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Running my rum today. Pretty happy so far. On my 11th pint jar after pulling foreshots and heads and still at 80% ABV with nice flavor.

Cut some to 40% for a couple friends. Claim it's better than the bacardi they drink!

Loving the rum! Been using black strap from the feed store but just bought 5 gallons of fresh Steens molasses from the mill for $17.00! I'm excited!

That seems like a dern fair price.

Making cuts today! I stripped 30 gallons of this over the past week or so and did the Spirit run last night. This is pretty good right off the condenser. I used Dark Molasses fresh from the mill and it really carried over. Collected about 3 gallons in pint jars to figure out the cuts on this one. Heads really do not have a chemical taste, more sweet than anything. However, the tails are really, really nasty. On mine they started about 65%, no way that i can keep down to 50%. Gonna try blending them up a to see if I can keep a little more.

Pretty impressed with it so far, 10 more gallons are bubbling away in the fermenter. Yeast Bomb is crazy. Ferment starts in about an hour. Ferments hard, real hard, for about 2 days. On second thought, that might explain the tails. I am gonna try some experiments with some of the final product with "The Panty Dropper" but with less sugar. Might come out interesting.

hi guys,
Just trying this recipe for the first time. I started my 2x 20litre buckets with a starting gravity of 1.115, with 3kg raw sugar and 4kg mollasses. really high i know, i obviously made a mistake then ran out of room to water it down. Anyway, it started really well and in 3 days it was down to 1.040, its now 6 days in and down to 1.030. I only used Bakers yeast and by my calculations it is now at a bit over 11%abv.

Question: Should I add ec1118 yeast to finish it off, of just leave it for another week or so as is. I know the bakers yeast is at its limits.

thanks in advance

p.s. The only thing i didnt include in my wash was the fertiliser, nor did i use any dap

While others here have more experience than myself, if it's no longer bubbling, I'll bet it's done. I've run quite a bit of rum and it never zeros out. The SG of the rum tends to give a false high reading. 1.030 is pretty common. I say let it settle out and run it.

Hi guys,
thanks for all your help, now I have a new issue.

Started stripping my wash and its started puking a few litres into the run, its still going as i type...
I turned off the heat and left it for a bit then turned it back on but its still doing it, i dont have a voltage controller to lower the heat. question is will this be ok to put in with the spirit run?
I am only doing one strip then a spirit run so I was think of using a bit of dunder to top up the stripped run anyway.

again, Thanks in advance

this is my setup if its any help

EDIT.
its actually stopped puking now to i just have about 3-4litres of contaminated wines

nzl.james wrote:Hi guys,
thanks for all your help, now I have a new issue.

Started stripping my wash and its started puking a few litres into the run, its still going as i type...

puking.jpg

I turned off the heat and left it for a bit then turned it back on but its still doing it, i dont have a voltage controller to lower the heat. question is will this be ok to put in with the spirit run?
I am only doing one strip then a spirit run so I was think of using a bit of dunder to top up the stripped run anyway.

again, Thanks in advance

this is my setup if its any help

2011-12-08 18.13.17.jpg

EDIT.
its actually stopped puking now to i just have about 3-4litres of contaminated wines

You need a smaller boiler charge in there James.

1/2 full with rum. Or i've been told you can drop in some butter or oil to help prevent foaming.

I'm back on making rum at the moment and am not worrying about the puking while i strip it - like you i intend to add some aged dunder to my spirit run anyways so i figure that some puking now will just add additional flavor!

As Frozen says, smaller boiler charge in the future - ~75% volume works for me. The rum wash is extremely prone to puking so you will need to be very attentive when you are driving the boil. Some boiler chips (pieces of copper, marbles, etc) may help too.

Good luck!

yea i put 40litres into my ~50litre keg and was obvoiusly a little bit too much... lesson learned.

i stripped the 40l and got ~11litres of low wines to do the spirit run

Hi All Rum Makers
Help required. I made up Puigi'g recipe to the letterbut it seems it will not drop below 1020. Starting gravity was 1075 using Lincoln Molasses with 40% sugar (its on google). Can anyone advise. Or do I just run it as it is. Or chuck it out alltogether. Any info very much appreciated.
Regards
Patch

Patch don't worry about it. There is a fair amount of unfermentable stuff in molasses. If you are down to 1020 you are doing fine, just run it.

I've been wanting to do another Pugirum wash, but the place I was getting the 20-0-0 is no longer in business, and no other place around here sells it. I found a place that has 21-0-0, think that might work?

zouthernborne wrote:I've been wanting to do another Pugirum wash, but the place I was getting the 20-0-0 is no longer in business, and no other place around here sells it. I found a place that has 21-0-0, think that might work?

The 21-0-0 is functionally identical to the 20-0-0... The main thing you would be watching for is large numbers for the other two N-P-K components...

Greatly appreciate the info, rad. I'll order some and get my next gen of pugirum going.

Well I guess it's time to make some rum.

I found a good source for feedstock unsulphered molasses at 20 cents a pound, so roughly $2.40 a gallon. All I have to do is bring my own 5 gallon bucket.

I too can not seem to find 20-0-0. Wally World has 8-0-0 liquid fertilizer, not the bone marrow stuff. Just use twice as much?

I plan to clarify my molasses. Since this molasses is lower in sugar content should I: 1-use a little more than 2 gallons of molasses, 2-add a little extra brown sugar, or 3-just leave it alone and run with it just the way it is.

