Shine0n Rum

[Shine0n]

This turned out so good for me I thought I'd share.
My recipe is
18 lbs dark brown sugar (domino)
2 gallons feed molasses
1/2 cup active bread yeast
1 teaspoon epsom salts
Water to make up 15-17 gal

My fermenter is 20 gallons and I leave some head room JIC

I start by putting dB sugar and molasses in the fermenter and heat up 3-5 gal of h20 to near boil and dump it in, stir and disolve sugar and mix molasses well.

I then grab my water hose and spray nice and hard inorder to aerate inorder to achieve my goal of 15 or so gal.

Next I get around a pint of wash and mix with a pint of water, it should be around 90°f, I then add the most of the yeast. Stir gentle to not destroy the yeasts, I put this in a large pot due to the massive amount of foaming it will do. I will normally let this for 30 minutes or so or until it starts to overflow my pot.

I then add the yeast to the fermenter and give one last gentle stir and close the lid.
Now during the winter I have been putting blankets around the fermenter and it keeps it warm for the duration of the ferment. I used to use the aquarium heater but it kept on heating too much and found the blanket worked well because it finishes in 3-4 days anyway. Plus this will heat up well on its own and all I need to do is maintain it for a shot time.

I still on a 15 gal keg pot with 7.5 gal thumper to a 5/8" worm.
I dump 1 pint for the fores and early heads then go to half pints untill I know I'm in the hearts then go back to pints. I use 2 pint alternating jars to collect and dump them into a gallon jug untill I start dropping abv and smell in the tails start coming in. Most time I use 2 one gal jugs to collect my hearts.

Once into the tails I get a quart and collect the early stuff then put a gal pot and collect untill it reads 20%
When I shut down I have collected around 3 gallons total
And I let everything air out for a few days with coffee filters.
If you like and I would suggest to collect in small jars untill you know this recipe and how it performs on your own still. This is just my way on my rig!

Blending on this will be absolutely no heads as far as I can tell. All the hearts and some early tails.--- ( not too much though) goes in to a bigger pot for reaching the goal of 120-130 proof for either long term aging or a decent rest. It's better to have this proof imo just in case you want to age with oak but it also does well for resting it white which I do for the most part.
I will proof down when I think is best, usually 1.5-2 months for white .
My oaked likker is on a 1 quart basis.
12-15 sq. inches of med toasted oak, 2 nuke cycle at 150f. And after one week is pretty good! I will let this set for 6 months on the oak and remove, tasting every now and again.

So far this has been my best rum and have found plenty of buttery, vanilla and sweetness.
I've ran this back to back for the last month and I'll keep adding to this post as things develop.

Shine0n

[Pikey]

So what's your initial abv - 7% ? a little more ?

Personally I'd stick an extra 10-12 lb sugar in there and use a decent wine yeast to ferment a little higher on the initial abv - you've obviously got plenty of flavour in there.

Just my observation, I know a lot of people like low abv to start.

[Shine0n]

The mol is feed grade which states 43% sugar, so in 2 gal there is 8.6 lbs plus the 18 lbs dB sugar so that's 26.6 lbs in around 15 gal wash.
On my sf I use 25 lbs to 15 gal and my gravity reads 1.080 so that's what I based it off of. I'm not exactly sure what it is but the hearts of this rum was so warm, buttery and sweet it's hard to mix with anything.

I'm sure some true rum nuts will say to ditch the sugar and do all mol and strip and run again, BUT I know this is a great rum and has everything that I like. I'm hoping somebody will try and say hey man, you got something there. Lol
Its a bold rum that some might not like and somes tounge may beat their brains out.

Now the quart that I did the initial test with the oak and nuke aging is a fine drink now and I'm sure will improve as time goes so that's why I added that to the op.

[Shine0n]

I used the hydrometer to take readings on the first go and said 1.120 and final said 1.020 and from the calc says 13%
I know a hydrometer isn't the right tool but it's what I have.
I'm sure it's a bit lower than 13% and probably around 10 or so

[frost021]

your recipe is very similar to the one I use except I use fancy grade molasses also I put in about 20 liters of backset from the previous batch

[Truckinbutch]

Informative post . OP : I got no experience with rums and you are encouraging me to stray that way . Let me remind you that this is a 'roll your own' hobby . As long as you stay within safety parameters your taste buds determine what you like . Other suggestions are just guidelines to help you along the way .

[SilverBullet]

I like this recipe, looks good. I'm going to try it with Demerara sugar. I just finished an all molasses batch which had a low yield but lovely flavor.

[Shine0n]

your recipe is very similar to the one I use except I use fancy grade molasses also I put in about 20 liters of backset from the previous batch

I did use fancy and once I found out how good feed was, it was on!
Now the 10 bucks I save on mol goes to half gallon mason jars. Lol

[Shine0n]

TB, I agree that people use their experience for others guide lines
This is imo a very very good rum, I wasn't a rum drinker per se but this has opened my mind to other levels and now I'm on a mission to make and age this one for a very long time.
I have another one ready to run with some dunder for comparison and will run here soon as I have time. I'm starting another one as the op just because if it ain't broke don't fix it.


SilverBullet, try it and post results
I'd like to know how it turns out for ya. What kind of rig ya runnin?
I run ONE SINGLE SLOW RUN, I did strip one and with the effort I got the same quantity with less flavor. So now all the feints get in the thumper and some fresh wash.

As mentioned, it's a very nice bold rum.

[Truckinbutch]

SRD and I are running shoulder with duplicate pot/thumper rigs . 15.5/15.5 gallons . We just started AG and rums aren't far behind .

[SilverBullet]

SilverBullet, try it and post results
I'd like to know how it turns out for ya. What kind of rig ya runnin?

