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Did my first stripping run. One our to heat up,took off 200ml of foreshots then started collecting the heads at 68% and finished collecting tails at 20%. I ended up with about 5 litres of low wines(3l at 60%, 1.5l at 40% and the rest down to 20%). Got the next 25l ferment going with 6l of hot dunder. All up took 1 1/2 hours of collecring after the first hour heat up. Can't wait to do the spirit run after another stripping run. Got my element controller in the mail yesterday so will be able to do the striping run nice and slow.

Great post, Hook; thanks for cutting the crap out of the hype on the turbo style yeast pac's etc.!
You have made sense of the process, and reigned in my greed!!! (I'm not getting a poor yield after all).
Cheers.

I know in the UJSSM recipe thread there is a consensus that sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is acceptable for normalizing pH. Would that be a decent substitute for the calcium carbonate called for in this recipe? It seems that Sodium Bicarb is way more common around the house.

You can adjust you ph with it butit aint gonna make the yeast happy. Sodium- salt.

a small amount will be ok, but sodium works as a preservative and what does a preservative do?
it usually does not bother much if doing one wash but if you keep reusing trub over like UJSSM you could have problems .a better choice is potassium bicarb or calcium carbonate much more yeast friendly.
(there mite be others?)

So... this is my first attempt at making a rum using molasses. I followed the recipe exactly , except my total volume ended up being 16 gallons. For the first 36 hours this was the most vigorous wash I've ever seen. Now there's VERY LITTLE activity and I'm unsure as to whether it just fermented out that fast or if it is stuck. One of my roommates turned off the heat last night and it got down to 62F, so that may have played a part. Also, it was fermenting so vigorously for the first 36 hrs that my fermenter was getting very warm. I have a heating pad on it now and I added a few tablespoons of baker's yeast to try to start it back up, but it stopped fizzing after about 20 minutes. Any thoughts?

I made this. Did five 6 gallon batches and stripped them. Then I pot stilled it and I think I went too deep into the tails on my cuts because it wasn't good. So I ran it through my reflux at a faster rate (twice of what I do for a neutral) to try and fix it. Came off at 95%-96% through the hearts but it's definitely not neutral.

Anyone notice the late heads come off as buttery? I'm doing the cuts now and it's unmistakable. I collect in 340ml beer bottles and bottles 4 and 5 have an unmistakable buttery aroma. Stings the top back of my throat though, so no buttery taste.

It's interesting to note that on the episode of dirty jobs where they went to Thomas Tew rum distillery the main guy, when tasting their aging barrel stock, commented on how the younger stuff still tasted buttery. So maybe if you're aging it some of this is desirable. Not sure if I want to try that.

So, sipping on my batch of Hook's Rum. It has been aging on virgin charred American Oak for 9 months now.

I have to say it is pretty damn good. Definitely heavy on the oak on the finish. May be time to take it off the oak and put a new batch in? I have heard about new research indicating aging is faster in smaller barrels (Mine is on a 5L with another litre aging as 'silver') or with staves.. Don't know if there is any professional input here.

Gave a litre to a buddy who went on a 3 day sailing excursion on the east coast with an old mate and have had nothing but raves about the rum.

Cheers, Hook, and thanks.

I've just run my first batch of this - never done a molasses wash before, so this was all new to me. After the stripping run, it smelt like apple pie and was pretty nasty. Then after the spirit run it still has a lot of that smell to it. I have the jars airing and will leave them for 24 hours before putting on oak.

My question - is this apple-ish smell normal?

Fruity aromatics are normal for new born rums.

LWTCS wrote:Fruity aromatics are normal for new born rums.

Good to know. I did a 25L wash and after the stipping run I added 10L of dunder back into a fermenter and made up another batch with that. So I'm steadily working away at building up a good dunder pit.

hi guys , just made a 20 l of this wash , divided the 60 l recipe , now iv realised iv put in a full 150 gm of yeast , 100 gm more than i needed , it frothed up a fair bit and some went on the floor , will the rum be ok from this ? have i ruined it ?

cheers

If the ferment is bubbling away, you should be fine.

Apart from the cleaning up, of course...

thanks hook , when i divided everything up i wrote it all down , except the yeast , without thinking i looked at the recipe here and bang in went 150 gms yeast

cheers stinky

the wash has slowed down to a light fizz barely looks like any activity is happening , would the excess yeast have caused the wash to increase to a temp too high for the yeast and it all died ?
do i need to kickstart it ?

cheers stinky

I am far from expert on molasses washes, but when I made Hook Rum my wash slowed after a couple days but still continued to ferment, giving off very tiny bubbles - almost like fizzing - for several days till it was done. I think yours is doing OK. Just leave it alone and let it do its thing.

Braz wrote:I am far from expert on molasses washes, but when I made Hook Rum my wash slowed after a couple days but still continued to ferment, giving off very tiny bubbles - almost like fizzing - for several days till it was done. I think yours is doing OK. Just leave it alone and let it do its thing.

sounds very similar the sweetness is gone now too so i suppose thats a good thing , it smells bloody good too cant wait to have some hookrum !

cheers stinky

when I made Hook Rum my wash slowed after a couple days but still continued to ferment, giving off very tiny bubbles - almost like fizzing - for several days till it was done.

Standard pattern for me too. I let them run until completely finished.


stinkypete, sounds to me like yours is going fine.

