Jamaican inspired rum

[Bolverk]

Howdy all,

This is my attempt to make a rum as close as I can to the some of the heavier Jamaican recipes.

My understanding from interviews and videos, the Hampden high ester recipe is that their fermentation contains approximately the following proportions:

40% dunder
30% skimmings
10% cane vinegar
10% muck
10% molasses

I'm going to be making these in 10g batches

These are going to be done in phases so as to not do so much I'm unable to identify what the problem is.
The reason I'm breaking this up into phases is because we have some serious hurdles to overcome; The high acidity and high gravity from the dunder and the high total acidity from the vinegar are all things that will stop the fermentation process. I know from a previous ferment adding vinegar is no joke and will stop a ferment dead in it tracks... So we'll do this in more measured steps.

Phase 1, batch 1

I couldn't find the exact sugar content of "skimmings" so the sugar wash with unrefined cane sugar is about as close as I can come since fresh cane juice is not available to me.

4g dunder
3g unrefined cane sugar wash
1g water in place of vinegar
1g molasses (40-50% sugar)
1g water in place of muck

I heated the molasses and added the 2 gallons of water (1 from the vinegar replacement, 1 from the muck replacement) slowly added lime (CaO) until my pH was 7, for me this was 2.5tsp.
(Next time I'll add the the molasses to my sugar wash)

While that was going I made up the sugar wash. From what I was able to find, cane juices sugar content is equal to specific gravity of 1.050 +/- using an online calculator I was able to come to 3.25lb (7.5c) unrefined cane sugar to 2.75g of water. This worked out almost perfect, my sg was 1.054.

The dunder I'm using came from a previous all panela rum and had a gravity of 1.029.

After the molasses wash and sugar wash were prepped I added them to the fermenter with the dunder. Gravity was 1.079. But the pH was very low. I slowly added CaO until the pH was 5.8. This was 4 heaping tsb.

Once the contents had come down to 95f I added 2 Multivitamins, a pinch of epsom salt, and stirred pretty vigorously.

Then I rehydrated 1 heaping tbsp of bakers yeast and pitched it after 15 minutes. Yes this is an under pitch,  we are hoping for a lot of esters. This also means it'll start slowly. Mine as been going for a few hours and the surface look like Coca-Cola in a glass, not a vigorous rolling boil like youd get with a full pitch. Ferment at 90-95f.

I'm expecting this to finish out at about 6.5% abv which is in line with what I've read about the kind of yields found in the Jamaican washes.

My concern over time is that the gravity of the dunder will slowly start stacking up from the unfermentables in the molasses, I'm hoping to find the happy medium of where we are replacing enough dunder to off set this with new wash added. Once I've got a few generations of this going and tracking the final gravity of the dunder I'll move on the the vinegar.

The vinegar poses a challenge because we don't know what the concentration of the "cane acid" used in the the Jamaican rums, only that they use 5-20% in the wash. The 5% steen brand cane vinegar I'm using in another batch is causing a lot of problems with stalled and slow fermentation.  This is probably because I didn't establish a buffer in the beginning but will give it another shot here soon.

Stay tuned...

[Brewfiend]

Sounds really cool. I probably would be reluctant to put vinigar in a wash lol. What kind of toast on the oak? And also wondering where you adapted this recipe from? A book or a documentary. I'm interested in making another "traditional" rum. It's funny my dad used to tell me this story about how Jamaican rum was made by accidentally leaving unfermented sugar in the wash and cooking it at a too high heat... Almost definately untrue as he talked a lot of sh%T LOL

[Bolverk]

I wouldn't worry about adding vinegar unless it was unpasturized.
Vinegar is a readily available easy source of aceditc acid and is used a lot in the funky Jamaican rums.

As far as wood it'll probably go on white oak. I just recently found some once used 5g whiskey barrels that I might try.

The recipe came from watching a lot of videos and interviews, each one they seem to let a little bit of their process out.

Also Here’s a recipe from Charles Allan’s book on Jamaican Rum:

Skimmings (fresh) 620 gallons at 12 brix
Dunder 760 gallons at 24 brix
Acid 220 gallons at 8 brix
Molasses 200 gallons
Flavour 160 gallons at 8 brix (aka “muck”)

That comes out to
31% skimmings
38% dunder
11% acid
10% molasses
8% muck
(Only 98% but out of 2000g available space the remainder should be head space)

Lol lots of misinformation out there

[NZChris]

I'm not keen on the idea of putting unpasteurized muck and vinegar in the ferment at the start, it sounds a bit risky. Put enough wild organisms in there and you might introduce a killer yeast or phage capable of stalling your ferment.

