Light fruit rum theory - ideas/input?

[distiller_dresden]

No activity at 10am, I've repitched another packet of 1116. I mean, absolutely zero activity. Second time this has happened. Methinks I need to order yeast from a brewing place instead of Amazon from now on, maybe. Although I've never had this issue until apple brandy cider mash a few weeks ago with Lalvin EC1118 and now last night with the Lalvin K1V1116...

[der wo]

What's the SG? I mean it's much dunder in there. Perhaps it's very high SG?
Do you aerate the wash? It often helps especially when the yeast is weak.

[distiller_dresden]

I went to check the gravity, went out and got a gravity hydrometer at the brew store in town. Pretty nice, though extremely limited selection. I did find a place to get yeasties though, instead of Amazon!

So anyway, it is churning away now, and ear to the wall is crackling away/tiny bubble sounds. My heat is up to 88F too. I've had the heat programmed since last night, I guess the one drawback is wrap heaters take a bit to get up to 90F, but I'm close now. Big difference a pitch at 85F (what it was at 10a or so when I repitched with no activity) at 4 hours vs 70F at 4 hours (even every good ferment I've had I saw ZERO activity after 4 hours in a 70-75F ferment).

So der wo, what is it about low, slow, cool ferments that makes them 'better' (according to brandy experts like Cranky) for the wash for a brandy than a hot fast ferment? Is it the yeast have more time to, like, slowly chew through all the flavors and parts of the fruit sugars instead of mowing through them? I really don't know the science of fermenting here, at all, but I'm metaphoring here, is it like when you slowly eat you enjoy your food and get more flavors and enjoyment - is a slow ferment somehow getting 'more' of the fruit flavor out of a mash meant for a brandy?

And as I understand it we do hot, fast rum ferments because this is more likely to produce the esters we prefer for rum? Are esters a side effect of a hot/fast burn through the sugars, like a less efficiency tear through what's there, like a muscle car leaving more pollutants, except in this case they are esters we want? Why don't they produce at lower temp ferments as in higher?

Oh, I did aerate, last night, and this morning. With a stick blender, so it was aerated like a mofo, and then some. It looked like a molasses milkshake smoothie! I use the olive oil because it's shown to be an alternative to aeration without any side effects, but I ALSO aerate, I want my yeasties to have EVERY chance to kick ass and make ethanol. I try to do everything I possibly can with every mash-in to never get a stalled ferment. That's why I use Fermaid K now, instead of generic yeast nutrient, and the servomyces, all in pursuit of protecting and giving my yeast a pat on the ass and a loving caress.

[der wo]

Cold fermenting is cleaner than hot fermenting. I don't know why the yeast behaves like this, but it surely does. The hot fermenting yeast produces more higher alcohols and the esters of them have a stronger flavor than the ethanol esters. So hot fermented the original fruit flavors get more competitoring adulterating foreign esters. In general brandy making means to bring out original fruit flavors and Rum or Whisky making means either not much fruit flavors (because molasses and grain isn't fruity itself) or you have to produce those flavors.

And some distillers claim a fast ferment blows out many of the original flavors. Bad for brandy. I am not sure if this is really true.

Nothing wrong with a cold fermented Rum. And a hot temp is only one factor to increase fruitiness.
But anyway I would prefer the hot ferment, because the esters become not only stronger, but also more complex (a greater variety of different esters).

[distiller_dresden]

Well, I will be able to compare this very thing my next ferment. I will duplicate this rum recipe to the letter, I even have more of the apple backset to use. I'll duplicate it completely, but instead of the K1V-1116 wine yeast I'm using White Labs sweet mead yeast next time, which has a top temp of 75F. Both of these yeasts were recommended in "The Distiller's Guide to Rum" so I wanted to give them a try when I got back to rum. I'm in my 'rum phase' now, after running off so much corn bourbon/whisky. I kind of have bourbons aging out my ears now at the moment lol. For me, anyhow. I have a gallon and a half of 80 proof corn spirits. I'll get back to them, but now my next several runs will be rums. At least 3-4 consecutive runs of it. I have 5 gallons of HQ molasses, well 4 now, that needs usin!

Next batch will duplicate this recipe with the mead yeast, so I can see the difference. Then after that I am going to do a batch with just 2 gallons of HQ molasses, I think that's the batch I'll be doing sulfuric acid experiments the first time as well and infected dunder into my thumper.

