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Well ,did this recipe as a result of the users request.
Fermented well
4 days total at 100f
So what abv do you guys usually get.
Seems that I am at about 4.5-5% abv
How's that
Started at 1.085 and done at about 1.045
Is this what y'all usually get

Duke , I make it in a 50L batch ( 15 L of molly)
When I strip it I end up with 10 L @ 41% abv ..... that works out to a wash ABV of 8.2%

I do add Dunder . My start gravity is so high that the hydrometer is just poking its shoulders out of the wash . Best I can estimate it is 1.140 It finishes around 1.065

Well I mixed it 3-1 Molly to water
So 16 gallons water
5 gallons Molly
Bout a cup of brewers yeast nutrient
1/4 cup red star bread yeast
100f constant for 4 days
Slowed to a crawl
Used feed grade molly

dukethebeagle120 wrote:Is this what y'all usually get

It depends to some degree on the quality of the molasses you use and how much fermentable sugar is left in it..
I did the figures once ages ago and came up with 7%ish.

Gonna leave it a few days
See what happens

Duke .

Salty uses 8 L in 27 L = 29% mollases
I used 15 L in 50 L = 30% mollases ( almost exactly what Salty uses )
You used 5 G in 21 G = 24% mollases .

So you did use quite a bit less mollases and if it isn’t as good as the stuff Salty and I use then this could explain your lower yeild ..... assuming it is actually as low as you recon

Its just about impossible to accurately determine wash AVB for an all mollases and even sugar bumped mollases washes using a hydometer or from the sugar content on the container ( iff’n you have that info ) because not all the sugars are fermentable and the simple formula to calculate wash abv% from a hydrometer gets more out of whack the higher up the Specific gravity you go ( It’s accurate enough at the low end where beer and wines normally are) .

So the only real way to work out your wash ABV is to distill it and see how much you get and then calculate back to work out what your wash was .

Not sure how you intend to distill it but if it is as low as you say then you are going to have a hell of a job doing it in a Flute .
If this is the case then you will need to strip at least half of it and add it to the rest of the wash to raise the ABV so the still will run OK

Yummyrum wrote:Duke .

Salty uses 8 L in 27 L = 29% mollases
I used 15 L in 50 L = 30% mollases ( almost exactly what Salty uses )
You used 5 G in 21 G = 24% mollases .

So you did use quite a bit less mollases and if it isn’t as good as the stuff Salty and I use then this could explain your lower yeild ..... assuming it is actually as low as you recon

Its just about impossible to accurately determine wash AVB for an all mollases and even sugar bumped mollases washes using a hydometer or from the sugar content on the container ( iff’n you have that info ) because not all the sugars are fermentable and the simple formula to calculate wash abv% from a hydrometer gets more out of whack the higher up the Specific gravity you go ( It’s accurate enough at the low end where beer and wines normally are) .

So the only real way to work out your wash ABV is to distill it and see how much you get and then calculate back to work out what your wash was .

Not sure how you intend to distill it but if it is as low as you say then you are going to have a hell of a job doing it in a Flute .
If this is the case then you will need to strip at least half of it and add it to the rest of the wash to raise the ABV so the still will run OK

Ur right
Now I think of it I am a bit low on Molly
So with that I will distill it
I always strip with a pot and thumper
12gallons in the boiler and 8 in the thumper
The distill in a reflux column
Got 2 15 gallon pots for stripping
Reflux with a 7 gallon pots for beer keg
Anyway yield is less important then quality
But next batch I will use you numbers

Wondering how you went with this Duke?

Thnx for asking salty
Came out ok
1 gallon final product
A bit low
A little rough off the still and white but aftr a few weeks on oak
It is getting better
Its rounding out well
Off the still i was getting a vegetable kind of taste
Could not figure it out
IN the final spirit also through certain parts of the run
But after blending it seemed to have subsided
And on oak its gone
I am experimenting with abv oaking on this run
I am looking for no oak taste,just sweetness.
So i am oaking at 45% abv and will leave it there once done oaking
Experimenting is learning
I snuck a horn the other night and its tasting pretty good
So let time turn some magic
Thnx man for the great recipe

I'm stripping my first 8gal wash of this recipe. I let it sit after ferment for the yeast to settle, then racked it off. I plan on pouring the hot dunder onto the yeast trub, then adding the molasses for the next wash.

To this original ferment I also added almost a gallon of scorched maple syrup. I was doing a final reduction and left it alone too long. Plenty of fermentables in there, plus maple flavor, plus the scorch I'm hoping it will add some sort of special character to my rum.

I plan to keep fermenting and stripping batches this size until I have about 6gal of low wines before doing a spirit run.

Thanks for the recipe!

I'm not a fan of adding other ingredients to Rum washes. Rum should be made using only products from the sugar cane industry in my mind.
I hope your experiment turns out well for you and that your happy with the end result.
Do you think the scorched flavor from the Maple Syrup will carry over?

Saltbush Bill thank you for your reply and questions! I went through the entire stripping run watching the abv and smelling/tasting for the scorch. Didn't notice it at all, nor anything like the original maple nose or flavor in the wash, just the addition of fermentables. I am probably just not sensitive enough? This is my first rum.

I really enjoyed the smell during the stripping run, and once I used the dunder to kill the previous yeast bed and got the new molasses in there, now my brewing room smells like heaven. This really is the most pleasant spirit wash I've done and I'm really looking forward to using the first 3 stripping low wines to do an actual spirit run.

You said "At the end of the run I always strip way down to cloudy tails …these low wines along with the heads and other tails cut from the run go into the boiler next run."

I stripped way down to 8% and never got anything cloudy. From an 8gal wash I got nearly 3gal at 35%; the heads were coming off at 65% which is unbelievable for me and my simple pot still.

