Moose Hoof Rum

[MooseMan]

This is the recipe and process that I use to make a Rum that I really like, and enjoy sharing with my friends and family.
I call it, with my tongue placed firmly in my cheek, Moose Hoof Rum.

Spokerider recently asked the forum a question about rum making that made me think about my own process, what I do and why, so I decided to share it.

There's nothing groundbreaking here, and I haven't developed a wonder recipe or anything, I've just studied and in most cases made the T&T Rums on the forum, and adapted what I do, to suit what raw materials and kit is available to me.
There are key process steps that I use in my rum that are a little different, but I'll get to that.
I'm on generation 6 of this Rum now, and for the last 3 cycles have had enough key ingredients to max out the volumes for my vessels.

So, ingredients.

Firstly, Molasses.
The only one that I can easily get in larger quantity is 44% sugar and is intended for adding to sheep feed. I buy it in 25kg cubes which contain almost exactly 18lts.

Secondly, Dunder.
I keep all of the Dunder from my strip runs, pumping it out hot from the still directly into, conveniently, the empty molasses cubes that I've accumulated!
This way it stays clean and infection free, and I've noticed that it drops quite a lot of solids over the course of a few weeks so there's a nice sticky marmite layer on the bottom when I pour it out.
I've used it after more than 8 months stored like this and it smells just as good as when it went in.
It does develop a slightly more rich aroma in storage, almost umami like.

Thirdly, sugar syrup.
I use a sugar syrup that is 67% refined sugar and 33% water.
You can make this by heating granulated sugar with water and stirring, simple syrup in the cocktail world.
Or for the purpose of this recipe you could just add 2/3 of my ratio to the fermenter as granulated sugar and add water to make up the rest, but you'd have to stir in really well to make sure it's melted.

And last of all, yeast nutrients.
I make my own yeast nutrient slurry by heating yeast trub from previous ferments on top of the still when I'm running. Trub from the bottom of fermenters is kept in a clean bottle (I add a little water to loosen it if needed) until I do a run, then I heat it in an open stainless vessel on top of the still, stirring and keeping at around 40-50c to Autolyse the yeast. This makes a great nutrient base and I have messed with different little additions to it but what seems to make bakers yeast happy in a rum wash is the following.
To each approx litre of slurry I'll add;
3tsp dap
1tsp gypsum
1/2tsp baking powder
1ml olive oil
This is stirred in whilst heating on the still and stored again in a bottle until needed.

So for the recipe.
I will use the volumes that I work with, these are pretty easy to scale up or down to suit your own vessels.
To a 75l vessel, I add 9lts of molasses, which will weigh 12.5kgs
Onto this, pour 15lts of clean Dunder, then top up with hot water, stirring to mix and aerate, to get to 35c and approx 55lts.

Add a palm full of shells, approx. 250ml of nutrient slurry and sprinkle 4tsp of bakers yeast, let the dry yeast wet out on the surface then stir in and lid it loosely.
Keep as close to 30c as possible.

So, this is the little bit I do differently, to lengthen the ferment as much as I can and allow extra fermentables to be added without overwhelming the yeast with too high a gravity at the start.
After a few days fermentation will have slowed but should be still ticking over with a light fizz.
Stir in 7lts of sugar syrup, and top up to just over 70lts (Basically max out the fermenter) with more Dunder, approx another 8lts.
At this point I remove the heated blankets that I use, and allow the fermenters to cool to (Summer) ambient, but depending where you are, you may have to heat/cool to keep them at approx. 20c.

This time, the ferment will go really gently and slowly due to the higher gravity, the developing acididy and the lower temperature stressing the yeast a little. It won't stall due to the molasses/dunder and shells buffering the pH. It won't have a krausen phase when you add the second lot of fermentables, so you can max out the vessel and keep the smallest possible head space.
The long slow ferment generates tons of flavour and aroma, and because it's not chugging hard and pumping out co2 at a fast rate it doesn't scrub flavour and aroma out. I get a really nice complex flavour profile from the rum made this way. I usually find the ferment will go for at least a month from start to finish before I strip it. You can leave it as long as you like after fermentation completely stops, but that's when the risk on infection begins.

The strip will smell pretty rough but have faith.
I strip the clear wash from 2 of the above ferments at around 65lts each, right down to c. 25abv.
The last bit from each fermenter is swirled up, poured into glass and cold crashed to clear it.
I add that cleared wash (Around a gallon) to the spirit run and the trub gets recycled for nutrients. By the time the wash has finished the extended slow ferment, the pH will have been dropping and the shells will have totally dissolved in the trub.

For the spirit run I add all of the stripped low wines, the last bit of cleared wash, and all my previous rum Feints, which is currently approx. 14lts and seems to have remained at that volume for the last 2 runs.

I heat it to 50c the night before, push a rag in the end of the condenser and leave it to very slowly cool overnight.
This tends to develop a nice subtle buttery aroma.
Next day I do a spirit run as normal, taking pretty normal cuts ready for aging.
I do tend to cut a little into tails where I find there is a lovely soft dark chocolate taste once it's been aged a few months. I've been asked by several people if I've added dark chocolate to my rum.

It's pretty highly flavoured rum, but I've no idea what the ester count would be. Certainly much higher than most middle shelf commercial rums I've tried, but a lot smoother!
Cut really tight the middle hearts is fine almost right away with a strong mixer like coke ginger beer or orange juice, but for me not a rum that you could really enjoy neat until it's had 3 months on toasted oak at least, and I add a 50mm long section of orange peel and 4 raisins, plus 4 ex bourbon staves, to each shoulder filled Demi which seems to smooth the rum really well in good time.

Those looking for an easy quick rum process will probably not have read this far down, but to those who have made the effort to get all the way to here, give it a try, I think you'll be impressed.