Not decided what the 4th and final batch will be yet. Not to say I won't be using infected dunder on this batch or the next, they'll both have infected dunder in the thumper, just sans the acid. Then the 2 gal HQ rum will be with sulfuric treated infected dunder in the thumper, going for a medium or lighter rum on that 3rd one with some good esters hopefully. Where this and the 2nd mash in I want heavier really rich-bodied molasses-heavy rums, thus the blackstrap. Hoping that's what I get!

Any suggestions for my 4th batch, to combine with my last gallon of HQ molasses? I want to do something 'interesting' and am thinking all kinds of interesting things, like some pomegranate molasses, but that stuff is muy muy expensive. Maybe a combination of the molasses and some pear juice concentrate, I may have a line on a 5 gallon barrel of pear concentrate that's actually affordable, and I wonder what say a gallon and a half of pear concentrate, a gallon of HQ molasses, a gallon of pineapple juice, a gallon of dunder, 64oz of pomegranate concentrate - then top off with water after of course balancing PH to around 5.7... Any ideas on that mix der wo, and yeast best used there? Or suggestions of your own for my last gallon of molasses?

[der wo]

I don't think the temperature recommendations for wine makers or brewers have a great value for us.
A yeast for example for Chardonnay with a temp range 16-22°C doesn't mean this yeast doesn't work or works bad at a higher temp. It only means, for a typical Chardonnay keep the temp at 16-22°C with this yeast.

Of course you will get a bit different results with two different yeasts.
But the same yeast, one time cold the other time hot, would fit better to your question about fermenting cold.

I think after batch 3 you will perhaps have an idea what you want to do next.
Your plans for batch 4 sound strange for me. I don't like to mix flavors. But that's just me.

[distiller_dresden]

Well, we're either 72 hours in, if it started Monday night and I completely missed it Tuesday morning at 10a, but I saw no activity and heard nothing with an ear to the side... Or we're 60 hours in, at 91.6F, and it's varying up and down a bit. I had a blanket wrapped around it because it just couldn't budge over 89 without it, but tonight for some reason the ferment started heating up, it got to 93.7 and I pulled the blanket off because I didn't want to kill the yeast. I also prepared and poured in about 20oz of cold water/HQ molasses 50/50 mix which dropped the temp to it's now 91, and I pulled the blanket half-aside.

I thought at 90 and above the ferment would be finished up in a couple days, but oddly I never got like I see in photos of heavy molasses ferments in carboys the foamy head. I never got anything like that; this ferment looks a lot like my apple cider wash I had for my apple brandy. It's staying almost clear on top, but for the swirls and activity of little yeasties you can see dancing around on and under the surface... Still I wonder what's up with never getting a 'head'? It is starting to smell of alcohol, a wonderful smell combined with the rich brown molasses smell of the wash. I hope to cook it this weekend, we'll see if it's done by then...

I'm also going to try the 'butter' thing even though I don't have bakers yeast in it, just to see what happens. Heat to 135F my wash in my pot without it all set up, hold for 2 hours, then let it cool overnight. Next morning set up the still completely and get my funky infected dunder into the thump with a shot of vinegar, some wash, some feints, some trub, then go to town cook the rum with a slow heat up and hopefully get a really wonderful rum. Wonder what the 135 experiment will do?

Der wo, think I should put infected dunder in my wash for the 135 heat up for 2 hours, could that lead to the formation of esters doing it and leaving it overnight then stilling it and also doing my thjmp setup as described??

[der wo]

Der wo, think I should put infected dunder in my wash for the 135 heat up for 2 hours, could that lead to the formation of esters doing it and leaving it overnight then stilling it and also doing my thjmp setup as described??

Yes. I would load the wash into the still, add the dunder (perhaps with sulfuric acid), and heat it up. Ensure that not much evaporates over night (a long uninsulated riser helps. Or sealing the still. Be careful, a sealed still shouldn't start to boil...).

[distiller_dresden]

Well, I'll just put the top cap on my still! Then I'm only taking it to 135F so it won't boil anyway, I have a thermometer that fits right into the belly of my still so I can watch the temp very closely, I'll get it to 135, drop the flame to a whisper, and hold it there for a couple hours.

So -- the question is, I have a 5 gallon still. How much infected dunder do I add in there? Is it just a little matters, like 32oz? Or do I need a half gallon? More?? And should I add a bit of vinegar to the pot also, for the infected dunder to react with during the heat up and the overnight cool down, then the slow heat up during the cook?

