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Starting this tread to document my northern rum experiment. What is northern rum you ask? Since sugar cane doesn't grow in the northern latitude this will be a "rum" made with sorghum cane syrup.

This year I planted Dale variety of sorghum. Not as tall as other but good yield of juice at a bit over 13 brix. Because my press is small it is an all day process to press out even 7 gallons of juice. I smoked a brisket and drank beer to pass the time. Boiled down to just short of a gallon of syrup. Given what I have from the previous two years I have about 2.25 gallons to make a "rum" with. I may add a bit of honey to boost the volume.

Following with interest. I just sowed some sorghum as an experimental decorative plant for our garden.

Why did you reduce it to a syrup? A Brix of 13 sounds good enough for me to want to ferment it straight off the press.

I would have thought the same, just ferment the juice and save the extra work,.

Very interesting. I'll have to see if that would grow in my area.
According to Wikipedia ferments up to 9%abv are achieveable from just the juice.

Already found some locally that looks promising!
If a variety is called honey drip it should be good, right?

How many plants did you need for that 7 gallons?

NZChris wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 10:53 pm Following with interest. I just sowed some sorghum as an experimental decorative plant for our garden.

Why did you reduce it to a syrup? A Brix of 13 sounds good enough for me to want to ferment it straight off the press.

Still working on my new still build mostly. That and this time of year with honey to harvest and apples after that, I just don't have time to be fermenting as well. And one last reason is my dad likes sorghum syrup so I like to make a quart to give him.

With this variety being that high of sugar I would like to try fermenting straight from the press at some point in the future. Perhaps another thread in a couple of years.

Corsaire wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 1:12 am Already found some locally that looks promising!
If a variety is called honey drip it should be good, right?

How many plants did you need for that 7 gallons?

I will have to see if I can find seed for honey drip. I like to only plant one variety at a time and have been concentrating on open pollinated so I can save seeds. But I could do alternating years and still be able to save seed.

To answer your question plant spacing was 1 ft apart and I had 4 rows, 17 to 18 ft each. Each plant sends up multiple stalks.

I got a line on some fresh sorghum juice about 90min from me. It’s green right off the press and he pasteurizes it which also changes it from green to brown with some maillard to store before turning into syrup. I’m going to see if I can line up six buckets / 30 gallons to do a sorghum agricole run. Might be able to get it unpasteurized too if I can coordinate a harvest day for pickup. We haven’t discussed pricing yet so we’ll see. 30g might turn into 10g lol.

Cheers,
-j

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 6:20 am I got a line on some fresh sorghum juice about 90min from me. It’s green right off the press and he pasteurizes it which also changes it from green to brown with some maillard to store before turning into syrup. I’m going to see if I can line up six buckets / 30 gallons to do a sorghum agricole run. Might be able to get it unpasteurized too if I can coordinate a harvest day for pickup. We haven’t discussed pricing yet so we’ll see. 30g might turn into 10g lol.

Cheers,
-j

Feel free to post details on this thread if you get to run with that. Would love to hear how it works.

subbrew wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:26 am

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 6:20 am I got a line on some fresh sorghum juice about 90min from me. It’s green right off the press and he pasteurizes it which also changes it from green to brown with some maillard to store before turning into syrup. I’m going to see if I can line up six buckets / 30 gallons to do a sorghum agricole run. Might be able to get it unpasteurized too if I can coordinate a harvest day for pickup. We haven’t discussed pricing yet so we’ll see. 30g might turn into 10g lol.

Cheers,
-j

Feel free to post details on this thread if you get to run with that. Would love to hear how it works.

Thanks Subbrew! I'm planning to pick up 30g juice weekend after next for $100 - Expected brix is 14-18. Not sure whether I should go with unpasteurized straight off the press or pasteurized... I'll start the ferment right away so I'm leaning towards straight off the press but need to do some more research! Gotta get my buckets in order and may lean towards 45 gallons to get three strips or so plus some top-up and maybe "dunder" for spirit run..

I'll share fotos if I can get em!

Cheers!
-j

EDIT:
A little more info -
This variety is "Dale Sorghum".
Fresh juice brix is expected to be 14-18 brix and is green when fresh.
When they make syrup it is cooked down 10:1 with expected brix of 80-82 brix and used like molasses syrup on hot biscuits.

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Tue Aug 31, 2021 10:33 am
Thanks Subbrew! I'm planning to pick up 30g juice weekend after next for $100 - Expected brix is 14-18.

aaaauugggg! All the time growing, cutting and juicing I put in and I get 7 gal worth $23. Just a bit jealous here.

Just dropping some research notes here for reference and further reading later...

https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtop ... =40&t=6931

Hey Subbrew, did you ferment some of this? Wondering whether it clears or how much sediment it drops and how active of a ferment it is.

The fraulein and I are off work next Friday for a day ride to the sorghum farm. I’m thinking eight or nine buckets for the 55g fermenter and a jar or two of bakers yeast will give three strips and some fresh to top up the spirit run.

A 10:1 reduction to syrup prices out to $33.33 per gallon vs $25 per gallon for pure cane syrup. I don’t know enough about sorghum to understand why it demands the higher price over sugar cane. Interested in following this thread.

