Rum & Thumper Question

[SAS777]

Another rookie rum question.

I recently purchased a thumper from Mile High for my 13 gal. boiler. I used it once on a batch of corn, and it came out great.
I also purchased an excellent condition used 5 gal whiskey barrel with stand from Mile High. I want to fill the used whiskey barrel with rum. With needing to fill it with 60% - 62%, I'm afraid of how much blackstrap I will need to purchase.

My question is:
*To try and keep cost down, can I cheat by making 5 gal of dark brown sugar wash and 5 gal of blackstrap wash, mix the 2 together in my 13 gal boiler,
but hold back ~1.5 gal of the blackstrap wash that I will put into the thumper?

* By putting the blackstrap wash into my thumper, will I get close to the same flavor as if I used all black strap?

[nerdybrewer]

Another rookie rum question.

I recently purchased a thumper from Mile High for my 13 gal. boiler. I used it once on a batch of corn, and it came out great.
I also purchased an excellent condition used 5 gal whiskey barrel with stand from Mile High. I want to fill the used whiskey barrel with rum. With needing to fill it with 60% - 62%, I'm afraid of how much blackstrap I will need to purchase.

My question is:
*To try and keep cost down, can I cheat by making 5 gal of dark brown sugar wash and 5 gal of blackstrap wash, mix the 2 together in my 13 gal boiler,
but hold back ~1.5 gal of the blackstrap wash that I will put into the thumper?

* By putting the blackstrap wash into my thumper, will I get close to the same flavor as if I used all black strap?

Do you only have 5 gallon fermentation buckets? Nothing larger?
If restricted to a 5 gallon bucket I'd personally cut the ingredients in half and ferment half the blackstrap & sugar in each bucket.
Let them meld in the fermentation, I just think it will turn out better.
If you want to put blackstrap wash in your thumper and not the mix of the two you could get a bit more blackstrap and ferment it separately.
But your method above would work too, then you could do like you say and load up your still with 8 or so gallons wash and put 1.5 in the thumper.

Have you considered using feed grade molly?

[nuntius01]

well, that should work. just realize that it's not really the same thing. should be close though and i know there are many who use sugar to augment the alcohol content. you may want to save some of the dunder for the next run. you should get a better flavor and you wont need to have as much make up with a sugar wash.

[SAS777]

nerdybrewer asked: "Do you only have 5 gallon fermentation buckets? Nothing larger?" Yes, all I have is 5 & 6 gallon fermenting buckets. I guess I should look into something larger.

Dunder? Yes, I have some dunder, it's about 2 months old, or older with lots of mold on top. Can I still use it if I siphon under the mold?

[Yummyrum]

Dunder? Yes, I have some dunder, it's about 2 months old, or older with lots of mold on top. Can I still use it if I siphon under the mold?

Yup will be perfect .
Sorry can't help with the Thumper question though . Not enough practice with mine and I don't use sugar . Round here molases is cheaper

[SAS777]

Dunder? Yes, I have some dunder, it's about 2 months old, or older with lots of mold on top. Can I still use it if I siphon under the mold?

Yup will be perfect .
Sorry can't help with the Thumper question though . Not enough practice with mine and I don't use sugar . Round here molases is cheaper

Great! I was hoping that I wouldn't have to through it out.

The cheapest unsulfured blackstrap molasses I can find, cost me between $15 to $17 a gallon.
I have bought blackstrap from a few different vendors; so far, the cheapest I can find is buying direct from Golden Barrel, their price per gallon is ~$8.49/gal. But the shipping is extremely high. Even with the over priced shipping, it's still $1 to $2 dollars a gallon cheaper than I can find anywhere else.

I haven't tried feed grade molasses yet. I'm a little skeptical of trying it, due to the bulk feed stores around here generally put additives in it, mainly minerals.

Currently, I have 4-gallons of blackstrap, and 50 pounds of dark brown sugar. I picked up the 50# of dk brown sugar for less money than 2-gallons of blackstrap. I'm hoping to make a descent rum using the dk brown sugar (5-gal wash), and mix it with the blackstrap (5-gal wash), and charge the thumper with the blackstrap wash for flavor.

[Pesty]

Look for a baking or restaurant supply warehouse in your area. They all have molasses in 5 gallon buckets and you don't have to pay shipping.

[SAS777]

Look for a baking or restaurant supply warehouse in your area. They all have molasses in 5 gallon buckets and you don't have to pay shipping.

I tried that, no luck.

I live out in the country, and the closest city is ~45 miles away, and it doesn't have a restaurant supply warehouse. I'll keep searching.

Thanks for the suggestion!

[nerdybrewer]

The cheapest unsulfured blackstrap molasses I can find, cost me between $15 to $17 a gallon.
I have bought blackstrap from a few different vendors; so far, the cheapest I can find is buying direct from Golden Barrel, their price per gallon is ~$8.49/gal. But the shipping is extremely high. Even with the over priced shipping, it's still $1 to $2 dollars a gallon cheaper than I can find anywhere else.

I haven't tried feed grade molasses yet. I'm a little skeptical of trying it, due to the bulk feed stores around here generally put additives in it, mainly minerals.

Currently, I have 4-gallons of blackstrap, and 50 pounds of dark brown sugar. I picked up the 50# of dk brown sugar for less money than 2-gallons of blackstrap. I'm hoping to make a descent rum using the dk brown sugar (5-gal wash), and mix it with the blackstrap (5-gal wash), and charge the thumper with the blackstrap wash for flavor.

