SBB's All Molasses Rum Recipe

[CanadianIceman]

I'm doing a stripping run of my first wash of this recipe. Thanks for the recipe SBB. Does anyone know if rum distillate throws off readings on the proof&tralle meter? My vapour temps suggest i should be seing very low proof but when i test off the spout, the meter is reading 30 ABV
Edit: just to clarify, the product is clear, no pukes or cloudiness

[Sporacle]

Not that I have experienced, you've adjusted readings according to temp? I just strip mine till cloudy, that's somewhere around 25-28 total abv generally.

[NZChris]

My vapour temps suggest i should be seing very low proof but when i test off the spout, the meter is reading 30 ABV

That's why I don't use my vapor temperature to make decisions. I decide on what Low Wines ABV I want for the style of rum I'm making, (24-30%), then run into a single vessel until I have it.

[Saltbush Bill]

As above....forget the numbers.....run till its cloudy.

[CanadianIceman]

Thanks NZChris. This was me just monitoring the stripping process. They all went into one low wines vessel. It's just that for most of my distilling "career" those temps would have put me around 10% abv which would be a call to shut her down but proof&tralle was showing 30. Being my first ever rum, i thought maybe those readings could be off, i know it doesn't make sense.

[CanadianIceman]

As above....forget the numbers.....run till its cloudy.

Thank you. Still learning. Great recipe btw. I sampled a tiny bit, even in the stripping run comes pretty tasty right of the spout. I can tell it will be superb after cuts and aging.

[NZChris]

From memory, most of my strips have been cloudy for quite a while before they got shut down. If I'm doing multiple strips from the same ferment. I only measure the Low Wines ABV for the first strip, then note the temperature of the charge, (not the vapor), at shutdown and use that temperature to shut down the rest of the strips. Their ABVs are always very close to the first one.

[Just 4 Fun]

I’m sure my routine is different from everyone else.
I use a parrot instead of temp gauges as I run a straight pot for stripping and a thumper on my small pot for spirit runs.
As a general rule of thumb if my wort charge is 8%abv then I strip down till the parrot reads 8%.
For the spirit run it always stars high (80-90%) and then I watch the parrot like a hawk till it hits 60%.
I’ve found that if I go deeper then I get loushing, also the abv starts to drop fast after 60% anyway.
From there I collect down to about 20% for future runs.

J4F

[Amphibious]

Finishing my first run of this recipe. Did two 23L mashes as per the original recipe. Made a MASSIVE mess. Stuff takes off like a rocket. I was warned, but was stupid. Bonus, wife loves how the house smells now.

If you're in Kanadian Beef country, agriculture molasses ran me $90 for 10gal.

Stripped one bucket down to 10%, added it to the second run and am putting that through 5 3" bubble plates. After pulling a very slow 500ml of fores and heads, running it loose with a takeoff around 90%. Will leave my jars overnight and figure out my cuts. I'm fairly new to anything but a pot still, so we'll see how this one goes.

Rather impressed at how much ich flavor is retained with a 90% spirit. A whiskey guy, so if it turns out to be a light oaked rum, that'll be just fine. I'll back it off to 3 plates for the next run and compare notes.

[Yummyrum]

Strip one and add to second and run on 3 plates is how I do mine . Works well . 3 plates has no problems holding back tails .

[tommysb]

Just got on a big batch of this. A lot of molasses arrived unexpectedly from an order I made a while ago, and I had to rush to get the barrel emptied as I couldn't move or manoeuvre it at all whilst full (300kg!). The whole lot was a bit of a fiasco.

I didn't have good measuring equipment on hand for the volumes I'm working with - so approximated, but I was running roughly 30kg molasses per 100l or volume. Starting Gravity was around 1.110. Added DAP at 6g/10l and pitched with fresh bakers yeast at around 200g/100l.

It's currently fermenting outdoors, uncovered, and with a temp of around 24c. A few petals/blossom from my cherry tree have fallen in. No bother.

Not sure if it's completely the recipe as didn't use yeast bomb, and maybe the molasses ratio is off. And some petals fell in .

Looking forward to getting onto distillation. The plan is to strip and then run through 3 plated column.

[Saltbush Bill]

Sounds like, you made up your own recipe......ive never used DAP in this recipe.........as for yeast bomb .......well that's just the last generations yeast bed killed off with boiling hot dunder.
And it's not used or need on the first gen anyway.

