Home Distiller

Speaking of amish I just sold a still to one! says hes gonna make cough syrup!

Yeah... That's what I'm doing too! (hiccup)

yea... for medicinal use
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... highlight=

Cough Cough.

possum wrote:The Amish are sellin it in bulk (unrefined sugar) in thier store for $0.91/ lb

hmm....If you are near lancaster, check out Amelia's Discount Grocery store....they might have cheap sugar. I would check, but the only time I'm up there is on sundays, andt hey are closed then :-/

How close have you guys got to the taste of a commercial rum?

I know that I've been abit too stingy with the molasses in my recipes and I'm sure thats why I've only made "ok" rum so far.

I get pretty close to Gosling's Black Seal Burmuda Rum. It is a mid shelf Dark aged rum.

I think its pretty hard to compare our homemade rum to commercial rum. Almost all commercial rum is either purely from a fractionating column still or is that mixed with pot stilled rum. So the purely pot-stilled rum that most of us make us going to have quite a different flavor profile. Not that some of the big distilleries don't make good rum, its just different.

Cheers,
J

pothead wrote:Feed molasses is about $1-$2 a gallon.

I use 1 gallon feed molasses (make sure it is unsulfered) - $1.20 gallon USD
5 lbs white granulated sugar - 1.50 USD
Red Star active dry bakers yeast (21 g)

Put molasses in fermenter, put sugar in fermenter, top to 5 gallons with HOT water, stir it up real good...let cool to about 75*F stir it up REAL GOOD again, add your yeast. and let it go.

I'm running my first batch of this rum right now. Damn is it nice and smooooooth. The only change I made was using White Labs High Gravity Ale yeast and letting the ferment sit for almost 6 weeks. I'll be using some of the dunder to backset my next batch. I can't wait to see how it turns out!
Thanks!
RNCB

RNCB.. I've started using WLplatnum high grav again. It seems to go slower than the other dry, bakers or distillers yeasts I had been using recently.

I seem to be getting real high abv, but I have been feeding it in stages, and making from slopback to give dead yeast parts,also adding b-vitamins. One more feed to get 25% abv.

How well does the yeast settle out when you let the carbouy sit for a month?

The yeast settled real nice. I ended up with a yeast cake about 1/2" thick. I wondered about others experience with this yeast. It took a while to chew through my wash, and is goin a bit slow on the second time around too. Of course it has been a bit cold here lately. I should probably start heating my fermenter. When I poured the wash on the yeast cake I expected it to take off fairly quickly, but it still took over 24hrs. My Beer ferments usually start up damn quick when I use the cake from a previous batch. I've had them start in less than 2 hrs.

Thanks to the recipes section im getting into new things, Im currently waiting on my rum mash to cool before I add yeast

my recipe so far is for 25L wash

approx 4kg blackstrap molasis
approx 1kg dark brown sugar
approx .5kg of white sugar (left over in a bag wanted to use up)

Ive got 2 packs of Ec-1118 going in a yeast starter with some go-ferm yeast nutrient I had left over from winemaking. The PA is only 10% and I think the resulting alcohol level will be less from what ive read about fermenting molasis but it should have a nice rich flavor. Come to think of it I think 2 packs of yeast was overboard but I didnt measure my PA when i made the yeast starter.

I wanted to see what a rum would taste like using mainly molasis. From the taste of it I think its going to be real strong. I dont know if I like that or not but I can always make a thinner wash next time and blend. Im also excited to try adding some oak and caramalized sugar. The fun never stops.

Ran my second batch yesterday. I added 1 tbs of mulling spices to 750ml of 125 proof. This stuff is already dangerously wonderful smelling. I think this is going to go very fast. I also kept the majority of the hearts of the run seperate have about 750ml of 145 proof rum that is smooth as silk. Some of the best stuff I've ever tasted!

I can get molasses at $150/ton, at 79.5 brix. That's 7.5 cents/lb before being diluted to 25 brix or lower for fermentation.

possum wrote:Es por la beuf. It is for animal food. Sorry JJ12345678900 I speak English and Spanish only.

Hablas español?
Soy nuevo en esto de la destilacion. Si tienes tiempo, escribeme.


Muchas gracias.

Uncle Jesse wrote:I can get molasses at $150/ton, at 79.5 brix. That's 7.5 cents/lb before being diluted to 25 brix or lower for fermentation.

that's the problem here, It's very easy to get some tons, but i haven't been able to find 20 l at a decent price, yet i hope

for the ones who have made rum with just brown sugar, how was the quality compared to 'real' rum, with molasses?

I just mixed 8kg brown sugar, 20 l water, 1 lemon, enough yeast.

stoker wrote:for the ones who have made rum with just brown sugar, how was the quality compared to 'real' rum, with molasses?

I just mixed 8kg brown sugar, 20 l water, 1 lemon, enough yeast.

"Real" rum is made from either cane juice (preferred) or molasses.

cane juice is cost prohibitive. they also use the skimmings/scrapings from the bottom of the sugar machines quite often.

