Rum Wash Correction

[CaymanRumBaron]

Hi Guys,

Not a newbie but still making newbie mistakes.

I did a rum wash as follows;

10 lbs demerera brown sugar
4 lbs panela (brick sugar)
2 bottles of grandmas fancy molasses (12 oz each)
8 tablespoons of bakers yeast

Added water to 25 liters. My initial hydrometer reading was 1.110. I never paid much attention to the gravity as my regular washes start at 1.100 and end fine. When I checked the calculator on the site, it said I had a potential of 16.5% ABV. Wow, way too high. Especially for bakers yeast

I am pondering diluting the wash by adding 5 liters more water 3 days in as the bucket has room and the wash is not that aggressive. That should bring the potential down to around 14% ABV and hopefully avoid a stuck fermentation.

Let me know what you guys think about diluting a wash after it has started.

[blind drunk]

My only question is, why wait three days? I always make my corrections right away. Probably better for the yeast if it knows what its task at hand is, but I only surmise. Good luck, bd.

[kiwistiller]

I'm not really good with the oz and so on, but remember there will be unfermentables in your molasses that will bump up the OG. But yeah, that still looks pretty high, I'd split it and add water to bring it down a lot further to something like 10%.

edit - TO 10% not than 10%. sorry.

[CaymanRumBaron]

Well the recipe was modified from the one I usually do cuz I the new one is cheaper and the store was out of blackstrap. I guess I got carried away cuz I spent the same amount of money and got more and better quality fermentables (panela and fancy vs blackstrap).

I also wasnt too worried about the extra gravity because I know rum washs are tricky when it come to gravities since they never really get past 1.000 or atleast mine havent (some of mine has stopped at 1.010 after two weeks).

Hopefully I can add the 5 liters and get away without too much damage.

[kiwistiller]

You could look into stepped addition in future if you want to push for higher ABV. See Harrys GGGP Rum in t&t for inspiration.

[CaymanRumBaron]

Thks Kiwi,

I would try to go that low but I dont have another bucket to spare.

Those fluid ounces got me too. Since fancy is around 12.5 lbs (or 200 avoirdupois ounces)per gallon and there are 128 fluid ounces to a gallon, that means 1 fluid ounce of fancy molasses actually weighs around 1.56 ounces.

Therefore, since fancy is pretty much all sugar, that means that the 24 fluid ounces of molasses were actually 37 ounces or 2.3 pounds of sugar equivalent.

[kiwistiller]

pounds are no better for me, but I'll take your word for it

[LWTCS]

Hi CRB

I find that when inverting panela, that there is enough of that sweet molassas thang happening that spending the extra mony on molassas is not nessesary.

We have a new vender in town and panela is down to a dollar a pound. And it is the smaller pucks so inverting is easier/faster too.

I use 10 pounds of panela, 5 liters of dunder, 20 liters of water and 4 oz. of bakers yeast.

I never worry about adjusting my water or adding additional nutrients.
Ferments are very steady and take a bit more than a week.

[CaymanRumBaron]

Thank LWTCS, Sounds pretty good for a $10 dollar recipe. I did not invert the sugar though I just dissolved it. I also added 10 liters of dunder from my previous run and saved the tails to add to the next boil.

Also I topped up my fermenter to 30 liters and the gravity dropped 0.020 points to 1.050 and still bubbling away nicely. Will keep my eye on it

Going to try that inversion thing and see how it works as I have had some real vigorous ferments when I have boiled my sugar trying to dissolve it. Does the lime juice enhance the taste of the distillate in any way, I mean can you tell its in there?

[LWTCS]

I'm not using lemon. And there ain't enough citrus to carry over for flavor.

Also, be mindful when boiling your panela. It can foam up real good. Slowish kind of simmer is better.

Add a bit of water to your pot and start with just a few pucks first then add as more liquid accumulates. Stir frequently.

[CaymanRumBaron]

I asssume your using some type of acid for your inversion then LWTCS?

The wash is still bubbling away, lastnights reading was 1.025. The ambient temperature has dropped considerably though as we are in the middle of hurricane season and have a cold front (lots of rain and wind) over us at the moment.

Outside temperature is around 75 degrees and the ferment temperature is around 80 degrees which might explain the sluggishness. I was hoping to be able to distill the wash this weekend but it will proably be next week before it drys out properly.