Making me some rum

[Odin]

Just started a new ferment. A muscovado sugar from the Philipines that I want to turn into a lighter style rum. 25 kilo's of the sugar, and water to bring it to around 200 liters or 53 gallons. Temperature at around 30 degrees. Then added iFeed as a nutrient and sprinkled 125 grams of bakers yeast. It is fizzling away as we speak. Plan to run it in a 100 liter still ...

Regards, Odin.

[fizzix]

White or dark?

[Odin]

Not sure. Depends on the outcome. I won't barrel age it, but maybe "brown it up" a bit by back-adding some muscovado in the final white drink.

Regard, Odin.

[Odin]

Quick calculation on the HD Homepage teaches we'll reach a theoretical 6.8%. After losses to yeast growth and CO2 evaporation I expect to reach 6 to 6.2%. Contemplating to add some more muscovado sugar to bring the yield up a bit.

Odin.

[fizzix]

Well you're a way smarter distiller than my novice ass, so I'm asking out of curiosity rather than criticism why you chose to skip molasses other than what's residual in the muscovado? Is the muscovado just that rich?

[Odin]

Good question. It is extremely hard to find sugar cane (by) products here. So it's like "lucky enough to have this at least". But the really good news is ... that we have indeed figured it out and can now also get our hands at a steady supply of molasses.

The goal is to make a ligher style rum. Let's hope the Muscovado gets us there. And then a heavier style based on molasses. For an intermediate, I think about a combination of both.

I added an additional few kilo's of the sugar to get to a higher abv. On the fly, so not sure if it was 9 kilo exactly, that I added, but 6 or 7 or 8 for sure.

Regards, Odin.

[Odin]

Here is a pic of the ferment.

[Bushman]

Currently on a camping trip with our kids. Rum was my drink choice for the weekend. We get our Panela shipped to the PNW in bulk and share between members. Makes a light rum so I add blackstrap molasses.

[Odin]

Enjoy the camping trip and give my regards to wife & kids, please. Yes, that's my thinking: get the light one right, start working on the heavy one, then find an optimal in the middle. Bushman, where do you source your panella?

Regards, Odin.

[Bushman]

Enjoy the camping trip and give my regards to wife & kids, please. Yes, that's my thinking: get the light one right, start working on the heavy one, then find an optimal in the middle. Bushman, where do you source your panella?

Regards, Odin.

Sugardaddy his business is in Central America. Our last order we ordered with a distillery in Seattle so we gets good price. They come on pallets in 50 lb bags. You can search him if interested as he is on several forums.

[Odin]

Yeah, tried that in the past Bushman, but it didn't work out, I am afraid.

Maybe I'll try again. His product is good, I hear.

Regards, Odin.

[nerdybrewer]

Odin,
His product is very good indeed!
As of our most recent shipment it came in 25 Kilo bags, a little confusing to us here in the PNW USA...
Pounds, Kilo's anyway it's a fantastic sugar.
I also use it in baking, makes great cookies!

[HDNB]

it doesn't take much moleasses to make a robust flavour from what i've seen.

when i first made rum i tried all molasses, it was far, far to strong. ended up triple distilling and still had to barrel it for 3 years..but it was pretty good after that time.

my last rum ferment was 1 gallon of molasses to 50KG of sugar in 250L water... double distilled and currently aging it is a much more palatable spirit after less than 2 years. the molasses is still very noticable

(sorry i missed you last week - only had 1 day in A'dam and the wife said she wanted to see the canals more than she wanted to visit istill. women...i tell ya...)

[DAD300]

Also, try adding a quart of fine molasses directly into the boiler. Gives a tremendous flavor boost!

Other than that, let the ferment set until it gets an infection. A little Lacto on top is pretty good.

[Bushman]

Also, try adding a quart of fine molasses directly into the boiler. Gives a tremendous flavor boost!

Other than that, let the ferment set until it gets an infection. A little Lacto on top is pretty good.

Haven’t tried that, stuff ok have about 40 lbs of Panela just waiting to lower my rum supply before day doing another rum run.

[Odin]

No access to fine molasses, I am afraid, Dad. But thanks for the tip. A little lacto goes a long way indeed. Love that combo in rum! HDNB, sorry to have missed you. Next time, tell her Woerden is a beautiful city with lots of little shops. She won't be disappointed, and I could show you our facilities and we could have a few drinks!

I have reached out to Sugar Daddy. Let's see if he can help out. In the past I have made pretty mediocre to darn good rum from the ugliest cattle feed blackstrap molasses. The only stuff we CAN find here. It was water, molasses and yeast. The stuff was so toxic, that I had to minimize amount used. I think aiming for only like 5% wash made it work. Together with some dunder (that I had infected with kefir, and aged for 6 weeks at least), that I added to the boiler prior to the finishing run, it made for a really very nice rum, after some barrel aging. Thick, heavy, complex.