My thumper is going to have a mix of: infected dunder, wash, bit of yeast trub (should I still do this? any benefit?), rum feints, debating molasses, shot of vinegar -- in addition to amount of dunder to add to my pot, tell me about my thumper der wo, what you think of those ingredients ability to all up flavor and esters? That's my end goal; I didn't use a gallon of HQ, gallon of bs, gallon of dunder, bit of apple backset, gallon of pineapple juice, a lb of dark brown, a can (lb) of Lyle's Black Treacle to not have tons of flavor!

As I don't know if I've said it specifically: I really appreciate your input and expertise, der wo, thank you, sir, or buddy, or whatever honorific you'd prefer (my impression tells me probably just 'der wo'). It's just very very much appreciated, as I'm' getting into the infected dunder thing this is wholly unexplored territory for me and I want to do it right since I have a good 2.5 gallon bucket of very well infected dunder right now, and a ferment of really rich rum with all the right stuff, and lots of it, that's almost ready to go.

[der wo]

How much dunder? I cant's answer this. Of course the amount is crucial. But not only the amount, but also how much it was infected? Do you use sulphuric acid? I know, many speak about 20 or 25% dunder. But they don't use sulphuric acid. I would use much less, but use sulphuric acid.

And how much vinegar? I am still waiting for summer temperatures to start a Rum ferment. I can't say anything about the amount, sorry. I have read 10% somewhere in Arroyo papers I think. Sounds much for me. I will have the advantage to do 5 stripping runs, 2 middle runs and one spirit run. Total 8 chances to add or change something.

And yeast trub? Also this I will find out with my summer Rum. The fifth stripping run will be including all the yeast.
With a thumper still I think best would be in general to have the dirtiest stuff in the boiler (dunder, yeast) and the cleanest stuff in the thumper (feints).

[distiller_dresden]

I can't answer 'how' infected my dunder is. How can I possibly? Pretty infected?? I put the yogurt and cheeses in about a month ago, and it has three different colored molds or like molds on top, really light blue/green, mustard yellowish, something like brown (looks like big cinnamon powder), something white, in addition to the dark brown/soy colored bumpy/bubbly and scar tissue smoothish looking pellicle. I can drop a photo here:

I don't have any sulfuric acid yet. As for vinegar, I have white and balsamic, lol you think balsamic would do anything special hehe. Probably white, I know. What maybe 4 oz into the pot with say 32 oz of infected dunder, 4.75 gal of wash. You think I should put some yeast trub in the wash? I've never done that, what is it when people say it contributes an 'off' flavor to the distillate? I don't know anything about that and I don't want that...

Sounds like you think better results would be a 'clean' thump, so just wash and feints? No vinegar, infected dunder, no trub, no molasses? Darn der wo, before you'd thought I should have infected dunder, vinegar, and the sulfuric acid in my thumper for the best production of esters. Why'd you change your mind?

[distiller_dresden]

My current rum is still fermenting, though it looks like it's slowed some; it's surprised me based on everyone else's 90F+ ferments. Other ones I always see have a big foamy head and start aggressive and are done in two or three days. Mine never got a head and has been just kind of chugging away at it's own decent pace since second pitch Tuesday morning, the yeast were working furiously because you could look in and see on top the activity coming from the bottom in swirls and whorls on the surface, now the surface is relatively calm and just some yeast dancing about on it a bit slower all over.

I wonder why though I never got a big foamy head and explosive starting ferment, or why I wasn't finished in two or three days given my 91-92F ferment?

[der wo]

Sorry, I can't tell you how much carboxylic acids are in your dunder. Also a smell test would not be sure, because it depends also on the pH, how much the acids smell.
Mix alcohol (neutral alcohol or feints or whatever) with dunder and add sulphuric acid. Then you will smell what potential your dunder has. That's what I do before making a decision about the dunder amount. Sorry, I don't know a shortcut.

Vinegar turns into acetic esters. Much of them will be ethyl acetate. This will add to your Rum a glue note. Many here say it's an off flavor.
Also here mix a proportion of vinegar, dunder and alcohol and add sulphuric acid and you will know better, where you are.

I always wrote that using infected dunder needs much refining before it is clean enough. I never said the dirty things should come into the thumper. As far as I remember...
You simply don't want carboxylic acids in your Rum. They stink. Most of them. Either they are esterified or they should remain far away from the collection vessel.
Wash, dunder, vinegar and sulphuric acid into the pot and feints -or if you don't have- wash into the thumper, also with sulphuric acid.

