I was curious if anyone had any new information regarding the TSC deer feed molasses (Evolved Habitats, now with propionic acid... ). I combed the forum and most of the info is from 2 years ago or later and most of that info was conflicting at best. Many said to boil with a little salt (the only time frame I could find was boil for 15-20 minutes), let cool to room temp and rack off the liquid for use. Some folks were just using it straight getting both good and no results. Some were "cleaning" is up with metal hydroxides...
SO...anyway. I have 3 gallons of this stuff and I was just curious. (The "not for human consumption" part isn't scaring me much...)
I used that exact same molasses. No problem at all with the proprionic acid. Make sure you make a yeast bomb and get ready to strip. It fermented down in 36-40 hours.
ss
So...not that I didn't believe you SS but I did my own little experiment because I didn't want to be stuck with 3 gallons of this stuff.
I mixed about a tablespoon of the molasses with 1/4 cup H20. Added a sprinkle of DAP and a B-vitamin. Threw in a bunch of Fleischmans and waited 15 minutes...
Your Propionic Acid is weak...
It's not the most vigorous but with all the nutrients I think it will be fine. The molasses smells just like the food grade blackstrap I bought before.
I just mixed a batch with that exact same stuff. Pondered for a spell over the acid (wasn't familiar with it in the least). Figgered if it was "acid" then maybe could neutralize it with couple spoons of baking soda. Mixed everything up and hit with the Pasteur blanc....nothing. Yeast bomb'ed it....still nothing. Bread yeast bomb..uh oh . Not sure if Molasses is slower to start than others or what. Turns out I shoulda read longer and I'd have known to use bread yeast to start with. Any rate, when it took off it hit the ground running and had the bubbler redlined the entire next day. So I guess the acid aint really a problem....
Patience....the early bird get's the worm, but the second rat get's the cheese.
hawgwrench wrote:I just mixed a batch with that exact same stuff. Pondered for a spell over the acid (wasn't familiar with it in the least). Figured if it was "acid" then maybe could neutralize it with couple spoons of baking soda. Mixed everything up and hit with the Pasteur blanc....nothing. Yeast bomb'ed it....still nothing. Bread yeast bomb..uh oh . Not sure if Molasses is slower to start than others or what. Turns out I shoulda read longer and I'd have known to use bread yeast to start with. Any rate, when it took off it hit the ground running and had the bubbler redlined the entire next day. So I guess the acid aint really a problem....
hawgwrench - I'm with ya. In the end I have about 10 gallons of this stuff that fermented to end about a week ago. It did take what seemed to be an eternity to get started... I blame the PA for this. I basically put a bunch of yeast in there to overpower the PA(that's how I think about it.). I plan on running it soon so we shall see what I get. The FG is around 1.06 and I'm not sure that's "real" or due to unfermentables and such. I will drop a line here when I finish it up.
Well... I just ran about 10 gallons of my "Habitats Rum" - that's what I'm calling it now ( I was going to go with Wild Kingdom but no one would get the reference and since Mutual of Omaha has stopped sponsoring TV...). Here are the details
First... I ran it in a pot still with the new pot still head I made for the Keg. Attached a 25 inch Liebig for condenser. Hit the keg with 2875W and let it warm up. Well... I found out that 25 inches of Liebig is not enough to cool 2875W worth of Habitats Rum - its a beast! So after the huffing and some of the actual molasses on the floor I finally got it under control.
This deer should be on the label!
I kicked back to 1500W and reigned in the Beast. Out of about 10 gallons of the wash I retrieved about 2 gallons of alcohol. It started collecting around 75% ABV and I finished it near 20% ABV when all I could taste was water practically.
I reek of bad molasses... the basement smells like the Habitat.... molasses. I've washed my hands at least 3 times and can still smell the molasses. It's like I'm running a sugar mill that caught fire...
I have only run Rum one other time and I do not exactly recall it being this pungent.... I could easily be mistaken. I will plan for a spirit run on this soon... I'm worried about getting the keg clean to be honest....