Most important ingredient in making good spirits is patience, at every step.

hi guys i tries this one a few months ago , took a while to ferment , the spirit i collected after i made heads cuts , had a very strong sickly sweet smell , not a nice sweet smell , i run a 1.5 m copper reflux still , i only had 2 x stainless scrubbers in is this the problem ? i thought i would have been ok i made the run very slow , i put it on oak sticks for a good couple months with a bit of peel , peppercorn , vanilla bean to see if that smell would piss off , but it still there . i reluctantly had a taste the other night andsurprising me it tasted preety damn good , maybe i need a few more scrubbers in the column ? also the molasses im usin im not 100 % sure on the guy when i asked if it was unsulpherd had no idea he said it was top grade feed mollases for horses , for all you aussy boys out there is sulphered mollases common in qld ? im unsure . before tastin the rum i was put off by it but now i wanna nother crack at it im sure i can make it way better than iv got , also not sure if you remembe ran early post of mine in this thread but i pitched way too much yeast in my 20 l brew maybe a factor in the equation ?
the joys of home distilling im much enjoying the rollercoaster boys

CHEERS ! stinky

sulfur dioxide is used to help remove sugar from unripe cane.

stinkypete, the more we know about the processes you followed the better we can assist you...

What, exactly, was the recipe you used...???

What yeast did you use...???

Did you make proper cuts during distillation and blend afterwards...???

Never expect that aging will polish a turd... If you don't like the taste and smell going in, you probably won't like it coming back out...

rad14701 wrote:stinkypete, the more we know about the processes you followed the better we can assist you...

What, exactly, was the recipe you used...???

What yeast did you use...???

Did you make proper cuts during distillation and blend afterwards...???

Never expect that aging will polish a turd... If you don't like the taste and smell going in, you probably won't like it coming back out...

hey mate i used the hook rum recipie converted it to a 20 l wash but stuffed up the amount of yeast put in the 150 gms of bakers yeast which was 3 times too much , i threw away first 150 mls and , got about 500mls heads and 1 litres hearts and then tails got about 400 mls and it started going cloudy .
i prob should have made better cuts in hindsight maybe the hearts isnt all heart ? i expected more really but then it was only 20 l wash

cheers thanks for the input

With regards to the ingredients (Blackstrap molasses), we get the stuff for like $4NZD for a 1/2 litre jar.
When you're requiring 7 litres of the stuff for one run, the cost adds up pretty quickly. (Close to $80). This is stuff purchased direct from the supermarket, although a google search finds cattle feed stuff (yet to find any prices) ..

In the end, is it all the same stuff?

Not sure if I'm asking this in the right area, but I've been following some rum recipes and my mouths watering at the thought of getting some done up.

For farm grade stuff, you gotta check the ingredients. Might be full of other stuff, like preservatives, etc. It's mentioned earlier in the thread. You can get your molasses a lot cheaper if you can find a restaurant or bakery supply wholesaler. Some will sell to the general public. Otherwise, if you have a friend who's in the biz ...

GuessX wrote:With regards to the ingredients (Blackstrap molasses), we get the stuff for like $4NZD for a 1/2 litre jar.
When you're requiring 7 litres of the stuff for one run, the cost adds up pretty quickly. (Close to $80). This is stuff purchased direct from the supermarket, although a google search finds cattle feed stuff (yet to find any prices) ..

In the end, is it all the same stuff?

Not sure if I'm asking this in the right area, but I've been following some rum recipes and my mouths watering at the thought of getting some done up.

Hey mate -go to your local RD1 farming supply store - i get 2l milk bottles full for $6.50 each.

So whats the difference between feed grade molasses ($50 for 25kg) and the stuff I can get at the supermarket? ($5 for 450mls)

GuessX wrote:So whats the difference between feed grade molasses ($50 for 25kg) and the stuff I can get at the supermarket? ($5 for 450mls)

Feed grade has a lowers sugar content, has more ash, and may or may not contain sulfur.

I'd love to know where you have been quoted $50(nz?) for 25kg - I tried farmlands but they are more expensive than RD1 and Wrightsons only sells by the 44 gallon drum!

http://www.crt.co.nz/Shopping/Products/ ... ices=False" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Im not even sure if that stuff is suitable or not, but thats why I was kind of asking the questions. Not sure if "feedgrade" molasses is actually fit for the use we want.

hi guys just wondering if a light film of scum? not sure if thats the word my wash has been clearing for a couple weeks so was unsure if there has been an infection or some thing it smells ok any ideas guys maybe i should take a picture .

thanks

I had the same problem with my molasses as many....

Feed store molasses. They told me that it was a mix of cane sugar and blackstrap. So far sounded good!
1.10/kg sounded real good
No preservatives or sulfer....still sounding good.

bought 6 gallons of it and when I went to ferment....it barely fizzled. Now, it is dropping in sg very slowly, but nothing like the explosive results some have had.

I traced the molasses back to the mill (buffalo molasses)
The sales rep said all the info was correct regarding preservatives etc, but then added that they do add a mold inhibitor.
Sheesh in my books that is the same as a preservative, or at least close enough.

Now I have to find out what the mold inhibitor is and if its still ok to distill. Followed up by finding another source of molasses.

Just wanted to give some other guys a heads up that there "could" be mold inhibitors in other feed molasses as well even if they claim "no preservatives"