[distiller_dresden]

In one of these discussions we were talking about infected dunder and sulfuric, and I had saved this one for future reference because I planned using it for my first sulfuric acid experiments (when I get some):

der wo:
I would strip without the thumper. For example from 10% wash to 25% low wines. Or from 7% to 20%. Then grow the dunder. One day before the stripping run add sulphuric acid to the amount of dunder you want to use. Eventually add also a bit vinegar. If you have Rum feints, add them. Seal it. Then pour the undiluted low wines and the dunder into your still with thumper. A small amount of the mixture into the thumper (that there too is a good sour and sulphuric environment for esterification). Then distill slowly and make cuts of course.

I'll go off of your updated advice, because ShineOn also just puts his infected dunder into the pot as well. I thought the thumper would be a good place for it too since it's basically like a second distillation process, or at least a 1.5 distillation in some people's minds?

Anyhow this rum I don't have sulfuric. I'm trying a few things, ShineOn's 'butter rum' 135F for 2 hours warm up and over night cool down, to see if it is 'bread yeast' dependent, or if it will work with any rum wash, since I'm using 1116. Then I'll also be putting infected dunder into my pot for that warm up, covering it during the warm up and overnight cool down, and then the cook I'm going to have some infected in my thumper anyhow, not much. It'll be infected dunder, wash, feints.

My thumper charge is only 32oz and I like to have a higher ABV in there, so I don't want to dilute the wash and feints much, maybe just 6-8oz of dunder at most.

[der wo]

One thing is, that I don't run a thumper. And that I always think a single run with a thumper is too low for Rum. So generally I would prefer not to charge the thumper at all. Then there will be the highest distillation with this setup. Or only add a bit whatever to the thumper to solve a bit sulphuric acid in it.
And this quote was about double distillation plus thumper. But AFAIK you want a single run. So the procedure is different.

With "mixture" I mean the low wines-dunder-sulphuric acid mix, the same liquid in the boiler like in the thumper.

Yes, a high abv in the thumper is good. And you need acidic conditions there. So to the feints add either sulphuric acid, wash or dunder. I would prefer sulphuric acid, dunder is the worst. So because you don't have sulphuric acid, I would use wash.

[distiller_dresden]

Okay, I'm sold - wash and feints in thumper, lesser charge, and dunder with some trub in pot. So a lesser charge in my thumper will give me a more complete second distillation? Will it affect my output/distillate collection?

[der wo]

Yes, you have it.
A higher distillation normally leads to more hearts.

[distiller_dresden]

OH! Well, OKAY THEN!!

[distiller_dresden]

Ferment on the current rum batch seems to have finished, will be potting it up this evening for a 135F 2 hour warm up with infected dunder (covered) and overnight cool down, cook tomorrow for distillation. 135F hold for 2 hours and overnight cool down is ShineOn's method for creating butter flavors, but this is an experiment with my rum as his recipe is with bakers yeast; this has been duplicated so far by another board member with S04 (TwistedBrick) ale yeast. (here viewtopic.php?f=101&t=70778&start=30) We will see if it works with K1V-1116, as well if I am able to maybe get/create any additional esters by using infected dunder here with the heat up and leaving it overnight.

[distiller_dresden]

Not running it yet; there was molasses left on the bottom when I checked it. The wash wasn't sweet, but I checked the bottom, I had not stirred when I originally added all the molasses thinking the yeast would grab it as they needed it. They didn't. So now it's been stirred and I used my stainless spoon to aerate a little, plus added a pound of dark brown sugar to kick up the yeast again as well. My PH was 5.2 so I'm ok there no PH crash issues, but my temp dove from all this and I'm now trying to get it back up, it's at 82.9F. Looks like next weekend will be cooking off the rum, Friday night the 135F warming experiment.

Hopefully my dunder recovers because I pushed the pellicle aside to get out about .6 of a gallon to add to my pot, but it was in a bowl, then when I found the molasses on the bottom I poured it back into the dunder pit/bucket. Grow back/recover for use next weekend, funky dunder! I need you soon.

[Shine0n]

Man I really hope you used more than 1 gal of water for the whole thing.
I use 2 gal of moll for 16 gal wash and it's still powerful as hell.
I bet the OG is off the charts high, I can't think of a yeast that can handle any kind of an og like that, you might want to split that up and make a couple ferments.