I will keep everyone posted on the Habitat Rum progress... I'm still not 100% sold on it yet but I'll keep pushing on. I wish I knew what Propionic Acid smelled like...from a distillation... Probably smells like fear and shame
rgreen2002 wrote:Well... I just ran about 10 gallons of my "Habitats Rum" - that's what I'm calling it now ( I was going to go with Wild Kingdom but no one would get the reference and since Mutual of Omaha has stopped sponsoring TV...).
rgreen2002 wrote:Well... I just ran about 10 gallons of my "Habitats Rum" - that's what I'm calling it now ( I was going to go with Wild Kingdom but no one would get the reference and since Mutual of Omaha has stopped sponsoring TV...).
I grew up watchin Lorne Green on Wild Kingdom
Nice... I'm glad to see someone got me. I watched Marlin Perkins every week! I can still hear the Mutual of Omaha jingle in my head.
Haus6565 wrote:Marlin: "I'm safely up here in the Jeep while Jim is over there messing with those lions" lol
- Marlin: "Good thing Jim has Mutual of Omaha Life insurance" "Mutual of Omaha is people, you can count on when you're mauled by lions"
But on a more pseudo-serious note- back to this damn Habitats Rum.
So the continuing saga that is this HR: I emptied out the boiler today and of course... the smell of molasses is enough to knock a man down. Whats interesting is that the entire keg is coated with what appears to be mud. I suspect this is just another Habitats gift... heavy cleaning. With this rum I fermented it on an angle and it had been done for over two weeks - airlocked in place. I racked it off the sludge and let it sit for almost 2 days and then racked it again through a 400 micron paint screener with 2 cheesecloth layers on top of that. I thought that should get rid of problems but no... the Beast is resillient.
I assume the Habitats mud is yeast, unfermentables and such. I'm glad my elements are removeable becasue they were caked with it. It rinsed off clean with no scorch though. The keg was painful. I know most folks will say they don't need a hand port (and for this reason I didn't put one in) but after the Beast... I wanted TWO hand ports! I got about 90% of it out with flushing and vigirous shaking. I was goung to get a spray nozzle in there but I think I got most of it out.
Now I do not recall this problem with my last rum - food grade molasses... not Habitats rum. Has this happened to anyone before? I cant really "clear" the molasses wash... can only guess at it as far as I know
Haus6565 wrote:Marlin: "I'm safely up here in the Jeep while Jim is over there messing with those lions" lol
- Marlin: "Good thing Jim has Mutual of Omaha Life insurance" "Mutual of Omaha is people, you can count on when you're mauled by lions"
But on a more pseudo-serious note- back to this damn Habitats Rum.
So the continuing saga that is this HR: I emptied out the boiler today and of course... the smell of molasses is enough to knock a man down. Whats interesting is that the entire keg is coated with what appears to be mud. I suspect this is just another Habitats gift... heavy cleaning. With this rum I fermented it on an angle and it had been done for over two weeks - airlocked in place. I racked it off the sludge and let it sit for almost 2 days and then racked it again through a 400 micron paint screener with 2 cheesecloth layers on top of that. I thought that should get rid of problems but no... the Beast is resillient.
I assume the Habitats mud is yeast, unfermentables and such. I'm glad my elements are removeable becasue they were caked with it. It rinsed off clean with no scorch though. The keg was painful. I know most folks will say they don't need a hand port (and for this reason I didn't put one in) but after the Beast... I wanted TWO hand ports! I got about 90% of it out with flushing and vigirous shaking. I was goung to get a spray nozzle in there but I think I got most of it out.
Now I do not recall this problem with my last rum - food grade molasses... not Habitats rum. Has this happened to anyone before? I cant really "clear" the molasses wash... can only guess at it as far as I know
Next time, try a generous helping of "Dawn Platinum" dish soap and hot water in your boiler, let soak for an hour, rinse with hot water. I did that with my copper pot after a rum run and it cleaned it up nicely.
Thanks MM. The way the Habitats went I'm pretty far away from another rum. This better be the best damn rum I every tasted for me to jump right back into the mess that this has created. I may go back to tamer rums with non-rabid black strap molasses.