Brewing raw sorghum juice would give you a beverage more similar to Cachaça than Rum. Seem to be very different things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacha%C3%A7a

Or Rhum Agricole / Sorghum Agricole
https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.php/Rhum_Agricole
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhum_agricole

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Sat Sep 04, 2021 7:06 am Hey Subbrew, did you ferment some of this? Wondering whether it clears or how much sediment it drops and how active of a ferment it is.

The fraulein and I are off work next Friday for a day ride to the sorghum farm. I’m thinking eight or nine buckets for the 55g fermenter and a jar or two of bakers yeast will give three strips and some fresh to top up the spirit run.

I have not fermented any. Been raising it for 3 years and making syrup. Have a couple of gallons of syrup now which I will ferment this winter

subbrew wrote: ↑Tue Sep 07, 2021 9:35 pm

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Sat Sep 04, 2021 7:06 am Hey Subbrew, did you ferment some of this? Wondering whether it clears or how much sediment it drops and how active of a ferment it is.

The fraulein and I are off work next Friday for a day ride to the sorghum farm. I’m thinking eight or nine buckets for the 55g fermenter and a jar or two of bakers yeast will give three strips and some fresh to top up the spirit run.

I have not fermented any. Been raising it for 3 years and making syrup. Have a couple of gallons of syrup now which I will ferment this winter

Is it easy to extract the juice? What do you use?

NZChris wrote: ↑Tue Sep 07, 2021 11:12 pm
Is it easy to extract the juice? What do you use?

I used but hooked up to a motor. so it is easy enough but slow, very slow

I missed out on one of the extremely rare opportunities in NZ to buy a second hand one of those
I had quite a good crop of sugar cane at the time.

Would sorghum be as tough to crush as sugar cane?

I don't think sorghum is as "hard" to crush. I have had little sugar cane experience but what I saw in Mexico the stalk was harder. Sorghum is smaller in diameter and seems to have a softer outer cover. But sugar cane has more juice, at least compared to my sorghum grown in a dry region.

My little machine only allows one or two stalks at a time. I need some 8 in diameter rollers, perhaps 16 inches long so I would feed in 8 or 10 stalks at a time. I think some heavy wall well casing would work but I would need to be precise in welding a shaft down the center so there was little to no out of concentric motion to cause the gap to vary. I don't have the skills or tools to be that precise.

On the road with 11 empty five gallon buckets/jugs!

45 gallons sorghum cane juice fresh pressed straight from the field. Thick, green, sticky, and sweet. I might check brix, SG, and pH once I get the buckets moved into the cellar and into the fermenter a bit later. Need to pick up a jar of yeast but might wait a couple days to let the natural yeasties get a good start. Maybe i’ll build up a separate bakers yeast starter bucket for 2-3 days adding a little juice in each day while the natural yeasties kick off the big party then bang the starter in to take over and finish. Reckon i’ll try to bring temp up to about 85*F if I can.

The press machine pulled by the tractor turns these canes into fibrous material and the juice extracts into the big 1000gallon tank. They’ll pasteurize the 1000g overnight @ 160*F and cook it down into syrup tomorrow. It caramelizes and maillardizes when processed.

The guys were super cool and like “are you making shine?” I explained that i’m doing a mead-like experiment wink wink.

Cheers!
-j

Very cool Jonny.

Thanks Chris! I’m excited and happy that I was able to do it this year right at harvest. I’ve been wanting to connect up with fresh juice for a few years now
Got everything set last night. Starting gravity on the juice is about 1.060. Wrapped and heating pads in place but it was up to 85*F on its own pretty quick.


A local craft distillery (250gallon copper four plater) makes a sorghum spirit called golden biscuit (lightly oaked) and naked biscuit (white). I prefer the white but had about one glass left of their oaked product last night. Coincidentally this distillery uses the same farm to supply their sorghum syrup that I hooked up with. I can confirm however that they use the reduced syrup - not fresh juice.



Starter is started. Re-Hydrated about 2-3 ounces of bakers in 1/2 gallon warm water then 1/2 liter juice to get them going. I’ll add some more juice to the starter later tonight and maybe into a larger bucket and more in the AM.

I am concerned about fermenter headspace so will split maybe 10g into the 20g brute for confidence for a couple days.

Tasted a small glass of somewhat cleared juice for breakfast and this stuff is good! Slight citrus tang, grassy, sweet. I’m keeping a jar in the fridge for other uses for a week or so if it lasts that long.

Does the commercial stuff taste like rum?
I'm hoping the fresh juice turns out great for you

It’s definitely in the rum family but different. I haven’t made any rums yet and have been looking at some panela and molasses to make some down the road a bit when this opportunity sorta developed quickly.

Well it's grass isn't it?

And sugar cane is a grass too....

Geoff

Wow! I pitched the starter yesterday late afternoon and the yeasties kicked it up to 98*F all by themselves AND dropped 50 gravity points overnight. They certainly appear to like the juice!

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 7:14 am Wow! I pitched the starter yesterday late afternoon and the yeasties kicked it up to 98*F all by themselves AND dropped 50 gravity points overnight. They certainly appear to like the juice!

Sounds like you got a nice ferment going. How is the ph doing?