You'd be doing alot of stripping runs tho!

[Shine0n]

Just mashed in the next batch of rum, looking forward to it, as I experimented a bit, adjusted recipe was:

1 gal water
1 gal 100% juice pineapple juice
1.25 gal dunder
.25 gal apple cider backset (see apple brandy thread)
1/3c potassium bicarb to balance PH to 5.7 (to allow for drop)
1 gal high quality molasses
1 gal blackstrap molasses
1 lb Lyle's Black Treacle
1 lb dark brown sugar
6 grams Fermaid K
1 servomyces capsule
1-2 drops olive oil
K1V-1116 (Montpellier) Lalvin red wine yeast

Temp set at 90F for now, after 24h I will adjust to 92F so that any aggressive initial fermentation won't raise temp to/past 95F and risk killing yeast

Have my new wrap heating setup doing the temp control, and my thermostat in my new custom made stainless steel thermowell sunk right into the middle of the ferment with the sensor in the ss tube right into the middle level of the liquid. Haven't had better temp control than this before, so I'm excited about the setup and that I'm doing a rum off at high temp with a good ester producing wine yeast!

This is what I was referring too

I should've read the second page, I thought I was on it and that's why the reply, sorry:(

[distiller_dresden]

Okay, the rum is now on a long slow heat up, cooking today. Unfortunately I wasn't able to heat to 135F last night to experiment with ShineOn's butter method; I will save this experiment and MAKE time to do it next batch of rum that I mash in right after this in the ferment container.

There was a bit of residual sweetness, but getting a gravity read was basically impossible due to the 1.25 gal dunder, .25 gal apple backset, 2 gals molasses, gal pineapple juice... I think the pound of brown sugar I added last weekend to complement/wake up the yeast along with the little bit of molasses I found in the bottom of the fermenter pretty much fermented out. A little left, and I'm thinking some of the little residual sweetness left is what blackstrap leaves, since I'm unaccustomed to working with blackstrap. Next rum batch I will plan out a different 'build' however to leave it at least a little less dense for starting gravity.

Next ferment is the White Labs sweet mead yeast, also recommended by The Distiller's Guide to Rum, it's got a top temp of 75F if I recall correctly so I'll ferment around 72F to get the most out of my esters. I'll probably adjust recipe, will post this shortly below in this post. For now here's what's going on in my cook-

80oz infected dunder, it had yogurt, swiss & parmesan cheeses, a bit of raw potato added - the top was like a multi-colored topographical map, and smell was 'bad to the bone' brown sugar, something like soy sauce, pineapple/tropical fruits, prunes/raisins, stone fruits overripened; it has started to draw fruit flies like crazy, too, much to my frustration. The infected dunder was added to the pot. Added 3 tblsp of butter to the pot in case of foam up, to prevent. My thumper has standard wash, without infected dunder, and rum feints in it. Normally my heat up will take about an hour, I anticipate my heat up at this flame level will take about 2-2.5 hours. Build esters, BUILD!!

Hoping for a nice ester'd rum with a balance of rich molasses flavor low and high, from the blackstrap and the high quality. I want that rich dark BS flavor as an anchor, and am going to oak this rum alongside some Japanese maple and possibly some sugar maple as well. We will see how this all goes though based on what I have when it's aired...

The next rum wash is looking to be, because I want to be close to this was so I can compare the yeasts:
gal pineapple juice
.75 gal dunder
.25 gal apple backset
gal hq molasses
gal blackstrap
1.75 gal water
1 lb Lyle's Black Treacle
1 lb dark brown sugar

[distiller_dresden]

Just mashed in the next batch of rum, adjusted the recipe so that the ferment goes easier:

1 gal pineapple juice
2 gals water
1 gal dunder
.75 gal high quality molasses
.75 gal blackstrap molasses
1 servomyces capsule
6g Fermaid K
Few drops olive oil
about 1/2c potassium bicarb to raise PH to 5.7
White Labs sweet mead yeast

WLP720
Species : Mead
Fermentation Temp Range (°F) : 70-75
Apparent Attenuation Range (%) : n/a
Flocculation : Low
Alcohol Tolerance : up to 15%
Pitching/Fermentation : A wine yeast strain that is less attenuative than WLP715, leaving some residual sweetness. Slightly fruity

Will be adding 2lbs Lyle's Black Treacle and 2lbs dark brown sugar in 36 hours so it's not so much sugar at once/such a high initial gravity for the yeast. I'm running at a 72F temp.