Minerals won't hurt your rum, might help.
What you want to watch out for are chemicals, things that will inhibit fermentation.
I have used feed molly plenty times, made fine rum.
I've also used it with 'pure cane sugar' granulated white sugar, the one with the pink & white bags.
Used it with brown sugar and used it with Panela, lately I've been using 100% raw Panela from Sugar Daddy.
The more processed the sugar the longer it will take to age out and smooth out, processed sugar can produce a bite in your liquor.
In my opinion using processed sugar produces less hearts, more heads and tails.
The closer to raw the better.

[SAS777]

Minerals won't hurt your rum, might help.
What you want to watch out for are chemicals, things that will inhibit fermentation.
I have used feed molly plenty times, made fine rum.
I've also used it with 'pure cane sugar' granulated white sugar, the one with the pink & white bags.
Used it with brown sugar and used it with Panela, lately I've been using 100% raw Panela from Sugar Daddy.
The more processed the sugar the longer it will take to age out and smooth out, processed sugar can produce a bite in your liquor.
In my opinion using processed sugar produces less hearts, more heads and tails.
The closer to raw the better.[/quote]

Great info!

Did I understand you right? That raw sugar is better to use than brown sugar, that's if you use sugar?

Excuse me for being ignorant. But what is "100% raw Panela?" I never heard of it.

[Oldvine Zin]

Excuse me for being ignorant. But what is "100% raw Panela?" I never heard of it.

Are you ready to jump down that hole? If so:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=62138
or this one
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... sugardaddy
OVZ

[nerdybrewer]

Excuse me for being ignorant. But what is "100% raw Panela?" I never heard of it.

Are you ready to jump down that hole? If so:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=62138
or this one
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... sugardaddy
OVZ

Our own LWTCS & Sugar Daddy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCCuRYLYfBY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Other videos abound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKvJcocYfeo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Shine0n]

I'm too tired tonight to type out a long post but dark brown sugar and feed grade molasses from tractor supply make a mighty fine rum!

[SAS777]

I'm too tired tonight to type out a long post but dark brown sugar and feed grade molasses from tractor supply make a mighty fine rum!

Thanks for the info!

The molasses you are talking about at Tractor Supply, is it "Evolved Habitats Molasses?" That's the only liquid molasses that is sold at the Tractor Supply store near me, It's listed for $9.99 a gallon.

[nerdybrewer]

I'm too tired tonight to type out a long post but dark brown sugar and feed grade molasses from tractor supply make a mighty fine rum!

Thanks for the info!

The molasses you are talking about at Tractor Supply, is it "Evolved Habitats Molasses?" That's the only liquid molasses that is sold at the Tractor Supply store near me, It's listed for $9.99 a gallon.

Do you have Grange store nearby?
I was getting molly for $17 per bucket, good stuff.

[SAS777]

I'm too tired tonight to type out a long post but dark brown sugar and feed grade molasses from tractor supply make a mighty fine rum!

Thanks for the info!

The molasses you are talking about at Tractor Supply, is it "Evolved Habitats Molasses?" That's the only liquid molasses that is sold at the Tractor Supply store near me, It's listed for $9.99 a gallon.

Do you have Grange store nearby?
I was getting molly for $17 per bucket, good stuff.

No. No Grange store near me. I'm quite limited, the closest city is ~45 miles form me, and it's not that big, and doesn't have much to chose from.
The closest large city that may have a Grange store, is over 200 miles away.

[SAS777]

I just checked online for a Grange store. The only Grange stores I could find, where all on the west coast. Unfortunately, that's way to far from where I live.

[Shine0n]

Yes, Evolved habitat is the one. it's the cheapest molasses near me as well but 10 bucks is high to me per gallon of feed grade.

I always make enough ferment to fill the boiler and partial thumper and sometimes a full thumper, with the dark brown sugar and feed grade I can have tons of flavors in one pass with the thumper.

Or like the infected dunder experiments, I stripped the runs down to 10% or so until I had enough low wines for a proper spirit run then added 25% total volume dunder to low wines at 30ish%

A good ratio would be 16-18 lbs dB sugar to 2 gal of molasses for a 16-17 gal ferment.

With that I can put 12 in the boiler and 5 in the thump also some added feints if you have some but I don't like to fill no more than 8-9 gallons in the thumper just because of it filling while heating up, expecially during the winter running in the cold ass garage.

With all that said, make enough wash to fill both boiler and thumper.

I've found that all moll washes need double runs as apposed to the dB sugar and moll which needs one pass with a thumper.

Now if you want to add dunder,?,?, I suggest to strip run a load of rum and get enough low wines to fill both with low wines and dunder at 30% and do the spirit run in between stripping and spirit run speeds.

Don't get me started on dunder, lol
Fresh, aged, infected... All are good!!!

Take the dunder from the first run and put it in a 5 gal bucket, drop a dirty, raw potato and a pint or so of some good soil and leave it until you have enough low wines for a boiler and thumper full.

keep the pH stable around 5- 5.75 and within a month you'll have some nice funky dunder that will add some great complexity to the spirit run.

If you ferment inside I'd highly recommend you keep this dunder outdoors, out of the elements but it's going to smell like shit!!! But man what a difference it makes in the rum... Don't worry about the dunder smell, when you mix with the low wines it magically smells of pineapple

I'm just rambling now but thought I'd add my .50$

Shine0n