The desirable components in the muck and vinegar need alcohol to react with to create esters and there is bugger all of that present when you pitch. The necessary alcohol is more concentrated in the finished wash and in the retorts when distilling. You can add the muck & vinegar essence at the end of the main fermentation, or to any of the retorts.

[Brewfiend]

You could pasteurize the muck... Just saying

[Bolverk]

The vinegar I'll be using is pasturized so I won't be introducing any vinegar mother bacteria. I suppose the vinegar could be added at the end of the fermentation, but if I'm remembering correctly from some Boston Apothecary articles the high acid ferment is part of the process so I at least want to try it.

Muck is still something I hesitate using, I honestly have no desire to keep and maintain a muck pit. What we do know is that muck is typically added towards the end of primary fermentation, so one thought is to dope the wash when primary is nearly complete with the miyarisan tablets (Clostridium saccharobutyricum) and yakult drink (Lactobacillus casei), maybe this pit less muck could be an easier way to go. Or we go the pure acids approach and dope the low wines with butyric and lactic acid. My only concern with the pure acids that is some people who have tried this reported a synthetic taste... maybe this can be solved but finding the correct amount? I don't know without experimentation.

[Tōtōchtin]

Do you believe piloncillo would add too much flavor, curious why you used sugar instead. Best of luck on your future recipes.
Suerte, Tōtō

[Bolverk]

Do you believe piloncillo would add too much flavor, curious why you used sugar instead. Best of luck on your future recipes.
Suerte, Tōtō

In my opinion the piloncillo didn't fit with the nature of the wash bill. My understanding of skimmings is it's mostly the cane juice prior to processing so it wouldn't be cooked and reduced like piloncillo/panela.

Plus honestly I am little unimpressed with the rumminess of my last all piloncillo batch, it was good and made for a good medium rum, but seems to lack that deep molasses taste you get in a heavy rum. The dunder from the piloncillo smelled amazing and that's why I choose to use it in this batch.

[Bolverk]

And also wondering where you adapted this recipe from? A book or a documentary.

Just found this gem
https://cocktailwonk.com/2016/03/days-o ... dient.html

[NZChris]

Plus honestly I am little unimpressed with the rumminess of my last all piloncillo batch, it was good and made for a good medium rum, but seems to lack that deep molasses taste you get in a heavy rum.

I'm not surprised. Piloncillo hasn't had white sugar extracted from it like molasses has, so rum from it would be more akin to Cachaça.

To boost the flavor from the cane in the final product, you could try removing some of the most flavorless middle jars from the lineup before selecting the heart cut. That would go some way to emulating the separation of sucrose from the cane juice, as happens in a refinery. Put those middle jars through a reflux still for neutral. The heads and tails from that may be useful to feed back into your next Piloncillo rum to boost flavor.

[Brewfiend]

And also wondering where you adapted this recipe from? A book or a documentary.

Just found this gem
https://cocktailwonk.com/2016/03/days-o ... dient.html

Are you going to use a specific culture for your muck pit?This idea is interesting to me as I've always added fruit vitamized to my rum wash. I guess it provides similar flavors.

[Bolverk]

I honestly don't really want to keep and take care of a muck pit long term. The way I'm leaning now is to add miyarisan tablets (Clostridium saccharobutyricum) and yakult drink (Lactobacillus casei) at about 80% attenuation to the fermenter and let it go for 2 weeks + past primary fermentation.

[Brewfiend]

Interesting. Keep us posted

[Bolverk]

I learned something interesting today from Stephen with Boston Apothecary, the rum cane vinegar was more of a vinegar and lacto starter with about a 1-2% acid content. And at least in the Hampden process the vinegar/lacto was added towards the end of primary fermentation. My previous understanding was that vinegar was added at the beginning of primary and the lactobacillus and saccharobutyricum muck were at the end of primary fermentation.

[NZChris]

And at least in the Hampden process the vinegar/lacto was added towards the end of primary fermentation.

That was my take on it from research I did decades ago. I'm sure that has been posted here at least once since I've been posting here.

[Bolverk]

That was my take on it from research I did decades ago. I'm sure that has been posted here at least once since I've been posting here.

I must have missed those threads... that or binge reading it all kinda bleeds together.

[Brewfiend]

A mother starter contains some vinigar. Is that what you will use?

[Bolverk]

A mother starter contains some vinigar. Is that what you will use?

True, but I'll only use a little to start.