One more question. I don't have any rum dunder, but I do have some sweet feed dunder. What do you guys think about adding that to the rum wash, or should I just start from scratch with no dunder first time around.

This recipe was designed around feed molasses. Just leave it the way it is. You might come in a tad lower on ABV at worst. But lower ABV usually means more flavor. No need to be greedy with rum. It'll soon become and obsession and you'll have more than you know what to do with out in the shed. And since this recipe is usually done in 2 or 3 days, you're not going to run out of rum if you knock them up one right after another and just keep the washes going.

Thanks Zouth.

One last question.

I'm trying to make this exactly by the recipe. Does it matter if it's fresh, canned, or frozen pineapple for the flavoring part? I'm assuming fresh is best, but what if I can't get it right now?

Yee Haa!

Stripped my first batch of Pugirum. Did it fast and furious like it says.

Followed the recipe as close to a T as I could.

Could not find 20-0-0 so I used a product from miracle grow. It's an organic 8-0-0 made from beet molasses. I doubled the amount since it was half as strong. Everything else was exact.

I like the flavor of what came through and am really looking forward to the spirit run, once I get enough low wines built up.

Thanks to all the folks who share so much knowledge.

Like someone else said in a post I read. (wish I could find it so I could give them credit). I can't believe I waited until I was 50 to start this great hobby, I'm having a blast.

Esterification:

Should I do a bunch of reflux on the stripping runs or would it be fine to just reflux for an hour on the spirit run? Thanks

Sounds great and I'm planning a batch or 2.
I can't get molassas here but I have taken 3 gal of raw juice of sugar cane and simmered it down to 2 galons. If I went further I guess I would have molasses.
Hard to get 20-0-0 fert here also. will tomato paste work as well?

Officially starting my 6th generation of Pugirum tonight. I swear the flavor gets better with each batch. I had a nice shot of white dog from a center jar on the 5th gen's spirit run, and it was beautiful. Pugi, your work brings a tear to my eye...

1) Do you add the rum oils to your final product or do you just colect collect collect until they spill into your hearts

2) I have now started doing 40 gallon washes but with this rum oils thing is it better to do small 5-10 gallon washes and save up the rum oils for further distills or do the reg 40 gallons I have been doing

I assume you do a strip run without making cuts then a spirit run making cuts and this is when the oils are collected, so if this is the case it would be better to do small runs adding back into the oils if in fact you dont add the rum oils to the finished product

it wont let me edit........ 3 questions....

1) do you add the rum oils to your final product?
2) do you still get rum oils with claridfied blackstrap?

3) when you clarify the blackstrp and you take it off the sediment...you used double the water for 1 gallon of blackstrap... does those 2 gallons now take the place of that 1 original gallon of molassus.... ie in the original recipe it called for 2 gallons of blackstrap...if I clarified it do I now use 4 gallons of the clarified liquid or just the 2 gallons it originally called for

Thanks

This was my first run of Pugirum, but it tasted suspiciously like...

Shine.

I was expecting molasses or rum or something but I wound up with shine.

crtbc wrote:it wont let me edit........ 3 questions....

1) do you add the rum oils to your final product?
2) do you still get rum oils with claridfied blackstrap?

3) when you clarify the blackstrp and you take it off the sediment...you used double the water for 1 gallon of blackstrap... does those 2 gallons now take the place of that 1 original gallon of molassus.... ie in the original recipe it called for 2 gallons of blackstrap...if I clarified it do I now use 4 gallons of the clarified liquid or just the 2 gallons it originally called for

Thanks

crtbc wrote: 1) do you add the rum oils to your final product?

Rum oils go in the boiler when you are distilling, NOT into the final product (distilled spirit).

crtbc wrote: 2) do you still get rum oils with claridfied blackstrap?

Yes. What is referred to as rum oils is just a small cut of your tails.

crtbc wrote: 3) when you clarify the blackstrp and you take it off the sediment...you used double the water for 1 gallon of blackstrap... does those 2 gallons now take the place of that 1 original gallon of molassus.... ie in the original recipe it called for 2 gallons of blackstrap...if I clarified it do I now use 4 gallons of the clarified liquid or just the 2 gallons it originally called for

The 2 gallon resulting from clarifying the molasses should be broken down as 1 gallon of molasses and 1 gallon of water, not 2 gallons of (clarified) molasses.

This is a great recipe and makes an excellent deep/heavy rum.

Good luck!

At first I thought it tasted like shine, then I got over my virus. Now it tastes like rum! Really good! This is my favorite recipe so far, and I've only run off one generation. In a couple days I should be able to run off #2 and #3, and start to get some nice production going.

Help!!! My mash is bubbling ( theres bubbles coming through the airlock but thats all, none inside the carboy) but its not the (buy a good mop) type of action that pugi described.

1. I followed Pugi's recipe but i didnt have epsom salt, fertilizer, or the vitamin B, i did have Fermax so i used that with the directed amounts from the package.

2. I used Grade A molasses so i did not clarify it. Is this ok?

3. When i rehydrated the yeast (Red Star Bakers yeast ) I split it in half and poured water into the first half and within 10 min it looked like bread dough, so i threw that in the carboy and didnt rehydrate the second half. ( just threw it in dry).

Can anyone please help on where i went wrong?


Thanks,

WITco