Home Distiller

Posted: **Fri Jul 06, 2012 2:02 am**

The high sugar levels in molasses prevent microbes breeding up in it. The more you dilute it, the more likely it is to get infected. So there is a lot to be said for only clarifying it when you need it.

Posted: **Fri Jul 06, 2012 4:09 pm**

HookLine wrote:The high sugar levels in molasses prevent microbes breeding up in it. The more you dilute it, the more likely it is to get infected. So there is a lot to be said for only clarifying it when you need it.

OK. Thanks hookline. I'll just do it as required. It was interesting to note that the place I bought it from actually had it stored in a refrigerator. I know a cattle farmer who has a 2000 litre tank of it in his yard up in the hunter valley so I wonder why they used a fridge.

Posted: **Sun Jul 15, 2012 1:35 am**

Clarifying produced no sediment. All clear usable liquid so it must be as she said "just molasses".
Fermenting now and smells pretty darn good, but I love licorice.

Posted: **Sun Aug 26, 2012 9:32 am**

I pitched two table spoons of bakers yeast in this mash and its bubbling along really slow... should I let the mash breathe? pitch more yeast? pitch turbo yeast?

any recommendations?

Posted: **Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:30 am**

Mario84 wrote:any recommendations?

Just leave it alone I'd say.

Posted: **Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:36 am**

looks like its going to take at least a month this way... : P

it bubbles about twice a minute... : S

Posted: **Thu Aug 30, 2012 4:42 pm**

I have been using this recipe for almost a year now and am experimenting with it now.
Just did my first batch with Animal feed molasses vs. Food grade blackstrap.

Result: Spend the extra money on Grocery store food grade stuff. My yeasties Loved the fertilizer stuff but the spirit definitely suffered from it. The hearts were all cloudy (on the stripping run at least) and it just is a inferior final product.

But thats just me. I am trying to make a superior product to what you can buy at the liquor store, not make cheap booze.

Posted: **Thu Sep 06, 2012 2:14 pm**

I don't get this "food grade" molasses thing. The molasses i've been using is from E & A Salce called Queensland Molasses. It is sold as feed grade for horses and whatever else likes molasses. It gets fed to million dollar horses that win million dollar races and are insured for just as much but others here would have me believe its full of nasties and no good for making rum.
I doubt that commercial distilleries go shopping at woolworths looking for "food grade" molasses.

Posted: **Thu Sep 06, 2012 2:24 pm**

And a big thankyou to Hookline for this excellent recipe.
I don't normally drink rum but Flo does and she is most impressed with what i've made so far.
Now that i've aged a few batches i can point myself in the right direction and continue to improve the flavour to suit our taste.
For those in Australia and living at the bottom, you would be familiar with Royal Swann Rum. That is the goal i aim for and to better it.

Posted: **Thu Sep 06, 2012 2:36 pm**

Food grade molasses for "humans" is certainly more palatable,,,,,,,,,for humans.
Put a finger tip of 50% on your tongue and see weather or not you'll spread some on yer griddle cakes.....I bet not.

Posted: **Thu Sep 06, 2012 7:54 pm**

That may be so but i'm not eating the stuff, just distilling it. I also don't eat sweet feed, rolled barley, feed wheat or tomato paste mixed with sugar and yeast but they all make good for distilling. Thats my point. Just because its feed grade molasses doesn't make it unsuitable for making a good rum.

Posted: **Thu Sep 06, 2012 8:03 pm**

LWTCS wrote:Food grade molasses for "humans" is certainly more palatable,,,,,,,,,for humans.
Put a finger tip of 50% on your tongue and see weather or not you'll spread some on yer griddle cakes.....I bet not.

No but take 2 gallons of it and add 20 lbs cane sugar and enough hot water to make 14 gallons total and taste it and compare taste to fancy molasses of same volume .Ive had access to both fancy and feed molasses and prefer the feed with sugar added over the fancy for making rum.to my tastes anyway

Posted: **Fri Sep 07, 2012 3:28 am**

Ah,,,, i see your point .
I did a side by side this past week and the batch with the most black strap definitely had a harder time finishing based on the ratios i used.
Not implying anything other than ratios matter.
I love my bucket of blackstrap however.

Posted: **Fri Sep 07, 2012 6:09 am**

LWTCS wrote:I love my bucket of blackstrap however.

I hope you're aware that curling up with a bucket of blackstrap molasses in the garage at night can lead to relationship problems...

I've only ever used agricultural grade molasses, with all of its extra funk... We used to buy it by the barrel to mix with feed and/or silage...

Posted: **Fri Sep 07, 2012 10:15 am**

rad14701 wrote:I hope you're aware that curling up with a bucket of blackstrap molasses in the garage at night can lead to relationship problems...

Damn, so that's what happened to my first marriage.

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 8:32 am**

I have a 6.5 gallon bucket I'm wanting to start a run of low wines for a Hook Rum. This my attempt to convert original recipe to smaller size.
3.5 gallon water
4 pounds sugar
3 qt Mollases Golden A type
1/2 tbsp DAP
1 1/2 gallon backset (from UJSSM run for first batch, then proper backset from then on)
5 ounces bakers yeast

Does this sound about right?

Will it leave enough headroom in the fermenter for the cap?

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 3:54 pm**

Roundyround wrote:Will it leave enough headroom in the fermenter for the cap?

I'd want more head space, personally...

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 4:25 pm**

5 ounces of yeast is a bit much...