I got about 10-15% less than normal yield from my cook Sunday so I know residual sweetness was leftover sugars from molasses and sugars. The less molasses and dunder, as well as more water, is the attempt to thin this out. Also why I'm adding some sugar a bit into the ferment to push up my finishing ABV, instead of having it in at the start. The remaining dunder will make my dunder pit happy as hell I'm sure; I will however be ending the pit after next cook, this batch of rum, which will be in two weeks. I'll maybe do two cooks, using a gallon of the infected dunder in the pot each cook, splitting this fermented 5.5 gallons in half, making it nice and funky. Then I'm dumping my dunder. I know what to add to get the right infections now, and I don't want to have it around as it was getting to be a bit much. Not the smell, but as some may know I kept it inside, in my laundry room. I don't want bugs or maggots or something in it, thus inside. Well, somehow I finally picked up fruit flies and nothing I did knocked them out and they have begun all out war. I've got it covered in foil tightly, which isn't healthy for the pellicle, so I move it to the back room far away from around the corner to the kitchen (where laundry is) and crack the foil. Anyways; I'll combine this weekend's distillation with what I get with this mashed in today distillation, and I should get about 1.25 gal or more of good funky rum.

I'm still airing until tomorrow, but what I have tried off the worm was SUPER molasses, so molasses that even in heads the 'head' bitter flavor that heads tend to have was competing with the molasses flavor. It was just a 'wall of sound' of molasses from heads all the way through deep tails. I'm hoping/looking forward to making cuts to see what kind of funky I can pick out from the funky dunder treatment though. Hopefully I can pick something out through/over the molasses that I got out of the worm.

Interested with this yeast strain; good thing I got the new 'wrap' heat system and my custom heat thermowell for the sensor, I've not seen a strain of yeast with a 5 degree rang of activity until now. I'm keeping it at 72F and figure after 3 days I'll up temp to 73 or 74F and the fermentation should die down enough that it won't raise it above 75 and kill itself by raising it's 'bath' temp.

[distiller_dresden]

Did my cuts today; was very interesting. The first heads jar, and only the first, had an incredible butter/caramel/creamy taste that was undeniable. It was almost more flavor than the molasses/rum flavor, and then the second jar it was completely gone. I did take foreshots, too, and dumped them as per normal, and I actually took about 5oz foreshots and dumped them. No idea what's happened in my first heads jar... Next was just pure ethanol and nothing I could detect but heads. 3rd heads jar was fruitier, molasses, and some pineapple/cherry something approaching bubblegum but not quite there. I took 3 oz of the first heads jar, and 4 oz of the 3rd, and was into a heads/hearts jar. Lots of molasses throughout hearts, with pineapple here and there, and not quite cherry/stonefruits coming in and out. A couple jars had banana to them. I kept some early hearts/tails and about 4 oz of a late tails jar that was creamy/fruity tasting without any nasty tails flavor.

All told I yielded 65oz of 120 proof rum that's aging with med toast American oak, light toast French, med toast Hungarian, and a bit of med toast sugar maple I'm experimenting with to see if I like it. I'll be adding the current rum ferment to this batch I think; maybe I'l change my mind, not sure. Depends if I still smell the creamy caramel/stonefruit/banana from the gallon jar when I open it in two weeks. I don't want to mess with that, I hope it ages and improves what's there. This stands to be the best rum I've made by far.

Thanks to Otis, der wo, zapata, CatCrap, ShineOn - anybody else I'm overlooking as well, for advice and help up to this through rum and dunder funk in this process.

[distiller_dresden]

Ferment she's running hot; tomorrow I'll be adding 2lbs dark brown sugar and 2lbs Lyle's Black Treacle, bringing final ABV up to about 12.5% -- right now without addition final would be about 9.5%.

[distiller_dresden]

Wow, been a while since I updated/posted here! I've since aged and proofed down this rum, I've found on dominoes in the garage with the summer heat it ages/pulls from wood a LOT quicker than it ever did inside, even just in front of my all day sun sliding glass door. I leave the jars (whatever I'm aging) outside all day, take it out first thing in the morning (outside -- garage), and then at night before bed I bring them in. The transitioning from hot 85F garage to 67F overnight cool house REALLY pulls the flavor and color out of the wood dominoes like nothing, it's like maybe slow-motion nuke aging without the risk of over-oaking as long as you don't have too many dominoes in.