I used my 3" modular in Pot mode. I strip then Spirit run it with some wash.

[Shine0n]

As the sun set last night, I poured 2 fingers of the oaked/nuked on 2 cubes and man I've impressed myself with this rum
It has so much flavor and just a slight spiciness of the oak, The color is nice to look at too.
So then I decided to have one more of the white, the tastes of molasses and warm, sweet, butter... Mmmm mm

I sure slept well after that and we'll needed too.

[Shine0n]

As of tonight the rum has taken a spiciness of the oak with the mol and vanilla flavors. In the past I've yanked the oak and let sit and has never developed past the point of oak spice.
I'm not sure of what to expect since I 99.9% chicken shit out and pull the oak. But I will resist my urges and let it sit for the original 6 months on oak and see how the flavors develop.
I like the oak spice to a degree and hope to keep that part of the flavor profile, the guy I just met and had a drink with said it was like rum with a twist.
Not exactly sure what that ment but he said it was like nothing he ever had but in a good way.
That made me feel good to know that something I made on my own had such an impact to someone who had only known commercial likker.
I'm now sippin on some of the oaked with orange juice and can say they compliment each other in a very fine way, sweet with a spicy note and vanilla kick at the end of the breath.
I'm sitting here thinking about how to do things better and reading on threads of people's ideas and experiences and of what I like and what the hell to do..

Hell, the only thing I can come up with is...nothing!!!
I've done a fine recipe, tasted and approved it and have had others who have tasted it and given it 2 thumbs up and then some.
I am hoping to get some feedback from some more rum nutz on this, and please don't push the strip/spirit run on me! I don't see the need for it since I get the flavor from 1 run.
I mean no offense to those who do that and with an all moll run id probably do the same but with the addition of sugar it's a bit less intensive on the flavors compared to the all molasses wash.
I'm just not too sure on how long to keep it on the oak, I'm going to take the advice from others and keep it on for 6 months then recheck it and see how the oak has done what it does.
Well, I'm done ranting for the night!

Just thought I'd share the progression of this recipe with the masses and post my thoughts on it.
Shine0n

[Saltbush Bill]

I'm just not too sure on how long to keep it on the oak, I'm going to take the advice from others and keep it on for 6 months then recheck it and see how the oak has done what it does.

12 months on oak wont hurt it as long as your using a sensible amount of oak per Liter to begin with.
2 years isn't out of the question if you can keep it that long.

[Shine0n]

12 months is completely doable and longer if needed.
I'm sure the taste will change many times in a year.

[Jimy Dee]

ShineOn - you will just have to taste it periodically and give us feed back on the development of the taste - whether you want to or not - just for scientific research now

[Shine0n]

Hey Jim, yeah I know and I will! The oaked rum will do its thing with time and the white is freaking great now
I've been trying to keep at least 1/2 gallon of my runs to age/smooth/settle and see how things change.
I've managed to keep my Dick beaters out of the lot and can say I've seen noticeable changes in every different spirit made with some time. Even my sf is better at 4 months than 3 or 2 but I just can't seem to keep it for that long except the designated 1/2 gal set aside.

Although I've been talkin about the oaked rum, my main goal is to slowly let the white come to its own. I have absolutely no intention of oaking then carbon filtering to remove color. I want a smooth, bold white rum!

After many different recipes I think this one will be my go to for future rums, I'm almost positive I will continue to play with other ingredients to make another winner and when that happens I'll make alot, keep separate and maybe blend some to make an even better rum. Who knows maybe a blended rum will take the cake.
Only time will tell!
For now I'll keep on keeping on and enjoy the fruits of my labor.

[Shine0n]

Just fired up Gen 2 of this recipe bout 30 minutes ago, I put 13 gallons in the boiler and 2.5 and 1 gal feints from the last run in the thumper.
I had 5 gal of dunder starting to get some smell but the pig and my pit seemed to have their way with it. Lol

Boiler is heating up nicely and thumper is starting to make me hum a bit, waiting on the dance to start. THUMP KEG WALTZ. RIP PC.S

Anyway I'm hoping to find some molly soon (like tomorrow ) the tsi said they won't have any till next hunting season and I said I bait my deer all summer and upto the black powder season. Then I just stock up on it, she said order online and have it delivered to them and they would call me... damn it!
I don't like my wife seeing me buy that much mol and she checks the statement OFTEN!

The arm is almost to temp down to the thumper and my foots a tappin, it's still a bit chilly this am and the wash was quite chilled so it takin a bit longer to heat but that's ok. It should be mid 50's by noon or 1, I'll post back with some updates as they happen.

[Redneckstiller]

Mines at about 75° slow to climb to today I'll check in with you in an hour

Double Tap... 11B

[Shine0n]

Pulled a pint of fores and early heads at 11:00am of 75%
Now I'm into the 2nd pint, the 1st is definitely going to the feints jug and the 2nd is smelling just about right. The 3rd will be my point of hearts I'll start keeping.

[Redneckstiller]

I got about a pint of fores and 50 ml of heads on my first pint now at 205° Texas is weird on temps.

Double Tap... 11B

[Shine0n]

Temps on a potstill won't tell much other than having a reference point. I will taste (diluted) smell and feel my spirits, smell and tastes have been most reliable for me
I'm at 70% and Startin to drop, have almost 3 quarts of hearts and will crank up the heat and collect down to 20% before long.

[Redneckstiller]

I'm at 1.5 pints and it keeps getting better lol

Double Tap... 11B

[Shine0n]

I'm at 1.5 gal and down to 55% but the taste is still good.
I've not hit the cloudy stuff yet but I'll collect 1 more pint and cranker up.