My plan (this will be the next wash)
Start the new wash, when the wash is at about 2-3% abv pull out 1 gallon and inoculate that with the vinegar mother and lactic acid bacteria (LAB). I'll add back the 1 gallon of vinegar/LAB when the wash is nearly finished fermenting and let that go for about a week.

Ill post the quantities of the next recipe when I go to make it.
I'm a little concerned about the sg of the dunder of this batch so it may vary a little... to goal is 7% abv potential from the wash accounting for a higher than average starting gravity without exceeding 1.1

[Bolverk]

Ferment is done, final gravity is 1.049 pH 4.36. Based on the starting gravity it's only 3.8% avb. I guess I expected it to finish a bit lower gravity but taste wise its bone dry... Nothing too notable about the fermentation, it just seemed to chug along.

Kinda stumped on this one... Charles Allan’s recipe above has the skimmings at 12 brix which is 1.048 my cane suger wash was a little higher than that at 1.054. I know the heavy Jamaican washes are typically pretty low yeild at 5%, only thing I can assume is that maybe my molasses was lower sugar? I used blackstrap so I guess that's a possibility. I'll ty to make some corrections on the next batch.

I'll let is hang out for the rest of the week and try to run it this weekend.

[Yummyrum]

Brix scale is simply a measure of the “thickness”of a solution . It does not directly relate to the amount of sugar in it unless it is a pure sugar solution you are measuring .

So as skimmings are not 100% sugar ,as is molasses also, brix readings really don’t mean much .

Unless you know the actual percentage of sugar available in either Skimmings or Molasses , you can’t use the readings to directly relate to potential ABV

[Bolverk]

That's good to know thanks

[Saltbush Bill]

only thing I can assume is that maybe my molasses was lower sugar? I used blackstrap so I guess that's a possibility.

The only way that Blackstrap or any other form of molasses is going to be any lower in sugar than about 48% is if its been in some way tampered with (Diluted in some way) after it has left the mill.

[Brewfiend]

If you added bacteria they might convert the sugars to things other than alcohol. Does it smell strongly of vinigar? Are the nitrates high?

[Bolverk]

The only way that Blackstrap or any other form of molasses is going to be any lower in sugar than about 48% is if its been in some way tampered with (Diluted in some way) after it has left the mill.

Lower sugar than what was in the molasses they used in this recipe

Charles Allan’s book on Jamaican Rum:

Skimmings (fresh) 620 gallons at 12 brix
Dunder 760 gallons at 24 brix
Acid 220 gallons at 8 brix
Molasses 200 gallons
Flavour 160 gallons at 8 brix (aka “muck”)

[Bolverk]

If you added bacteria they might convert the sugars to things other than alcohol. Does it smell strongly of vinigar? Are the nitrates high?

It's possible, but I don't think I'm going to get 1-2% more alcohol of of the unfermentable sugars that are remaining. I think maybe the molasses they used had more sugar than the blackstrap i used. Im thinking they used regular molasses not blackstrap.

The skimmings called for in the recipe probably had a higher sugar content than the cane juice /sugar wash to replace it I made.

This wash didn't have the vinegar.

[Brewfiend]

Hmmm I see. Cane mollases I never got much alcohol from. Some of the recipes call for all molasses and no sugar... Crazy.

[higgins]

According to data sheets on Webstaurant,
Golden Barrel Blackstrap Molasses contains 45-60% sugar
Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses contains 64-77% sugar.

A web search using "sugar content of feed grade molasses" says it contains 45-48% sugar.

[Bolverk]

Hmmm I see. Cane mollases I never got much alcohol from. Some of the recipes call for all molasses and no sugar... Crazy.

Yeah, from what ive read it's pretty common that these heavy Jamaican ferments only had a 5% yield.

[Bolverk]

According to data sheets on Webstaurant,
Golden Barrel Blackstrap Molasses contains 45-60% sugar
Golden Barrel Supreme Baking Molasses contains 64-77% sugar.

A web search using "sugar content of feed grade molasses" says it contains 45-48% sugar.

I pulled up those specs too. I'm thinking maybe the molasses used in Allen's recipe was more along the lines of baking molasses than blackstrap, or hell, I severely under shot the estimate of the the sugar content of skimmings.

As I've recently learned that the skimmings are pulled as the cane juice is being cooked and reduced down, its entirely possible that the sugar content it twice as much as I estimated.

[Bolverk]

Been playing with a wash calculator and I think i know where I screwed up... I added water in place of the vinegar/LAB wash and muck and that diluted down what should have been a theoretical 6% down to 3.9%