This last batch was added to another 2 and combined made a smooth white, but I wanted to age that off. This was the rum I'd tried my ultrasonic aging on (see my ultrasonic thread here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=71283) and then let it age another month on the wood still at 120. It came off really great. I aged it on American oak toasted for max vanilla, some high vanillan French oak med toast dominoes I got from Still Dragon (on clearance still, check it out -- the American SD site), some med toast Hungarian cubes, hard maple and soft maple, and Japanese maple. With 3 weeks left I pulled 6 dominoes and soaked 3 in a good cream/sweet sherry for 2 days, and 3 in a good ($25 for a 375) cognac, then I put those dominoes back into the rum for a week and a half, pulled, repeated, and left that until I was ready to proof down.

Then I backsweetened with my crazy caramel (see here viewtopic.php?f=101&t=71523 ) and clarified some dunder and added a small amount of that as well. The dunder wasn't enough to taste (it was sterile dunder, btw) in the sip, but enough to bloom when swallowed and it lingers on the palate with full rum flavor and the vanilla from the woods and caramel I made for a nice long finish with the tails cuts I'd made a bit deep.

Will be bringing this rum to September gathering, among other things.


Just mashed in a new ferment:
half gal malted red wheat and molasses rum dunder
half gal molasses rum dunder
half gal blackstrap molasses
32 oz baking molasses
half gal coconut water (for nutrients and potassium)
4 lbs turbinado sugar
4 lbs coconut sugar (inverted both these sugars all 8lbs together with boiling water and 6 tblsp lime juice for killing yeast, below)
B vitamin, 6g Fermaid K, few drops olive oil
Boiled water in pot and added 2tblsp baking yeast for nutrients/live yeast food
Topped off to 5.5 gallons total
PH was 4.99 - pitched K1V-1116 yeast and fermenting at 92F.

Currently 48 hours fermenting, the most delightful smell filling the house, unlike any rums I've fermented before. Theorize this is the red wheat dunder and the coconut sugar/turbinado with lime juice inverted, with 1116 and high ferment/low PH that is hopefully making wonderful esters or precursors. It smells flowery and like fruity tropical candy. Can't wait to see what this tastes like.

I also saved 26oz of the wash before nutrients or yeast added, in fridge now. This will be thumper charge with rum feints so it's fresh and full of flavor, less acids and ferment to create less heads and better final product. This is something I've been experimenting with lately, 'fresh' wash and neutral or feints (if I have them) in the thumper instead of just wash, and the result in the flavor of my distillation is immediately noticeable so I won't be going back to fermented wash in the thumper.

I'll update here when I run to see how this rum turns out.

Also update - have some BadMo barrels now, one currently has the malted red wheat and molasses mixed with a straight molasses and is aging off. It's only a month old, I stole a couple tblsps and proofed it down to 80, added a few drops of my caramel. Tasted before and after caramel - wonderfully smooth and good tasty tails lingering rum flavors and the red wheat malted flavor lingers, like nothing I've had! This was the barrel I 'prepped' with a mix of several premium rums and cognac and sherry and let that soak into the wood for 5 weeks before filling.

[distiller_dresden]

Just got myself a 500g brick of 493 EDV and I have a source if anyone would care to PM me looking for a sample/brick of your own. I'm also now in possession of 55lbs of high quality panela, and a new dunder pit customized from a 7 gallon bucket, a tap 1/3 the way up from the bottom, and a top with the center cut out and layered cheesecloth silicon sealed onto it for air. Pit is now full of 4 gallons dunder, fresh, and freshly infected. I'm also awaiting 2 samples of different infected dunders which will be added to bring it around right quick. Once it's had a week or two to get rolling, I'm mashing in that panela with the 493 EDV at a 95F ferment, and 36 hours in that will get a gallon of infected dunder introduced. I'll be updating and documenting this ferment and the rest of the 55 lbs panela here.

I also have a gallon of date syrup, pure date concentrate, I'm looking to meld with panela for a unique rum ferment, wondering what a date rum would be like. Following this I'll soon have some 100% natural apricot concentrate, which will also be introduced to the panela. Exciting rums in the near-future/this fall...

I'm also hoping for an update to der wo's thread from himself or SaltyStaves to hopefully get down the lime salts process, so I can begin manufacturing some of those...