regenerating but smaller and 'foamier' but with less of the wheat germ, or maybe it just shrunk back... Then Friday night it looked like it was about done. So I thought I'd be running this today. I just checked on it this morning expecting it'd be done. Most of the cap/foam is done, but the middle is still foamy and then underneath and around the sides where there's no foam I can see some yeast-churn. Also, tiny tiny bubbles, while not tons, are persisting. So I guess it's still going off! Can't wait 'til this IS ready though, to age it on some wood, and see what my 'faux' single-malt scotch is going to be like.

Wheat germ was simmered/gently boiled per recipe, for last half hour the caramel malt was thrown in to strip the flavor, and then prior to adding to the fermenting tub I did a quick/not best attempt to strain the germ and malt out. There was still wheat germ in there, but I got the bulk of it out of there.

THEN I'll be getting to the above/last post rum recipe mash-in...

[distiller_dresden]

Just mashed in the next batch of rum, looking forward to it, as I experimented a bit, adjusted recipe was:

1 gal water
1 gal 100% juice pineapple juice
1.25 gal dunder
.25 gal apple cider backset (see apple brandy thread)
1/3c potassium bicarb to balance PH to 5.7 (to allow for drop)
1 gal high quality molasses
1 gal blackstrap molasses
1 lb Lyle's Black Treacle
1 lb dark brown sugar
6 grams Fermaid K
1 servomyces capsule
1-2 drops olive oil
K1V-1116 (Montpellier) Lalvin red wine yeast

Temp set at 90F for now, after 24h I will adjust to 92F so that any aggressive initial fermentation won't raise temp to/past 95F and risk killing yeast

Have my new wrap heating setup doing the temp control, and my thermostat in my new custom made stainless steel thermowell sunk right into the middle of the ferment with the sensor in the ss tube right into the middle level of the liquid. Haven't had better temp control than this before, so I'm excited about the setup and that I'm doing a rum off at high temp with a good ester producing wine yeast!