Happy New Year Everyone! I hope everyone was happy and safe...
OK... down to business. After all the hassle I had with the Habitat Rum (I dropped the "s" from habitats.... it didn't have the ring it needs).... my comment on the spirit run I am finishing up today:
rgreen2002 wrote:...This better be the best damn rum I every tasted for me to jump right back into the mess that this has created.
I can hear TSC calling me back to buy more Evolved Habitats ever loving molasses! The rum coming out of this spirit run is some of the best tasting rum I have ever had. Started out in the Bok at 98% ABV (and that's..98% true, cooled to 58F in my product liebig) And still the Beast had flavor. Flavor for days! Im compressing the hell out of it to get as much of the Beast as I can hold... about 2000 ml and counting. It should drop off soon but I will not be too damn sad.
In the end the crazy, propionic acid filled, mess making Habitat Rum gets a big +1 from me and I certainly will be using it again in the future!
I recently ran a spirit run of a simple rum that sounds a lot like this. I bought a 5 gallon bucket of molasses from a local feed store. It didn't have a proper grain bill, so I have no idea on the propionic acid. It did have some vegetable oil in it ( I found that out when I got ready to run it). I mixed roughly one gallon of molasses and water to fill per five gallon bucket ( 2 buckets) with some b vitamins, a little Epsom salts, and I split a jar of Flieshman's between two buckets. Oddly enough, one bucket finished in three days and the other took nearly ten. I still haven't figured that out. I didn't get around to running it for several months. I didn't take a starting gravity reading because I've read here how they are useless with rums, but both finished around 1.03 and tasted very dry and bitter, but the flavor was basically the same as before they started fermenting. I ran them hot and fast through my simple pot set up, catching 6 quarts of low wines down to 10% after tossing a quart of fores/early heads . I was shocked by the low yield. I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but it was more than that. It did puke a little, but not too much. The molasses flavor was way too strong at this point, but I figured the spirit run would take most of it out. I saved four gallons of spent wash for later use, and used one of those gallons with the low wines for the spirit run, still thinking I needed to maximize flavor. I ran the spirit run slow, taking about a half hour per half pint. I collected 8 half pints before the fusels and cardboard started, and then I turned up the heat and caught a quart of cloudy tails. The flavor off of the still was really strong, and not particularly pleasant. After I aired for 24 hours or so,it was still really strong. I blended just the middle heart cut for one quart at 115 proof to age, and dumped the rest in the feints jug. I put that quart on charred and toasted local white oak and went in and out of the freezer and a hot water bath several times over a few days, and it's been just sittin in my shed for few more. Shockingly ( to me, anyway) it's gonna turn out really good. I haven't been totally satisfied with this oak for aging my UJ or All Bran, as the vanillins aren't very pronounced, but it's working really good for this rum. I'm planning on adding a half a vanilla bean and maybe a tiny bit of local orange zest for a few days, but I'm pretty pleased with the final result.
I was hoping to make a rum with moderate flavor to drink white, but I wound up with something totally different than I expected, and I'm very happy with it. Not happy enough to do it again, considering the final yield, but happy, nonetheless. I plan to take the remaining three gallons and split it evenly between four 5 gallon ferments. I'm gonna add 2-3 pounds of dark brown sugar to each and see if I can produce something with a little higher yield and little less flavor.
). I combed the forum and most of the info is from 2 years ago or later and most of that info was conflicting at best. Many said to boil with a little salt (the only time frame I could find was boil for 15-20 minutes), let cool to room temp and rack off the liquid for use. Some folks were just using it straight getting both good and no results. Some were "cleaning" is up with metal hydroxides...
. Not sure if Molasses is slower to start than others or what. Turns out I shoulda read longer and I'd have known to use bread yeast to start with. Any rate, when it took off it hit the ground running and had the bubbler redlined the entire next day. So I guess the acid aint really a problem....
- Marlin: "Good thing Jim has Mutual of Omaha Life insurance" "Mutual of Omaha is people, you can count on when you're mauled by lions"