Excellent result with aged dunder

[clarkee142]

Having read of the benifits of using dunder I started with a wash of Billingtons molassis, white sugar, honey and golden syrup. The "rum" it produced was OK and had a nice nose. With the remains from the still I then started a "dunder pit" which I let sit outside in the heat for two months while I started another identical wash. Came distillation day I added about 5% volume from the aged dunder and the results are amazing. The nose on the distillate is extremely fruity and aromatic and I am amazed that that degree of nose can be achieved from sugars. I now have 30 litres of the distillate which is in a charred cask along with a little Maple syrup, which I will leave for 1-2 years in my cellar. I am very pleased with the results and attribute this improved nose and flavour to the dunder as it was not present on the first batch into which I did not add dunder. The fruity aroma I guess is the formation of esters etc from the decomposition of the dunder by the bacteria. I did not add dunder to my fermenting wash but simply added it to the still along with the wash in the distill immediately before commencing distillation.
The dunder pit looks terrible with a thick, floating solid mass on top but I utilised the dirty looking liquid under this and did not remove the floating mass but left it for the next time. I now have about 80 litres of dunder which should suffice for a long time.
Many thanks guys for all the terrific advice, most helpful and benifical.

Nazdrave (cheers in Bulgarian)

[The Baker]

Others will know more about this than me, but I think your barrel might be better kept in a warm-to-hot place, and especially if the temperature has variations.
Of course you may not have another place available and it should be fine.

[clarkee142]

The baker,
Yes the dunder drum is outside and we are currently having temperatures of about 32 deg C (90 deg F) at the moment so plenty of scope for bacterial growth. Maybe when the temps drop in autumn I will put it in the shed where its cool but stable all year.
But I am very impressed with the results and the addition of the dunder has GREATLY improved flavour and nose.

Nazdrave.

[mash rookie]

Your avitar is so wrong

[blind drunk]

Your avitar is so wrong

The flame should burn blue, that's what I read on HD

[clarkee142]

You are what you eat (or drink)

[zouthernborne]

I had a "dunder room" set up in my garage. Hung some dingy old blankets up to close in a corner of the room, and had a space heater with a thermostat set at 90F running. It was working pretty good, and had about two months going on my pit when the fruit flies found their way inside. I don't know how those little bastards find their way into places like that.... But I was beginning to have the bluish/white mold on top, and the smell was kind of sweet. I suppose I'll have to start all over with a new container. Sheesh...

[LWTCS]

You can aerate the dunder for a few minutes, then lock it down to keep the flys out.....I have found with the hot temps,,,you really don't need months to establish a good mold structure nor do you need to wait months before using the dunder.

[zouthernborne]

Do the fruit flies really matter? I mean, the dunder smells sweet, I can't really describe it right off hand, but it doesn't smell bad to MY nose. Any recommendations on what I should do with it?

[clarkee142]

I used to feel the same about the fruit flies but since I moved to Bulgaria I no longer have any concerns as they are extremely common here and they manage to infiltrate even the best seals on the wash. The locals never worry and I or then have never had any problems with losing a batch by turning to vinigar. So I would keep your dunder and see what happens. My dunder is FULL of them but they are full of vitamins! Hahahaha

[zouthernborne]

You've convinced me. I'm going to dump some into my spirit run.

[Odin]

Do you add dunder to your spirit run, or do you use dunder to start up a new fermentation?

[LWTCS]

I do both odin

[clarkee142]

So far I have only added dunder to the spirit run and not to the wash but then I am not too brave about adding heavily contaminated liquid to the wash as would hate to lose it. But having said that there are many brave souls like LWCTS who add the dunder to their wash and never have problems. I guess the bacteria are all the good type and dont cause any problems...I will try it after a few drinks.....nazdrave...............

[zouthernborne]

I'm ordering two gallons of molasses this week. I'm going to make a wash using the janky dunder. But I have some low wines I need to run, so I'm going to load my boiler with that too. Fun times to be had.

[HookLine]

Just discovered maggots and flies in my oldest dunder pit (beer keg). Yummy.

This pit was a bit over a year old, made with my best dunder (maybe 20 ferment cycles old), and had been coming along very nicely, went through all the stages others have described.

I had screened the top of the dunder pit pretty well (good enough to keep the maggots and flies inside the pit once they hatched out). But they must have laid their eggs through the screen to drop onto the dunder below. There is not a lot of them, so I guess they are recent arrivals. (The other two younger dunder pits seem maggot free so far, fingers crossed.)

Fortunately this pit was done anyway, and I got a whole bunch of molasses low wines sitting there for it. So I drained off and filtered the middle 1/3, and got about 13 litres. Very rich, complex, musty smell. I wouldn't call it 'nice', but it is not bad either.

Pretty excited about trying it. Been a long wait.


Questions for the experts on fully matured dunder:

1. How much do you use in the final spirit run? (as percent of boiler charge, 10%, 20%...?)

2. How do you store that precious middle 1/3 if you don't use it straight away? Just freeze it?

[RumBrewer]

The goal is good rum, but I'm not sure my wife can stand another experiment with mold, pelicle, mother or any other sort of growth!
She's already threatining me for the 2 batches of Kombucha on top of the fridge!

[LWTCS]

Hook I charge my thumper prolly bout 20-25% with dunder. I'd prolly save any to the fridge.