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I did a rum spirit run about a week ago, mostly feints, with a few litres from a previous spirit run I was not happy with (too much tails). I also used a few inches of scrubber packing in the short pot column, and was very conservative with the cuts.

Best spirit I have made so far. For my taste rum is not that nice out of the still, needs oaking and ageing to really work. But this stuff is very nice as is, with out any oaking or ageing. Has got a hint of rawness & bite to it, but nothing like normal whitedog rum, and it should settle with time.

Best part? I got 17 litres at 62%.

Rum feints are your friend.

Hook, first, thanks for the recipe. I agree with the other posts that it is nice to have a 'one stop' resource. I am about to try your guide out, but need some expert clarification for this novice. Could you explain the difference between dunder and lees?

Thanks much.

Dunder - the stuff that's left in the boiler after the first distillation. people use varying amounts in their next wash, mixed with water, sugar, grain etc

lees - the stuff at the bottom of your fermenting bucket after you racked off the wash. it has all the stuff that settled, including some living yeast and a bunch of dead or dormant yeast. you can use some of the lees to start your next fermentation, either straight or use some of it to make a starter and then pitch into your new ferment

Cheers, bd.

quick question:

Will 1tsp of lemon juice account for the citric acid in the recipe or does 'citric acid' refer to something more precise?

Thanks.

Thanks, all, for the help/advice. Quick question: The directions on the DAP that I have indicate 1tsp/gallon of mash. Is this amount superfluous? Are there negative consequences to higher levels of yeast nutrient?

Hi all, question on Molasses: I ended up being only able to purchase blackstsrap in 31oz jars. I was hoping to find it in bulk or at least in 1g size. Tried bakeries, food distro's, grocery stores, health food stores, etc. and nothing. Couldn't even order it for me in bulk. The only place I did find was at the local feed store as molasses is apparently used as a feed supplement for some animals. Ingredient list on the 1g container was: molasses, water, phosphoric acid. I am assuming the acid was a preservative?

Anyone have any comments on the viability of such a product for our use? I am a little hesitant.....And, if anyone has any clue on where (else?) to find it in bulk (I know this could be geography dependent?)

Thanks all.

Ingredient list on the 1g container was: molasses, water, phosphoric acid. I am assuming the acid was a preservative?

Probably not a helping with perservation. Phospheric acid is a cheap source of flavor.. it's what gives Coke and Pepsi that "bite" on the tongue. Pretty similar to citric acid, but a whole lot cheaper. It's probably just added as a flavor enhancer to the molasses.

There are other threads that talk about boiling the molasses to clarify it. I'd start there and see how it goes.

I just started at 25L batch of Hook's Rum this evening with food grade molasses I got in bulk. Only been about 20 minutes and the airlock is already going nuts. We'll see how it goes.

Quick Question:

When i rack my wash after primary fermentation has ceased per Hook's instructions, this is where I get the 'lees' for the next run, correct? These I assume just save in the fridge until next time?

Thanks,

To those more adventurous souls; I have heard from others that dunder that has "spoiled" is critical to developing a heavier, more complex rum. They left a small amount of dunder outside under a tree covered only with a cheese cloth in order to encourage the growth of some of the many beneficial bacteria, the same bacteria mentioned by Hook. They then used the small amount to "seed" their larger dunder pit. When using the dunder, they used aimed for a lower ABV/higher PH as bacteria are least tolerate to alcohol/acid than yeast and you want the bacteria to work with the yeast to produce the heavy aromatic rum profile.

That being said, without a lab, it would be quite hard to determine what bacteria is growing in the dunder so try at your own risk and DO NOT TASTE THE DUNDER LEFT OUTSIDE OR THE MASH FERMENTED WITH IT. If the aroma of the dunder is better than when you left its, as it dunderness is supposed to increase, it should benefit the distillates flavor. If it smell like garbage/swamp juice and has critters swimming around in, i would not use it.

I would mention I have not done this but plan to as soon as I pick out a nice spot where I can leave some dunder undisturbed/unnoticed.

Do the remnants from the stripping run get combined with the remnants from the alcohol run to form the dunder or is it only the remnants from he alcohol run?

Thanks all.

Dunder is usually just what is left over in the boiler from the stripping run. The remnants of the spirit/alcohol run, essentially being just water, would not have the richness we want to incorporate into the next batch. I would not combine them as it would just dilute the "real" dunder.

Doing the stripping run. The temp immediately rose (after the boil run up) to 84C. The first litre of product came out at 85%ABV. the temp is allready at 90C in the first third of the second litre. I am guessing that my ferment did not go so well. Thoughts?

Depends on the of the mash ABV,the amount of heat applied and type of still (reflux column or pot). If using a pot, I would not look at the temps too critically especially for a strip run.

Thanks caymanrombaron:

I am running a reflux still without packing and running wide open (ie zero reflux) so esentially a pot still. I had problems with geting a mash ABV, though i followed Hook's recipe. Basically 11lbs sugar and 8q blackstrap with citric acid and DAP. 150g bakerrs yeast. Looked like it totally took off, repitched just to make sure. I am in my 4th litre of product with litre 3 at 78%ABV. I know thats some rough figures, but am i in the ballpark here?

Well 90C is equal to 194F, which is high but your ABV is high too so I would think you are doing fine total yield wise. I usually end up with total of 1.5 gallons of 70% for a run of 30 liters mash of 14%. I run mine through a column also but with a little reflux as only do single runs.

with an abv above 70 I'd say you're doing a spirit run, not a stripping run

Easy Kiwi, not all of us have nuclear powered stills

Hmmmmmm. I am through five litres collected and am still at 75%ABV. Am i getting more re reflux than i thought? Should i collect down to 10-20% and rerun or cut out early and call this the spirit run? If so whar ABV should iquit at?

