SBB's All Molasses Rum Recipe

[Saltbush Bill]

Depending on the molasses grade used it can appear a bit different. If it fizzing its going..... keep it warm and it should be right.
Stick a finger in and have a taste.... do the same every few days.

[Yummyrum]

Do you sanitise your finger first Salty

[GreenEnvy22]

Thanks beerswimmer.

[Saltbush Bill]

Do you sanitise your finger first Salty

Sanitise ? what is this word you use Yummy ?
Some of my favorite Molasses fermenting photos below. Use the arrows to see more pics of "Sanitation"
http://www.rumgallery.com/travel--life/ ... ious-photo

[GreenEnvy22]

It's been a couple of weeks fermenting, but temperature has been cool, under 10c most of the time. I have a space heater now trying to warm up a little section of the garage that I have blanketed off. I don't know if fermentation is done, the SG is still 1.06, but I know I can't trust that number with molasses. The taste is awful, doesn't taste like there's any sweetness left but it's hard to tell because the molasses is so strong. Doesn't taste infected, just bitter.

[Yummyrum]

If you followed Saltys recipe , I’d call it done if it tastes like that . And the FG sounds about right too , especially if you added Dunder .
10°C is Ok for settling wash but it should have been at least mid 20s to 30s while fermenting

[Virandell]

Hi guys how much end product you ending up from 28L wash ?

[GreenEnvy22]

I stripped 2/3 of this today. Will finish it tomorrow.
One thing I haven't seen before, there is A slight Golden color to the collected spirits. That molasses is potent stuff.
Grappa on right, rum on left.

[Saltbush Bill]

Must have had a tiny puke.

[GreenEnvy22]

Must have had a tiny puke.

I guess so. I'm surprised I could. My 16 gallon boiler was only filled to 10 gallon, and I have a 24 inch tall 2" column. And all the jars looked like that.

[30xs]

Finally got around to trying out the new source of molasses. I did a small test in a carboy and the hose aeration foam smoothed out and a small shake caused it to clear off and look like root beer in a jug. No oil slick looking froth this time. I have higher hopes for this one. Smells better than the other stuff as well. I do have one question. What kind of yield should I expect, ballpark. I have a used 5 gallon barrel I’d like to fill and wondering how many ferments would be required. Starting SG looked to be around 1.100, although I know it inaccurate and there are unfermentables. Just looking for a educated guess.

[Saltbush Bill]

Im not even going to try to work that out....to many variations. How tight you make cuts, mollases quality/ sugar content, pot still or plated column, straight wash or mixed feints , wash, low wines.
Also a long time since I did 28L of wash.....my ferments are 180L and boiler holds 100ish L of mixed wash / low wines and feints.
Depending on ratios of wash/ low wines/ feints I can end up with over 15L of hearts at barrel strength from one run. 5 gal is about 18L I think?
With a smaller set up its going to take you longer.

[30xs]

I was planning to ferment in 220l barrels, 58 gallon. Probably 8-10 gallon of headspace. Everything would be stripped to about 40% and then low wines around 12-13 gallon charge through four plates. Planning to barrel about 120-125 proof. I’ll err towards the tighter side since it’s my first rum and let the barrel do it’s magic from there.

[Saltbush Bill]

With 4 plates its not necessary to strip.....you could run straight wash.
I just prefer to run a mix......gives me the flavour Im happy with.
100% strip could make for a fairly light flavoured rum,
Not sure what theend result will be as Ive never tried that way.
Will be interesting to see how it goes.......please report back to let us know.

[30xs]

Thanks for the heads up on stripping too much flavor on 100% stripped spirit run. Being this one is going to be my first foray into playing with a barrel, once used, I will try keeping the flavor in it.

[Saltbush Bill]

Flavour of Rum seems to be a very personal thing.....many here struggle for more flavour and cant get enough, just as many wont use all molasses because they say the flavour is too strong.
Find what you like and make more.

[GreenEnvy22]

So I have finished distilling this, will do my cuts in a day or two.
From the initial five gallons of molasses, I loaded 16.5 gallons total into my still, and at the end I wound up with 6L before doing my cuts.
I started out my spirit run at around 84%, and I stopped around 45%, when it started getting cloudy.

If I end up with about half of that I'll have enough rum to last me for many years, I very rarely drink it, though I do add it to some of our canned preserves that we make.

[30xs]

So I have finished distilling this, will do my cuts in a day or two.
From the initial five gallons of molasses, I loaded 16.5 gallons total into my still, and at the end I wound up with 6L before doing my cuts.
I started out my spirit run at around 84%, and I stopped around 45%, when it started getting cloudy.

If I end up with about half of that I'll have enough rum to last me for many years, I very rarely drink it, though I do add it to some of our canned preserves that we make.

Thanks. That tells me that I could be looking at about 30-35 gallons molasses total to fill a five gallon barrel, with similar molasses quality and pretending our cuts would be similar. Should be a fun learning process.

[Yummyrum]

Been so long since I had a chance to distill , I forgotten how much I get so just looked at storage keg . Seems I add almost always 8.8litres @ 78%abv . It comes off the four plates at around 92%abv .... thats about 7.45 lites from a 30 litres of Mollases made up to 100liters wash .

That works out to 293mls per litre of molly @78%abv after cuts
Asusuming the angels are fair , that would give me 570mls @40%abv .