[Yummyrum]

tommy
Sounds like you went a bit light on the molassses IMO .

Molly usually has a density of 1.4kg /L , so 30kg =21.4L

Which equates to 5.3L to make a 25L wash .
Salt Bushes recipe is 8L to make a 25L wash . ( I actually use a tad more)

Anyway , I suspect your finished fermentation may end up quite low in AVB . Your 3 plates might nit run too well on it . Would definitely be a good reason to strip half it first and run with other half .

[Trapped-in-Oz]

roughly 30kg molasses per 100l ... DAP at 6g/10l ... bakers yeast

30 kg molasses having 55% fermentable sugars in 100 litre wash would be 9.7% abv
no need for DAP

[Saltbush Bill]

55% might be the case with some sort of fancy food grade molasses........stuff I get straight from the mill is only 47- 48% sugar and most is as far as I know.
If mills had the technology to get more from the molasses they would.

[Trapped-in-Oz]

55% might be the case with some sort of fancy food grade molasses........stuff I get straight from the mill is only 47- 48% sugar and most is as far as I know.
If mills had the technology to get more from the molasses they would.

The Australian Original Milled molasses I use is 61.3% sugar / 64.6% carbohydrate…………….. 55% was given as a likely low average…… even at 50% the 100 litre wash would be 8.8%

..

[CanadianIceman]

Finishing my first run of this recipe. Did two 23L mashes as per the original recipe. Made a MASSIVE mess. Stuff takes off like a rocket. I was warned, but was stupid. Bonus, wife loves how the house smells now.

If you're in Kanadian Beef country, agriculture molasses ran me $90 for 10gal.

Stripped one bucket down to 10%, added it to the second run and am putting that through 5 3" bubble plates. After pulling a very slow 500ml of fores and heads, running it loose with a takeoff around 90%. Will leave my jars overnight and figure out my cuts. I'm fairly new to anything but a pot still, so we'll see how this one goes.

Rather impressed at how much ich flavor is retained with a 90% spirit. A whiskey guy, so if it turns out to be a light oaked rum, that'll be just fine. I'll back it off to 3 plates for the next run and compare notes.

Suprisingly enough same 10 gal ran me 63 bucks not in beef country. (GTA)

[CoogeeBoy]

55% might be the case with some sort of fancy food grade molasses........stuff I get straight from the mill is only 47- 48% sugar and most is as far as I know.
If mills had the technology to get more from the molasses they would.

The Australian Original Milled molasses I use is 61.3% sugar / 64.6% carbohydrate…………….. 55% was given as a likely low average…… even at 50% the 100 litre wash would be 8.8%

..

isn't the key fermentable sugars?
I am wondering why there has been no discussion about using enzymes to convert the non-fermentable sugars / starches.

Has anyone done anything along those lines?

[NZChris]

isn't the key fermentable sugars?
I am wondering why there has been no discussion about using enzymes to convert the non-fermentable sugars / starches.

Has anyone done anything along those lines?

I think I remember it coming up in the past, a thorough search might find it. The terminology I've read in older literature is 'non-sugars', not 'non-fermentable sugars'. If you did manage to increase the yield using enzymes, you would dilute the flavor, just as you do if adding back white sugar, plus you might generate other flavors that you may, or may not, want.

There is starch in sugar cane and there has been research done on it that is available online, I haven't bothered to look into it. If I want a lighter flavored rum wash or a higher yield, I chuck some sugar in the can.

[Saltbush Bill]

isn't the key fermentable sugars?
I am wondering why there has been no discussion about using enzymes to convert the non-fermentable sugars / starches.
Has anyone done anything along those lines?

It's been done many times and still is in big industry.
I forget the exact figures, but unless your doing more than about a million litres a week the saving isn't worth the effort or cost........the information is out there if you want to look for it.

[CoogeeBoy]

isn't the key fermentable sugars?
I am wondering why there has been no discussion about using enzymes to convert the non-fermentable sugars / starches.
Has anyone done anything along those lines?

It's been done many times and still is in big industry.
I forget the exact figures, but unless your doing more than about a million litres a week the saving isn't worth the effort or cost........the information is out there if you want to look for it.

Ok, thank you. I was wondering about the taste impact also but I am going to leave it at that. I won't bother with enzymes.