Posted: **Mon Oct 08, 2012 7:01 pm**

Let's try 1.75 ounces. I forgot to divide by three. One thing distilling is going to do is drag me kicking and screaming into the metric age. I have converters on my phone and every computer I use.

Does this foam up quite a bit, with a large krausen?

Posted: **Thu Oct 11, 2012 4:42 am**

I only use 2 teaspoons of DAP for a 15 gallon ferment. All it is for in this recipe is a bit of extra nitrogen.

Posted: **Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:11 pm**

Hi all--

I am seeking some guidance about timing of the heads-to-hearts cut. Are there any heuristics about when to make this cut--an approximate ABV or vapor temperature?

I should mention most of my experience is with nuetral spirits. I have a few rounds of Hook's rum under my belt, but this is the first time I am doing it with a still that I am sure is not refluxing at all, so behavior is clearly different. I can make neutral cuts by nose/taste without problem, but the differences seem subtler in the "dirtier" pot-stilled products..

I have about 21 gal of low wines charged in the still at about 33% ABV. The first 500ml were discarded as foreshots. I have collected about 1.5 gal of heads in 500ml increments. The first gallon is clearly going in the heads jar.

The last 3 500ml collections are at about 80% ABV and 82-83C. They smell considerably better than the first gallon, and the 3 smell the same to me. But they still smell very "dirty" in comparison to nuetral hearts.

Am I in the hearts at this point (it doesn't seem to be getting any better over the last few 500ml collections). Is what smells "off" to me just normal for pot distillation of a more flavorful product?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Posted: **Tue Dec 04, 2012 4:54 am**

GhostfaceStillah wrote:Hi all--

I am seeking some guidance about timing of the heads-to-hearts cut. Are there any heuristics about when to make this cut--an approximate ABV or vapor temperature?

Collect in separate jars, and look for the point which the sharp 'solvent' smell disappears. Not always so easy early on in your stilling career, but just keep practising. I find the heads-heart cut the easiest. Hearts-tails is the trickier one for me.

I should mention most of my experience is with nuetral spirits. I have a few rounds of Hook's rum under my belt, but this is the first time I am doing it with a still that I am sure is not refluxing at all, so behavior is clearly different. I can make neutral cuts by nose/taste without problem, but the differences seem subtler in the "dirtier" pot-stilled products..

Correct. They are less distinct. More 'smeared out', as it were.

I have about 21 gal of low wines charged in the still at about 33% ABV. The first 500ml were discarded as foreshots. I have collected about 1.5 gal of heads in 500ml increments. The first gallon is clearly going in the heads jar.

The last 3 500ml collections are at about 80% ABV and 82-83C. They smell considerably better than the first gallon, and the 3 smell the same to me. But they still smell very "dirty" in comparison to nuetral hearts.

Sounds normal.

Am I in the hearts at this point (it doesn't seem to be getting any better over the last few 500ml collections). Is what smells "off" to me just normal for pot distillation of a more flavorful product?

I think so. Rum in particular is pretty raw straight out of the still.

You seem to be in the ball park. Just keep practising.

Posted: **Tue Dec 04, 2012 5:03 pm**

HookLine wrote:Just keep practising.

+1
Saving some for a later evaluation against what will become your current work may help IMO.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2012 6:16 pm**

Mine is still improving after six or eight months. I would even say its top shelf at this point. I will keep it on wood till its gone. I had my doubts tho no more. And I found a source close by in 55 gal. drums of molasses. Yumm.

Posted: **Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:38 am**

Last spring I ran a couple of rounds of rum based on the fancy vs. blackstrap showdown and brown sugar using dunder and was pleasantly rewarded using only JD chips for aging (flavoring as its called here). Just lately I've run a couple of batches using bakers molasses aquired from a bakers supply and saving my dunder continued to ferment and add the dunder in small amounts to my low wines and purification run. Next week I'll be running my third run (spirit run) and look forward to being able to age these spirits in barrels I'm acquiring from Gibbs Bros. As luck has it they're shop is only a short stretch from where I'm located for a work project so I've ordered my barrel toasted, no char for the fancy molasses rum. Next year should offer a great rum from this barrel.

Last summer I ran the same recipe variation using black strap. This went into a used charred 5 gallon barrel that I acquired from a micro distillery over the late summer. This one has only been in cask for a couple months now and will stay the year as well. Early sample of some of the spirits on chips offered a pretty good idea that I'm in for a treat next year. Have yet to run only brown sugar wash to date but cant say its not in the future down the line...

Wishing for some days off for AG... some day I'm hoping..

Posted: **Mon Dec 31, 2012 11:10 am**

What is the gooey stuff on the bottom of the fermenting bucket after the fermentation process? It's whitish in color... is there yeast in there that went dormant? Like the sweetfeed recipe can we reuse some of it or should you just use the dunder from the potstill and pitch new yeast?

Posted: **Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:55 pm**

midnightmaraude wrote:What is the gooey stuff on the bottom of the fermenting bucket after the fermentation process? It's whitish in color... is there yeast in there that went dormant? Like the sweetfeed recipe can we reuse some of it or should you just use the dunder from the potstill and pitch new yeast?

It's yeast.

Posted: **Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:58 am**

Can it be reused?

Posted: **Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:18 am**

yes it can be re used

Posted: **Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:22 pm**

When aging, do you leave the coffee filters on for the entire two months or should the container be capped shut for the aging process?

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