Interestingly Bundaburg Rum claim to get about 1x700ml bottle of UP ( 37%abv) per litre of Molly . So I’m not too far off .

[30xs]

Been so long since I had a chance to distill , I forgotten how much I get so just looked at storage keg . Seems I add almost always 8.8litres @ 78%abv . It comes off the four plates at around 92%abv .... thats about 7.45 lites from a 30 litres of Mollases made up to 100liters wash .

That works out to 293mls per litre of molly @78%abv after cuts

Thanks. Pretty much 25% of the molly volume is your keep at 78%. Is 78% fairly standard for barrel strength rum? For some reason I had 62-65% stuck in my head.

[Saltbush Bill]

I oak mine at 62-65% many commercial outfits and some hobbyists oak at higher.
Again its what works for you.

[NZChris]

I've read a research paper recommending aging at 55% and read of commercials barrelling in the high 60s and one even higher, (I'm not a fan of their product),. My protocol has evolved to stripping to low abv low wines and aging the spirit run at whatever the heart cut is without water addition, usually between 63 and 68%

[Yummyrum]

78% works for me with my ex bourbon barrel.
Bundaburg , Beenleigh and Inner circle all Oak at around 80% avb .
Someone said Oaking that high pulls tanins . Many repeat the those words . I don’t find that .
I also don’t find them in the commercial Rums mentioned above .

I would prefer to Oak at lower abv because it would take less work to fill the barrel

But thats not me

[franco1s0001]

Did a first run of this, instead of all mollases, subbed in 1kg sugar to replace some of the mollases, after distilling, let it 'age' in glass bottles, clear rum yes, after 2 weeks in glass bottles the profile changed to something I really like, has a caramel and liquorice taste as it goes down and very smooth, need to note, as it came out at 90% abv (column still with 1 scrubber) brought it down to 55% and ran it through activated carbon twice then bottled it, I know my technique is far from the best but I do like the way it came out.
On a 20L wash it produced just under 3L at 90%

[rolling]

Just got to keep waiting...

Reckon you have waited long enough, Id be sampling by now.
Im not sure charred oak is that good in Rum, but thats your choice,,,,,everyone has different tastes.

Yes, it's all one big experiment. I originally used charred, then began putting up uncharted after reading what you'd written regarding this. 9 months now, maybe time to take a nip...

And I'm still waiting... My oldest is a year now. Not in any hurry, going to spend the next months trying different store bought rums to develop some knowledge. My initial investigations have been disappointingly sweet.

[Saltbush Bill]

Bought a drum of molasses, as I have a 50L oak Barrel to fill with Rum.
This should keep me busy for a while. Spent an afternoon decanting it into smaller containers for easier handling and storage.

Put down a couple of ferments the same afternoon, here is one of them doing its thing, you can hear another smaller one going in the back ground.
No artificial heating ......and no PH control of any kind.
Its gaining heat as it ferments as its in a large insulated esky/ cooler.
If it gets to warm I might have to do something to cool it down a bit.
This is how a happy Rum wash should look, Its alive and well.

Things I forgot to mention , the Youtube clip was taken at the 24 hour mark, The wash temp at that stage was 31.4c ....it started off a lot cooler.
Today at 48 Hours wash temp is 34.3...wash is still going as hard or harder than it was yesterday.
Its running on Lowans Bakers Yeast.

[rolling]

Love it Bill! I wish I'd just started with molasses on my first runs. I'm itching to get back at it, but I'm without a still house for a few more months...

[peach travis]

Bill, thanks so much for this protocol.

I’m a big rum lover and this process appeals to me on a deep philosophical level. I love the simplicity, the unadulterated molasses bent of it, and the continuous ferment aspect. I’ve got an insulated cooler that I’ll probably keep aside for rum as it comfortably accommodates a 30-40L ferment.

On that note, the best molasses I can obtain comes in 14kg pails so I scaled your recipe to 33L. My only notes are that it seemed to settle at 30* for me. Not sure if that is because the stainless in the cooler was colder, or because I had to step away from the ferment to do a couple things, but it’s certainly in the ballpark.

Apart from that I followed it to a T and it was happily fizzing away this morning, so I’ll leave it alone for a week now.

First question- I’ve got a 5L swing top jar I’ll be filling up over time. Any thoughts on whether this first cut ought to go into it, or should I set it aside and start filling the jar once I’m sucking dunder-based diesel?

Second question- Bill you say to put heads and tails into the next generation’s strip. Is that a continuous process? (I.e the heads and tails of each run are rolled forward infinitely?) I’ve read conflicting opinions on this site about that process, but would appreciate your view.

Thanks again!

[Saltbush Bill]

Start filling your jar from the begining.
Add the heads and tails from each run to the next spirit run.
This rum needs time on oak.....dont expect it to taste great straight from the still.

[peach travis]

Oh to the spirit run? Righto, thanks. I’ll fill the jar from the beginning too.

I know what you mean about it needing time. I made a molasses/cane sugar rum and in lieu of dunder I let a few litres of backset from my peated single malt whisky get infected and threw that in the mix.

I absolutely detested it when it was first blended but after about four months it’s already got some interesting aniseed/liquorice character. It’s still got a very rough cough syrup undertone that I’m hoping will disappear but the change is remarkable.