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I have read that a very quick fermentation of rum can give a sweeter flavour to the rum.

Can anyone vouch for this? It's supposed to bring out vanilla and chocolate style sweet flavours!!

I have just put my second rum wash down and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations.

I have read a little about yeast bombs and starters. Not sure what the difference is Bloodly noobies!!

Ta

Dunno about that - rums usually run fast as it is ... I have had them finish in 72 hours in the summer ... bombs and starters are similar - designed to quickly get the yeast colony up to fight off infection and/or speed up the initial start of fermentation. Starters are usually just some warm water and sugar, Bombs are loaded with nutrients to speed up development more

I've had rum finish in 3 days and ones that have taken 3 weeks in the winter (small ferments) and haven't noticed a difference.

It would come down to the generation, cuts and ageing processes more so than the speed of the ferment. If anything the fast ferment would produce more undesirable flavours I would think

To get the most rumy esters - flavors out of a rum ferment it needs to run hot which also tends to mean running fast. My best so far have come from using dried bakers yeast fermenting above 35C / 95F.

Cheers folks, Hmmm, interesting. Mixed reviews. I have a heater blanket attached to my fermenter so It is regulated to about 28*C. I can increase temp if required.

Should I increase the ferment temp?

I have bought some DAP and some Vitamin B complex tablets to add to the next wash. Is anything else recommended? Also, what quantities?

I think the water plays a big factor as well.
I think if you have good well or spring water it will ferment faster than city/chlorinated water.
Thats just my gut feeling at the moment, I am going to go get 30 gallons of spring water and see if my Ferments go faster

I can increase temp if required.

Personalty I would leave this one to ferment out as it is, maybe if you are using bread yeast run the next rum ferment hotter and see if you can taste a difference.

I have bought some DAP and some Vitamin B complex tablets to add to the next wash. Is anything else recommended? Also, what quantities?

I like to also add a pinch of Epsom salt (30l wash) and if you are not already using dunder some citric acid to get the pH down

Your best of choosing one of the tried and proven recipees and following it to the letter for the first few times then get creative

The most recognizable rums are from the tropics. Need to replicate that environment.

Rafael Arroyo does specify fermentation temps within his paper how ever.

LWTCS wrote:The most recognizable rums are from the tropics. Need to replicate that environment.

Rafael Arroyo does specify fermentation temps within his paper how ever.

Just did a search for Rafael arroyo. Intersting paper. Just glanced over it. Will give it a read when I have the time.

So what do recipes do people use for their yeast bombs?

???????????

Dap
Yeast
Citric acid ( if using dunder)
Vitamin B tablet


??????????

I never use a starter because I am mostly lazy.
I simply hydrate by sprinkling on top.
I pitch at 90 or so degrees and it fires pretty quick.
I'll lock it down within 45 minutes or so and let it work off for two days before I think about it again.
By the time I do get back to degassing and then racking and running, it's been a week.

So easy a cave man could do it.

LWTCS has the right of it.
The only thing I would add to your list is yeast hulls, (or you could just boil up some bakers yeast). rum washes tend to ferment out pretty quick anyway with out to much help from all the additives.

If you get it going to fast you just spend a lot of time cleaning the garage floor

Most rum distilleries have a combination of dunder, which contains a lot of ester-producing yeast and bacteria, with high temperature tropical climates and generally fresher cane products/byproducts. And then they age the rum in that environment.

What LWTCS said - I never bomb or start anything, I mix, get the SG where I want, and simply overpitch directly to the wash ...

You think the pirates used yeast bombs and starters?

Arroyo used a specific strain of yeast and bacteria for his process, this is why he specified temperatures to use for different stages; those are the temperatures at which those yeast/bacteria produced the best results. You need to match your ferment temperature to your yeast, finding the temperature at which your particular strain of yeast produces the esters you want.

Many people here use bread yeast, I think because it is inexpensive, widely available, and produces reliable results that people have liked.

For a rum, I think it is important to get a yeast that produces a lot of the type of esters that will be beneficial to rum. For example, there are some yeasts that produce esters that create banana and clove flavors. These combined with a good rum wash and (providing you don't use the bacteria specified in Arroyo) dunder will create an outstanding rum.

As for esters, there are ways to make yeast produce more of them. Here's a great article that discusses esters: http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/03/07/es ... r-brewing/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

If anyone can find the schizosaccharomyces and the clostridium saccharobutyricum that Arroyo recommends I think we'll all be able to exponentially improve our rum game. I've found a schozosaccharomyces pombe that is used in the wine industry for consuming malic acid, though I'm not sure if that will function as Arroyo recommends in his patent application. I've found that there are VERY few people that even know what a schizo is, and the only places I can find these two ingredients want about $300 for each of them, so until I get a 50 gal boiler and a couple more barrels that's out of my price range

Schizosaccharomyces is a morph of Saccharomyces. Producing excessive esters is a byproduct of its way of tolerating rising alcohol content. Take any yeast unfit for the job and "Stress" it, but in the presence of sufficient nutrients. It will give you similar results. This is why I recommend wild yeast strains for rum.

The pugirum recipe in Tried and True has a great yeast bomb recipe. I really like his whole recipe, actually.

If you want a sweet rum then don't add dunder to the next gen. Barbados has some of the nicest sweet rums and they don't use dunder. Take Larry and Doogies advice and keep it caveman simple. Compared to making AG whiskey, rum is bloody easy.

I think there's more to it than just stressing whatever yeast happens to fall into your fermenter. Anyone who has brewed beer can tell you that different strains of yeasts will produce wildly different flavors. For example, stressing out a champagne yeast is not going to give you the same flavor profile as the ester production from a hefeweizen yeast in happy conditions. Both will produce a lot of esters, but one will taste like the inside of your toilet bowl after taco night and the other will be a hefeweizen.

I agree with Andy that rum is pretty easy to make on a base level, but there are some fairly simple steps that can be taken to make an awesome rum as compared to a good one. Just because our hobby allows us to beat commercial products with relative ease doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for making completely outstanding rums. I think it's worth the effort.