Rum question

pothead · Post by **pothead** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:58 am

I prefer a heavy flavored & bodied rum. Do any of you have any suggestions for a recipe and/or when to make the cuts ? So far I have tried 1 gallon fancy molasess 5 lbs white sugar to a 5 gallon batch and it always ends up tasting pretty light.

I was wondering if blackstrap makes a more flavorfull product? Or maybe using more molasess and less sugar, or maybe using brown sugar instead of white sugar?

I'd love some suggestions from the experienced folk around here. Thanks

~Pot

Watershed · Post by **Watershed** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:15 am

I use just plain molasses ( horse feed grade ) for a heavy rum - no added sugar, there's plenty in molasses. For a lighter rum - the 'rhum agricole' style I use plain muscavado sugar, someone told be you can't get it in the states - it's the nearly black soft, stuff, basicaly just boiled down and strained cane juice, no refinement. I might added some black treacle to that too at a ratio of 4:1 muscavado:treacle, it brings in some of that heady almost plasticy smell to the distillate.

On the reasoning that it was used in refining and would have been present in the waste ( ie rum wash ), I also sometimes add blood to a heavy rum wash - I cure my own beef and use the liquid from the sugar rub in the wash.
Lime juice was also often added to bring the wash pH down, it works out at about one lime per gallon if I worked it out right. Some rum distlleries also used the spent wash fromt he previous run in their fermentation - up to about 20% of the total volume in some cases.
Watershed.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:44 am

I also use feed molasses for rum .What i get 1 gallon molasses = 5lbs sugar. I use 2 gallons molasses 20 lb sugar boiled in water 1/2 cup lime juice in a 13 gallon wash.I use around 1 oz distillers yeast prestarted in wash Damn sight wont let me sign in lol later tater

Uncle Remus · Post by **Uncle Remus** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 7:36 am

Just put down a rum wash yesterday. 4 liters of feed molassis, 10 kilos of sugar, with water total volume of the wash is about 55 liters. Used 1 package of distillers yeast and thouroughly airated the wash.

This is only my second time making rum, the first time I used 2 litres of fancy molassis and brown sugar. The rum turned out very nice. I hope this wash turns out as good.

junkyard dawg · Post by **junkyard dawg** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:07 am

Been doin this for a while... Half a sack of dried mollases boiled up with about 10 gallons of water for a few minutes (keep stirring, it'll burn easy) and then filtered of all the crap in there. I then use that syrup with sugar in various ratios to make a wash at about 1.07 OG. Half and half syrup and sugar makes a heavy rum. Pitch a lot of bakers yeast, it'll take off like a turbo. This recipe has always been pretty rough, but it makes pretty good rum after a little practice. Just have to be sure to boil that mollases syrup good to kill all the bugs and wild yeasties in it... it will start fermenting without adding yeast if you don't.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 8:56 am

feed molasses here is 10 cents a lb 12 lb in a gallon.Cheap and ready to use. tater

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:25 am

The Grandmas is about $7.00/gallon for me. It might look a little weird for me to walk into a feed store (if I can find one around here) I would stick out like a broken toe. What animals feed off of molasess anyway? (so that I don't sound as out of place as I will look).

And do you think that the feed molasses will give me a fuller flavored rum than the grandma's stuff?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:26 am

That was me again (I thought I was logged in)

Pothead

pothead · Post by **pothead** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:32 pm

Hey.
Thanks for the input fellas.
I had a gallon of Grandmas sittin here, So I'm Tryin again with 1 gallon to 6 lbs Brown Beet sugar. I think I was probably cuttin to tails too soon. I'm gonna give it a try cuttin to tails between 90-80 proof. If that don't do what I want then I'm gonna try some blackstrap.

Watershed · Post by **Watershed** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:43 pm

molasses is usualy an additive to horse feed.

You don't find brown beet sugar or beet molasses over here - I've been wondering if it existed. Looks like I'll have to grow some sugarbeet.
Watershed

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:51 pm

I found what I thought was regular brown sugar for 1.22 a 2 lb bag (and then I looked and it said it was beet sugar). If it works ok for me, I might just grow some sugar beets next year.

Uncle Remus · Post by **Uncle Remus** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 3:05 pm

The feed molasses we just bought cost $12 for 20 kg. The fancy molasses in the grocery store costs about $6 for a liter. This feed molasses doesn't look or taste any different. On the label it says 40% sugar inverted. Not sure what the inverted means. I know some fellows were talking about sulfur in feed molassis, but at least on the label it doesn't say anything about additives, all it had is feeding instructions.

We'll see what happens I guess , our first batch was made with fancy and is very good, I hope this batch turns out as good.

pothead · Post by **pothead** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:19 pm

Hey Remus

let me know what you think about the difference between the fancy and the feed.

Watershed · Post by **Watershed** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 1:10 am

Uncle Remus wrote:On the label it says 40% sugar inverted. Not sure what the inverted means.

standard beet/cane sugar is sucrose which is basicaly a dimer of fructose and glucose. Inverted sugar is sugar that has been split from sucrose to free fructose and glucose ( which is what bees do to the sucrose in nectar ), it's easier for yeast to metabolise so ferments a little faster.

You can achieve the same ends by boiling sucrose with something like citric acid. Most turbo yeasts have invertase present in the mix for the same purpose.

The name 'inverted sugar' comes from the effect on polarised light - sucrose rotates plane polarised light in the opposite direction to inverted sugar.

I bet you'll sleep more easily now that you know that...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 3:23 am

Great info, Thanks watershed.

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 3:42 am

theholymackerel wrote:If yer not gettin' enough flavor from that recepie then yer probably cuttin' to tails too soon. Try cuttin' to tails at a lower proof.

I don't know at what proof you switch from body to tails, but I usually switch at about 90 proof.

You could try Rafael Arroyo's cuts.
http://distillers.tastylime.net/library/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Look under 'Articles'. "Production of Heavy Rum" by Rafael Arroyo

Uncle Remus · Post by **Uncle Remus** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 10:29 am

Watershed wrote:
Uncle Remus wrote:On the label it says 40% sugar inverted. Not sure what the inverted means.
standard beet/cane sugar is sucrose which is basicaly a dimer of fructose and glucose. Inverted sugar is sugar that has been split from sucrose to free fructose and glucose ( which is what bees do to the sucrose in nectar ), it's easier for yeast to metabolise so ferments a little faster.

You can achieve the same ends by boiling sucrose with something like citric acid. Most turbo yeasts have invertase present in the mix for the same purpose.

The name 'inverted sugar' comes from the effect on polarised light - sucrose rotates plane polarised light in the opposite direction to inverted sugar.

I bet you'll sleep more easily now that you know that...

Thank for the expanation Watershed- Good information

Post by **Tater** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 9:07 pm

could try Rafael Arroyo's cuts.
http://distillers.tastylime.net/library/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Look under 'Articles'. "Production of Heavy Rum" by Rafael Arroyo[/quote] Harry Id read this before.Now thats a process

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 6:24 pm

Just got done reading that. Thanks for the link. Although alot of that is pretty extreme, I'm glad I read it, it answered a few questions that I had about using feed.