Thanks so much for you comments and help._

He must have a nuclear powered something if he's pulling almost 80 off a single run

Yeah, you're getting reflux somewhere. Do you by any chance have a tall, uninsulated column, and are you running quite slow? If you haven't made heads cuts, I'd just treat this one as a learning experience. You can dilute it down and rerun, and you'll lose a bit of flavour, but it's all good, some people even like that. maybe you could dilute with dunder or wash to mitigate this slightly. In future though, if you're pulling those sorts of numbers on a single run, I'd be tempted to embrace it and only do singles (if you like it that way, of course).

You must be loving the way your shed smells right now, distillin.

Between the rum and the homebrew (grand cru) im drinking everyting is great for a tuesday.

Im running 1500w right now, twin 1500w for the boil up. Column height is 42". Running at about 100ml/min collection. In the 10th litre and getting 60ABV as of the last 250ml collected.

I have the run separated into 1L segments. Thinking i just go with this as the spirit run? Of so, should i stop soon or run through till 10/20% range?

I'd be pretty tempted to go with that as the sprit run, yes. you're 1L bottles are probably a little bit large for cutting from later, so you're likely to lose a bit of hearts in comtaminated bottles, but you can always run the feints, get some more hearts, and blend the two together. Which is normally really yummy, actually.

Dis-till-in,

If i were you and wanted to do a strip run, I would use both 1500w elements for the run. Seems like the single 1500w is more suited for spirit runs given the tall column.

G'Day All
Thanks for the great info Hook

I am trying my first ever rum, I am going to to give this one a crack, This is what i have done so far, I clarified 7ltr's of BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES With 14ltrs' of water last night, Let it settle over night, Morning i had approx 28ltr's of MOLASSES/WATER MIX how does that work? I ended up putting 25ltr's of clarified MOLASSES/WATER mix in the fermanter, I then mixed up 6kg of raw sugar with 11.7ltr's of hot water and mixed it well and added it to my fermenter, This took the fermenter up to the 41ltr mark, I then added 19ltr's of cold water, 2 tea spoons of DAP, When it cooled down to 30deg i added 150 grams of LOWAN RED Premium Bakers Yeast, This took my fermenter up to the 60ltr mark, HOW AM I GOING

*NOTE
As i said i have never done RUM before, The CLARIFYING of the MOLASSES didn't seem to do to much [or maybe it did]
It looked pretty much the same this morning as it did last night when i mixed the water and molasses together, I guess i must have done some thing wrong

Cheers: Dolikeadrink

I did an experimental 5 Gallon batch of Pintos rum recipe and it went well.
After my initial run I was completely happy with results, but after double distilling
the proof was upped to 192. I watered down to 150, aged with heavy charred hickory
for 1 week. Final likker was 1.2 liters ,smooth with smokey flavors similar to scotch.
I didn't measure proof after hickory was introduced.

Good for sipping
Too bad I didn't make enough. It's almost gone now.
In my signature area, you will see short footage of the 1st rum run before I double
distilled and aged with hickory.

DOLIKEADRINK wrote: The CLARIFYING of the MOLASSES didn't seem to do to much [or maybe it did]
It looked pretty much the same this morning as it did last night when i mixed the water and molasses together, I guess i must have done some thing wrong

My experience was the same as yours. After clarifying and letting it set overnight I carefully poured it off into the fermenter. There was only the merest film of a tan colored something left on the bottom of the pot. It may just be that some blackstrap is cleaner than others to start with.

I think I will skip the clarifying next time.

0re0 wrote:flavors similar to scotch

That that early oak slightly masking over your rum florals. Longer it sit the better it will git.

Darks I've been sitting on are finally starting to change. I recon they'll be perfect when I get to the last drop

It's hard to keep enough on hand to let sleep long enough

Cheers, guys.

It may just be that some blackstrap is cleaner than others to start with.

Agree with that. I do a test clarify on each new batch of molasses, but it rarely has much sediment in it, so I usually don't bother with clarifying the rest of it. Any sediment gets left behind in the fermenter anyway.

Also, I originally said use 2 parts water to 1 part molasses for clarifying. Now I use equal parts water and molasses -- 2:1 is not necessary, and 1:1 is easier to physically handle.

I'm going to start a batch of Hook Rum, this will be my first lot of flavour spirit. From reading all the different Rum recipes this sounds like a good place to start. Got 20l of Blackstrap Molasses for $15 and a 1kg of Calcium carbonate for $2 from a local Rural suplier. I havn't been able to find any DAP so I will just use some tomato instead.

Didn't make it clear in my original article, but it may not be necessary to add calcium carbonate. Depends on a bunch of factors.

Blackstrap molasses should already have enough calcium in it for yeast nutrient, any extra you add is just to adjust the pH, so only add it if the pH goes down too far for the yeast. (Can't remember offhand the exact optimal pH range for yeast, something like 4-5.)

HookLine wrote:Didn't make it clear in my original article, but it may not be necessary to add calcium carbonate. Depends on a bunch of factors.

Blackstrap molasses should already have enough calcium in it for yeast nutrient, any extra you add is just to adjust the pH, so only add it if the pH goes down too far for the yeast. (Can't remember offhand the exact optimal pH range for yeast, something like 4-5.)

I didn't put any calcium carbonate in this first batch, I relized that it is for pH adjustment of latter batches with dunder. The bag of CC was sitting next to the counter when I was paying for the molasses, for $2 I just grabed it.
The fermenter is happily bubbling away with 2.5kg of raw sugar and 3.5l of blackstrap molasses.
I had to put the lid and water trap on the fermenter because the flies were hanging around. The yeast foamed up about an 1 1/2" in the first hour but has dropped back down again. This mixture smells quite nice