I know, but i cant get it (right now)
how close will i be?

stoker wrote:I know, but i cant get it (right now)
how close will i be?

I'm sure it will be pretty good.

stoker wrote:

Uncle Jesse wrote:I can get molasses at $150/ton, at 79.5 brix. That's 7.5 cents/lb before being diluted to 25 brix or lower for fermentation.

that's the problem here, It's very easy to get some tons, but i haven't been able to find 20 l at a decent price, yet i hope

A 20L drum costs $22 here (the land downunder) and weighs 25kg.

hornedrhodent wrote:

stoker wrote:

Uncle Jesse wrote:I can get molasses at $150/ton, at 79.5 brix. That's 7.5 cents/lb before being diluted to 25 brix or lower for fermentation.

that's the problem here, It's very easy to get some tons, but i haven't been able to find 20 l at a decent price, yet i hope

A 20L drum costs $22 here (the land downunder) and weighs 25kg.

ah, ok. I'll take the next plane, and get some

Tater, have you ever tried any of the solid chuncks of raw pure cane sugar that is available at the Mexican stores?

pintoshine wrote:Tater, have you ever tried any of the solid chuncks of raw pure cane sugar that is available at the Mexican stores?

Piloncillo ? No Pint I havent.Started to once and about same time I ran across a warning about some unsafe manufacturing or pestacides tainting it.Before that Ive ate it in mexico and liked the taste . Sure cost a lot here.

Pint

how do you spice your rum to get the Goslings Blackseal flavores?

Isn't Cachaca made from cane juice? While Rhum/Rum is made from molasses?

Or is it just a Brazilian pride thing, there being a difference between Cachaca and Rhum/Rum?

There is a difference between Cachaca and Rum.

Rum is traditionally distilled twice with decent cuts.

Cachaca is distilled only once. It's also the only booze I've ever heard of that is traditionally distilled to drinkin' strength. While there are decent(ish) Cachacas on the market today, traditionally it was a foul drink meant for slaves and the poor.

Today many Cachaca distillers use column stills. Traditionally it was distilled in pot stills only once. A bit of the foreshots would be discarded then the Heads, Body, and tails would all be collected together untill the total ABV% would reach drinkin' strength of aprox 80 proof. This means there are LOTS of tails in it to make it stinky and foul.

Cachaca has gained in popularity in recent years. Today there are upscale Cachaca distilleries in Brazil turnin' out double distilled "Cachaca" with careful cuts made that could be considered Rum by another name.

Hi - this is my first post on the forum but I wanted to help out with the rum discussion regarding the use and purchasing of blackstrap molasses.

My friend, Chris Sule is the Master Distiller at Celebration Distillation in New Orleans. They make Old New Orleans Rum and man is it good stuff. They also only use blackstrap molasses and I watched as 3000 gallon got delivered a couple of weeks ago and it is the blackest, thickest stuff that I've ever seen - but man does it make some awesome rum. There's so much flavor to their rum that it is still full of favor even after being run through carbon filtering!

Now after seeing this I've started buying my molasses from the local farmers co-op, animal feed grade blackstrap molasses, for $.16 per pound.

Blackstrap molasses normally weighs 10.8 pounds per gallon, so 5 gallons cost me $8.64. I'll tell you this stuff will provide more flavor in your final product then any fancy molasses that you can buy at the store, and it's sure as heck a lot cheaper. So I say use more molasses and a lot less sugar and then double distill your rum - first with a pot still and then in the column - believe me, if you use a whole lotta blackstrap you won't strip the flavor out.

And that's all I have to say about that....


Best,
Sam

Okay I got some news on my posted rum recipe. After running the final wash through my Brewhaus Essential Extractor PSII High Capacity column still - single pass, full reflux - and then through carbon I've got some pretty darn good rum (cut it to about 50%). I let some sit on medium toasted oak, with my special spice blend for a couple of weeks and holy cow I've got some spice rum that makes the old Captain look like a cabin boy!

My next 18 gallons are going to get double distilled - first a stripping run with my still set up as a pot still and then back through at full reflux. This will get rid of the need for two trips through the carbon filter setup that I built (really cool six foot length of 1 1/2 inch PVC with two elbows and a ultra fine screen at the bottom - can't post pictures yet).

But really, right now my "Admiral" and Pepsi's blow the Captains dingy right out of the water!

Sorry - I forgot to post the final recipe:

1 gallon feed grade black strap molasses
4 gallons water
7 pounds sugar
Distillers yeast
Yeast nutrient

Mix the 1 gallon of molasses with 1 gallon of water and all of the sugar in a big pot. Bring to a low simmer over medium heat and stir until all of the sugar is mixed in well.

Let this cool (add the rest of your water - helps to cool it) and then pitch some distillers yeast and yeast nutrient (I follow the package instructions for both).

Let it ferment for about two weeks, or until it done - I let it set another week or so to settle and then distill and run through carbon.