I just ordered an IBC of blackstrap molasses. It has a (much) higher sugar content than what I sourced before. I hope that is an indication to it being less processed, less "end of the road, dirty stinky stuff", with less ash, a bit sweeter (less bitter) flavors, and less osmotic stress on the yeast, so that I may take it to a more economical 8%.

Going to iStill HQ in just a few hours. Customers coming by. I'll check how the ferment is doing. Should have come a long way.

Regards, Odin.

[NZChris]

I've just drawn a sample of my four year old Kolhapur Jaggery rum. It doesn't have the flavor intensity of my stockfood grade molasses rums, but it doesn't have the faults that a couple of them had that needed at least two years aging to morph from nasty to nice. If I ever run this jaggery again, I'll make Lime Salts from the backset from the spirit run to add back to the next spirit run.

[Odin]

The fermentation is all but done. Fizzling slowed down significantly, as did the movement of the water lock. SG is 0.995. Nice sour taste to it.

We are currently setting up a new 100 liter iStill. I'll do the cleaning run today (vinegar and water), and then start working on the rum tomorrow or the day after.

Regards, Odin.

[Odin]

Ferment is done. Smells a bit sour and not very impressive. I just loaded close to 100 liters into the iStill 100 and will perform a quick stripping run on this first batch. Goal is to then clean out the boiler, add the low wines back in, top-up with the remaining wash, and do a finishing run.

Here are some pics.

Odin.

[Expat]

I'd really love to be able to lift a fermenter like that. Would make life very easy!

[MtRainier]

Are you going to run with plates and dephleg for the spirit run or just pot?

[Odin]

Just pot this time. A what I call 1.5 approach. Strip ferment into low wines, clean out boiler, add low wines back in, top-up with remaining ferment, now do a slower finishing run. If the run is a success, I'll scale up, and we'll make things a bit easier still and better again.

First we'll scale up to a 2000 liter / 520 galon still that has full mashing and fermenting capability. Add 1750 liters of water, heat-up to around 30c, then put 350 kilo's of the muscevado sugar in there, add iFeed, yeast, and do a controlled fermentation in the i2000.

Secondly, when that ferment is done, I'll do a single distillation approach for the most flavor rich result. I do this not via plates, but with a packed column to which I added automation and robotization to the extend that if I want the rum to come over at 60%/120 proof, that's what I will get. Or any other ABV, depending how I dial in the machine.

Normally I'd do the single distillation approach, also on this smaller batch, but there is a part missing and I don't want to wait.

Regards, Odin.

[ga flatwoods]

Get it figured out Odin. I grow cane you know.
GA Flatwoods

[Odin]

That cane syrup (if that is the right name) I tasted when I last visited you was truly amazing. Would love to turn that into rum, mate!

Odin.

[Odin]

I collected around 22 liters of 38% low wines from what must have been a 90 to 95 liter charge. Calculating backwards, the ferment must have been a good 9%. Ferment finished in 5 days, which is pretty good for what's basically a sugar fermentation. Taste is light, but rummy. Low wines are slightly cloudy.

Regards, Odin

[Odin]

Finishing the rum as we speak. That's rum based on muscovado sugar. First impressions, as it comes of the still: nice & light rum.

The tote with South American molasses has arrived, so, with the previous ferment done, I decided to whip up a molasses ferment instead. It just started ... and literally started fermenting right away.

Here are some pics of the current finishing run on the muscovado rum, and of the new molasses and new molasses fermentation.

Regards, Odin.

[HDNB]

i'd be interested to know the sugar content of the moleass and what the resulting collection of booze adds up to from that much material.

[Odin]

60% sugar, 1000 liter tote, weighing 1380 kilo, so fermentable sugar should be 0.6*1380 kilo's = 828 kilo's. Enough for a 9%+ ferment of 5000 liters. 5000*0.09=450 pure alcohol liters. Lets say we loose 50 to heads and tails (it will be less, but just for easy calculations), we now have 400 liters remaining at a theoretical 100%. That's 1000 liters at 40%. Or 260 gallons at 40%.

I am running professional stills and this is a homedistiller site. I used the 100 liter (26 gallon) stills so posting should be fine as far as still sizes are concerned, but with me ordering molasses by the tote, you have to imagine that we can make 5000 liters of ferment in one go, meaning we can do 2 runs per week and help our pro customers make basically up to 2000 bottles per week this way.

Edit: 2850 bottles of 0.7 liters, which is concurrent with Europe. US is 0.75?

Regards, Odin.


Odin.

[Odin]

https://www.facebook.com/odiniStill/vid ... 367814322/

Fermentation in action! The molasses tasted amazing, so I am looking forward to a great rum!

Odin.

[Saltbush Bill]

Molasses rum is real Rum just don't expect it to taste great straight off the still.