Molasses questions??

[UnclePaul]

I was looking at the receipe section and was wondering, what is the boiled taters for in the molasses wash? Is that for nutrient?
I got some molasses at my local feed store and if it works okay, it would sure be cheaper than sugar for a while. 45 pounds for $5.00.
I've tried molasses before finding this forum and it was alway slow starting to ferment, but then I also had way too much molasses in the mix.
I'm figuring about a gallon to ten gallons of water. Mixing that with no sugar gave me a SG of 1.055

[Barney Fife]

No need for any 'taters, and you can double that to one gallon molasses for 5 gallons water. It will finish at roughly 1.020 to 1.030.

45lbs for $5! That's a little over $1 per gallon; where did you find that, or do you live next door to a refinery?

[Dnderhead]

the only thing molasses lacks is nitrogen (dap) or something similar.
watch out for molasses as not all is cane, some are made of other funky stuff.

[goose eye]

it takes bout 10 gallons of squezed cain/sogrum juice to render down to 1 gal an haf of moleasses/syrup.you no its right by all the green gone an how it runs off a spoon thats
how we make it round here.aint no easy work. cutin stripin squezein an cookin .
we plant it by layin a whole cains in rows. each notch a new cain will grow.
sogrum we plant seeds but renderin it is the same
what else they putin in it

so im tole

[HookLine]

goose

What is the difference between cane and sorghum juice, far as stilling goes?

[Dnderhead]

hear in the states their useing everything from refuse from food processing to stillage, it might be why some are getting off flavors
from "sweet feed" etc. just check it out before buying.Not all as it appears

[HookLine]

Is 'sweet feed' usually mixed grains plus molasses?

[Dnderhead]

""Is 'sweet feed' usually mixed grains plus molasses?""
yes, never cared for it myself rather have the plain grain or horse feed (corn+oats)

[UnclePaul]

I got it at our local feed store. Just a couple hours driving to the east, by one of the largest fresh water ponds in the States, sits US Sugar. It's on of their byproducts.
I always have a time getting the yeast going in a big batch,
can dip a quart out of it and add the yeast, shake it up like instant pudding and off she goes, but a big container is slow starting.

[goose eye]

i aint never made no likker an aint gonna in the future

aint no future tryin to work off just the green juice. goes bad to quick. seen folks squeeze a green barel to cook down the next day an it go bad

sogram will want to gel -cause of starch- on you sometime renderin it down an it will scorch if you aint careful some folks add enzimes. it will crystilies on you quicker than mollases to. hard to keep it moren a year or 2.
ole boys thick moleasses got a harder richer taste

as far as either ill take honey any day of the week over syrup/moleasses.

so im tole

[Tater]

Sugar beets is also used to make sugar and molasses

[toofless one]

Goose eye,
You come with a translator or will i learn yer ways soon enough?

[UnclePaul]

Toofless, you'll learn. Me and you must be quite a bit alike,, 'cept, it's my back yard, unless I've just driven the 30 miles from town and then it is the front yard. Damn, it's good living in the country.
My molasses wash is definitely doing it's thing, but it's just not what I'm used to seeing with UJSSM.
The bubbles look more like a gentle rain falling on a pond, instead of big belches coming up from below. I put a quart of really strong fourth generation UJSSM in it to get that yeast mixed in it. Of course I got a couple pieces of cracked corn. If you stand there watching it, all of a sudden one of those pieces of corn comes rising up to the top and then goes dancing all round the surface, then sinks back to the depths.

[UnclePaul]

This wash is definitely doing it's thing this morning. The bubbles are still tiny, I figure that comes from the fact unlike a corn wash, theres no place for the gas to get trapped until it finally rises. But this morning it has a very light head on the mash and you can see it rolling in the container.
I have to admit that I do like the smell of the molasses.

[Barney Fife]

Yes, a rum wash looks very gently compared to a all grain wash. Kind of like a light drizzle compared to a all out monsoon. And yes again on the smell, fermenting, stilling and then the dunder, are all nice. I had forgotten about DAP; that is the only thing I add to my rum washes; I can go without, but just a spoonful/gallon doubles the ferment speed.

[UnclePaul]

I was a little worried that I was a little short on the molasses, so I went back to the store today to get me some more. I'll be damned if I didn't pass the truck heading out as I turned on the highway. Luckily the guy that owns the store helped me get about another 2 1/2 gallons out of the tank.
I added it and some fertilizer to give it some nitrogen then stirred it up again. It's still fermenting strong, a good visible bubbling and a slight foam on the surface. Now I'll leave it alone and see just how long it takes to finish off.
I think it ended up with 6 gallons of molasses mixed to end up with a total of about 45 or 50 gallons of mash. Four or five ounces of peter's fertizer with 24% nitrogen and just a good pinch of epsom salts.
When I checked the SG it was at 1.05 again after adding the second bit of molasses.

[UnclePaul]

I went to sleep last night and this thing was fermenting hard. The entire surface was covered with the tiniest bubbles and a light foam.
Now this morning it is dead still. The SG is at 1.03.
Can it really be finished this fast? I know it was fermenting hard enough that I could see some roll in the liquid.

[UnclePaul]

I've figured the best way to see what it's done is to run some. I put 10 gallons in my pot and have it running. So far I collected 100 ml. and set it aside. It's now at about 194 F and dripping slowly but steadily. I'm going to try to keep this thing running really slow even if it goes late into the night.

[blanikdog]

There's soething nice about doing a rum. A nice gentle ferment with a beautiful smell to it followed by a nice rum. I haven't run any for a while now because of all the fruit currently available, but my next wash will definately be molasses. I love it.

blanik

[Whitedog]

Has anyone tried inverting the sucrose while rendering or after rendering with enzymes or citric acid. From what I understand, cane juice is on the acidic side already so citric acid may not be the answer but glucoamylase may just be the ticket. As for sorghum, from what I uderstand, there is some amount of starches present that would need to be inverted first maybe with alpha amylase. I don't know, just an approach developed from what I've read. Does anyone know whether or not this approach would work? Me and ole' Mud gonna try us out some cane juice fermentin' this fall!!