The ABV is roughly given by dividing the gravity drop by 7.5, so more like 4% at this point. For clean product (which seems to be what folks are chasing with the fancy molasses), I generally shoot for a drop of no more than 55 (7% ABV). The eruption was probably due to the mechanical act of adding fine particles to provide nucleation sites for dissolved CO2. It would be too soon for the enzyme to have done anything.trthskr4 wrote:My was is down from 1.09-1.06 this morning, not confident but I'm thinking that's roughly 5% alcohol so someone correct me if I'm wrong. It's slowed down a little so I added 1-1/2 Tbsp. GA-100 and stirred it in. There was no cap on the wash before but a couple seconds after stirring in the gluco it almost erupted with a foam cap, don't know why just reporting what happened.?
If as you said your molasses is half sugar, then you would expect a difference of about 5.5 lbs, which is roughly 2.3 kg, which is what you have. This assumes the molasses is completely soluble BTW. In 7.5 US galls, 5.5 lbs should result in a terminal gravity of about 30, just like you are predicting. The main question is what those non-fermentables in the molasses actually are. If they are some sort of higher-weight sugar like a dextrin, then these would be expected to ferment slowly during a secondary stage, and would respond to gluco or beta amylase treatment. If they are starch or protein, they might slowly settle out depending on their weight (like Barney suggested), except that starch would also respond to enzyme treatment. One obvious test is to wait for the gravity to drop below zero, give things a stir, then measure the gravity again. Yeast shouldn't affect the gravity reading because it is not soluble.trthskr4 wrote:So in my estimate there's alot of non fermentables in the wash, there's alot of difference in 6.8 kg and 4.5 kg and I don't think my scales were off that much. Am I on the right track thinking the wash should work down to around 1.02 or 1.03 and stop?
Right now I have 2 jars of about 560ml each @ 75%, one with 2 "lightly charred" and the other with 2 "heavy char" oak sticks. Red oak too, since I couldn't get white so hopefully I dind't make a complete mess of this. 
I was "testing" occasionally and must say I was not impressed. Thought I had too much heads, too much tails but figured I could drink pretty much anything with coke. Well, tonight I gave my wife a nightcap of some "professional" brandy and I decided I'd try a drop of my stuff with a bit of water in a brandy glass to see what time had wrought. First smell was interesting, sort of oaky, a little smoke, a little vanilla. Then the taste was completely unexpected, warm, smooth, like a nice scotch or maybe like a Maker's Mark...but not quite. It has a hint of the molasses that makes it a rum, and I'd say comparable to a premium rum. But I'm a bit biased. No trace of the heads and tails I thought had ruined it. Oak is amazing stuff.
STEELHEADER26