[tommysb]

Sounds like, you made up your own recipe......ive never used DAP in this recipe.........as for yeast bomb .......well that's just the last generations yeast bed killed off with boiling hot dunder.
And it's not used or need on the first gen anyway.

I was getting the 'yeast bomb' mixed up with another recipe from T&T, sorry about that.

Re, DAP - I have the ferment split between a few different vessels. By my own incompetence, I added DAP to two of them, and forgot the other two. The next morning, there was more activity in those dosed with DAP. I Don't think there's any harm in adding it, and empirically it seemed to help the ferment kick off a bit quicker. Are there any known downsides to adding it?

Ferments are going well enough now. They seem to be exothermic and maintaining their own temp between approx 24-30c at the surface (heat up during the day as air temp increases).

tommy
Sounds like you went a bit light on the molassses IMO .

Molly usually has a density of 1.4kg /L , so 30kg =21.4L

Which equates to 5.3L to make a 25L wash .
Salt Bushes recipe is 8L to make a 25L wash . ( I actually use a tad more)

Anyway , I suspect your finished fermentation may end up quite low in AVB . Your 3 plates might nit run too well on it . Would definitely be a good reason to strip half it first and run with other half .

The plan is definitely to strip first, due to both the volumes involved, and some experiments I have been running with a continuous stripping still.

[Yummyrum]

Not wanting to go too far off topic , but be prepared for a big foam up when you run this through your continuous stripper . I found I had to mix in Silicone antifoam agent in small batches .
Running a Sugar wash is a walk in the park compared to running an all molasses wash through the Continuous stripper .

Regarding DAP in the wash , only down side is again , aggressive foam up in the fermenter . If you follow Saltbushes recipe , you won’t have a crazy messy fermentation .

[tommysb]

So far no crazy foam. I will make sure to add some antifoam enzyme when running in the still. I actually already added a bit of antifoam when adding water to the molasses with the hosepipe, as it was foaming up a lot. Maybe that's kept the foaming in check during the ferment.

[LWTCS]

IMG_20220512_1202042.jpgSo far no crazy foam. I will make sure to add some antifoam enzyme when running in the still. I actually already added a bit of antifoam when adding water to the molasses with the hosepipe, as it was foaming up a lot. Maybe that's kept the foaming in check during the ferment.

Any pics of your still tommy?

[tommysb]

No pics at the moment. It's a distillex/stilldragon type setup with procaps, set up like the Russian guy at Dr Gradus uses for stripping - some of his videos are quite informative. I will post something when it's properly tweaked, currently the supply pump I was using wasn't enough for the available power and the plate size. And better to do it in the continuous column forum to keep this on topic!

[LWTCS]

Ah forgot to ask,,so you are using an anti foam agent during fermentation?
No issues finishing?

[Saltbush Bill]

I actually already added a bit of antifoam when adding water to the molasses with the hosepipe,

Not sure if it's completely the recipe as didn't use yeast bomb, and maybe the molasses ratio is off. And some petals fell in

Added DAP at 6g/10l

DAP , antifoam agents and assorted petals are not in the recipe, maybe best if you start another thread and call it Tommys Rum Recipe.

[tommysb]

IMO it's kind of a matter of semantics/philosophy as to what point a deviation from the EXACT recipe posted becomes a different recipe. People having different grades of molasses, water profiles, yeast manufacturers and local availability of resources will probably dose things slightly differently.

Would it be a different recipe if the fermenter temperature control malfunctioned during fermentation and temp varied? Or the strike temperature was not exactly the same?

I wanted a recipe for all molasses, and used your ratios and SGs as a more than just guidelines Saltbush, Honestly, thankyou for posting it, the information about gravities I could expect and all the valuable information. I posted here, my 'riff' on your base recipe, (and to my mind, it IS the same recipe). I hoped that in posting it, will allow others to see what the expected gravities and output one might achieve as there WILL be some variation in all these as we are a diverse bunch located around the globe with different access to resources.

I am sorry if I caused offence by this, as it's hard to infer tone from forum posts.

The post about petals falling in...well that's just me joking around. Yes, some petals fell in as I am doing open ferments outside and it's blossom season here.

Cheers folks.

[Stonecutter]

I got no skin in this game but I don’t see any point trying to hijack a guys recipe thread by trash talking it. You can keep scrolling on if you don’t like how an OP responds inside of their own thread.