All in all this is the best thing I have done so far, and I'm gonna keep doing it because I think it will get better and better.

Thank you so much, Saltbush Bill, for this amazing recipe.

I'm surprised that you didn't get at least a little clouding in the strip run once you got down to about 10%.
Hope everything continues to go smoothly for you.

Saltbush Bill wrote:I'm not a fan of adding other ingredients to Rum washes. Rum should be made using only products from the sugar cane industry in my mind.
I hope your experiment turns out well for you and that your happy with the end result.
Do you think the scorched flavor from the Maple Syrup will carry over?

I got maple sytup available by the gallons
I was nevevr able to make a carry over
Smokey uuummm yes
But a true maple flavlor no
Only adding back will do it
I did a 5 gallon wash of black syrup once
Thats 5 gallon of syrup
Its was black as molasses
Never got that taste though

I got 5 gallons of of dunder left over from my run
I would like to add 5 to 10 gallons of water to it and sugar it to get it to 7 to 8 % abv
ADD DAP OR FERTILIZER
basicly winoes sugar wash but with dunder added
I was notbable to age the last batch.
I cheated and have used some
So i need a light rum replacement
Is it viable
I am not looking for a heavy rum
So i thought i could use dunder as flavoring

Is it viable

I have done something along these lines;
Make a wash not using more sugar that would have been in the rum.
Add the heads and tails from the spirit run to the wash when stripping.

It's not big on flavor, so don't be greedy when calculating the sugar to use.

Just started a double batch of this.

I did 4 gallons of molasses for a 15 gallon batch. (15 liters molasses to 57 liter wash) I think this is about exactly double SBB's recipe.

I used Golden Barrel Blackstrap because I can get 4 gallons of it from a restaurant store around here for $25, and it tastes great. I used 1/2 cup of red star bread yeast from Costco, hydrated first.

I'll put in 2 gallons of 6 month infected dunder when I run the wash, and I'll add some of the dunder back to the pit after cooling it after the run.

OG was 1.124, pH 5.65, T = 84F (29C). Pretty high OG, but at least some of it will be unfermentable molly stuff, and I don't mine a few stress esters in my rum.

If you were scaling Saltys then for 15 gal mollases you would be making a total of 50-51 gal .
4 gal Mollases makes a 13.5gal wash

57 gal is getting a bit low . Also curious why you are going to add the Dunder after fermentation rather than at the start like this recipe does ?

I found If you dillute the wash too much , then on a plated still you will have problems due to the lower AVB .That is why I make it very close to what Salty does or strip half it first and add to the second half of the wash to keep the Boiler AVB up ... or add fients too

Hi Yummyrum,

4 gallons of molasses in ~15 gal batch, not a 57 gal batch. It's pretty close to his 13.5 gal which he kind of gives as a range of liters in his initial recipe.

Salty doesn't specify infected dunder, just the stuff from the previous batch in the still. I was concerned about what would happen to the good flavors and smells if I boiled up the infected stuff and then ran the infected stuff through start to finish including the ferment. Figured I'll still get the good stuff out if I add it at the end before running.

By the way, I'm planning to run it in a single run through 2 plates. I'd like to keep it at around 130-140 proof with lots of flavor but still get at least a little head and tail compression. I don't see sense in running it way higher up to 180 proof through more plates.

I’ve used fresh stuff and manky stuff thats been sitting around in buckets for a year or so and couldn’t tell any difference .Bit maybe I smoked too much and eat too many chillis to pick up on any subtleties .

BTW , your SG and pH readings are pretty typical for a no Dunder all mollases wash

I agree with yummy about the dunder.....fresh added before fermentation is as good as aged imo.
Got me beat why you would only use two plates....you'll get plenty of flavour with four and better separation of fractions.
Each to thier own I guess.

Saltbush Bill wrote:I agree with yummy about the dunder.....fresh added before fermentation is as good as aged imo.
Got me beat why you would only use two plates....you'll get plenty of flavour with four and better separation of fractions.
Each to thier own I guess.

Thanks. I've run rum washes in the past and felt like I didn't have a lot of flavor with 4 so I was going to try this one with less. I'll give this a try with 4 to see what happens. It's fizzing like soda this morning.

What some consider lots of flavour isnt lots to others.
We all have different tastes.
I base my assumptions and comments on the dozen or so better, commercially available rums that I own and have tasted. Most of these bottles sell for better than $ 80 AU
As stated above build a Rum that satisfys your expectations

Saltbush Bill wrote:What some consider lots of flavour isnt lots to others.
We all have different tastes.
I base my assumptions and comments on the dozen or so better, commercially available rums that I own and have tasted. Most of these bottles sell for better than $ 80 AU
As stated above build a Rum that satisfys your expectations

Just a 3 month update
Been on oak for 2.5 months or so
I cheated and have drawed some off
Mixed to my 38% abv
Damn fine drink
I oak hard and remove oak as i go.
I find it speeds up the process a bit
Color is great.
Nice sweet flavor
Needs a bit more wood flavor
A few more months and we'll see
Thnx man

Happy to see that your enjoying the results Duke

Attempted a stripping run today; boiler pretty full, and usually don't have to worry with conditioner/ oil, so just let her rip. Pretty sure I had a puke, because I had brown goo everywhere.

Assume I just ned to clean up and add some olive oil and re-run.......

That should do the trick.
Also slowly slowly at the begining.

Saltbush Bill wrote:That should do the trick.
Also slowly slowly at the begining.

Thx; it gets pretty messy!!!! Checked this morning, after everything cooled off.... Will clean column and vapour path tonight.

If its just a strip run let the strip do the cleaning...a bit of brown in the low wines wont hurt.