Rum Talk......

[LWTCS]

Very pleased to finally be able to say that I now have a good sipping quality rum.

I am generally not concerned with accurate measures and quantites.

Bout 25% (or so) dunder seems to not affect my fermenting speed. At least not affect the speed to the point where I find any degree of concern.

Charged all of the thumpers with dunder also.

3 liters @ 65%:
2 alligator chared oak sticks
zest of one orange
4 or 5 dried cots
4 or 5 dried pineapple chuncks
teaspoon black tea
teaspoon whole peppercorns
teaspoon vinilla extract

The orange zest (to me) may be the most critical part of the profile. After a month it really developes a wonderful nose.

Age till ?
Dilute to 45%
Add 1 table spoon molassas per (I used 750ml) bottle.

I stilled pretty strickly and made very tight cuts. Perhaps being this strick is,,, too strick with rum. I don't know.
But because my base material was so smooth I kept my ABV a bit higher than a typical sipping rum.

Just a real buttery fruity feel.
Got em in the fridge now tring to settle out a bit of the cloudyness that the molassas addition created.

I'm going to leave these bottles in the fridge for a good long week to try and see if they will settle out better.

Any recomendations if they remain cloudy?

[WalkingWolf]

I had some that was cloudy when I bottled. Who knows why?? Added some simple syrup made with dark brown sugar and a little additional water and ended up with a haze that just kind of sat there. Took a couple of weeks of sitting an finally settled to the bottom. I was able to decant off and it is crystal clear with a deep color.

I like the sound of the combo you've put together.

[kiwistiller]

I do love a spiced rum. They'll settle out, don't worry. well they should, but unsure of your molasses that you're using.

[LWTCS]

but unsure of your molasses that you're using.

It's a local generic "off the shelf" fancy.

Looks clean enough. Hopefully it will be fine in a few days.

@ Wolf
BD as I recall got me all infatuated with orange zest.

[kiwistiller]

Pint had a great orange spiced rum recipe. I prefer lime zest myself, and in slightly smaller quantities.

Did you try to clarify the molasses? was it clear before adding molasses? if not it's going to be hard to filter now that it's full of sugar.

[LWTCS]

Did you try to clarify the molasses?

No, but I will definitely do that next round.

Just a warm and hold in a sauce pan correct?

[kiwistiller]

Um... been a while. I think I read about it in the pugirum thread, somewhere. I think you want to heat it up with say equal amounts of boiling water, then cool it and a lot of sediment will fall out. works with feed molasses at least.

So it was clear before you added the molasses?

[LWTCS]

o it was clear before you added the molasses?

Yes.
I did need to run it all through a coffee filter after pulling off the oak and fruit. Had a bit of a jelly fish and f course some tea bits that filtered right out. Very clear after.

Next day diluted with filtered water and added the molassas after bottling.

This is the second day in the fridge and a good bit of solids do appear to be dropping.
But the bulk is still cloudy. Not ugly cloudy. Just that the regular people might wonder.

[olddog]

But the bulk is still cloudy. Not ugly cloudy. Just that the regular people might wond

You could always re-filter again.


OD

[LWTCS]

Recon I will at the end of the week Mike. Gonna see how much will drop out.

I do need to gift a bottle on Friday and would like the rum to make a good impression.

[olddog]

Double up your coffee filters for a nice clean filter.


OD

[LWTCS]

Will do Mike.

[kiwistiller]

Or just add more molasses until it's such a dark rum people can't tell if it's cloudy or not

If you're out of filters, paper towels will do in a pinch.

[LWTCS]

Oh for heaven's sake,,,,,,,
.
Carrot juice and spiced rum. What a wonderful buttery bit of goodness.

Gonna put that one on the Sunday Brunch Menu. Much more my style rather than the Bloody Mary.

May need to start punctuating very heavily within the next few minutes

[LWTCS]

Just charged the boiler and poped the lid on the dunder pit.

Damned if I don't have 30 or 40 lil larve fuckers wigglin round.

Thought the lid was pretty tight. I'm gonna scoop em of and use it to charge my thumpers.

Not happy bout it but i'm doin it. Think they pooped??

Need more talk bout this please.

[LWTCS]

Well not 30 40. More like hundreds.

Liquid line is down. Lot of evaporation so recon the fruit flies got in that way. Although the pit is an igloo type cooler.

At present I changed my mind bout runnin till I talk to someone. The smell has changed from weird sweet rummy goodness to a bit more like traditional garbage dump type smell.

I know that maggots have voracious appetites. Wonder if they ate all the goodness outta my pit and left me with poo

guess I'll charge with water/molassas till someone comes long too advise me.

[Beerswimmer]

Sounds pretty gross to me. I would throw it away and start a new pit with a new lid.

[Tater]

Id toss it as well.

[LWTCS]

Damn.

Feel like I lost my best friend.

[LWTCS]

Man just a dismal stilling day.

Been sittin on this wash for nearly three weeks and the missus is at work so I figured I could listen to some public radio and have a nice productive likker makin day.

Apparently I overcharged the thumpers with molassas and had a foam up (and a half ).

Second part of the bad news is that the sugary foam revealed that I have 3 pin hole leaks in the Tower. Had to shut down the refluxing and just run straight. Patched leaks best I could with some handy paste.

First bit was amber as hell too. Collected in a separate vessel till she ran clear. Collected bout a liter @ 90% then just ran it out after the hydro jumped. Stilling space is well vented.

Good news is:
I never would have detected those leaks with out the foam up. Ordinarily the leaky spots would just evaporate. Bit of smell evident but I figgered it to be solely out of the discharge.

Not sure how much likker I've been loosing. Only got to reflux for 15 minutes or so before I spotted the leaks.

[WalkingWolf]

Damn LWTCS -- sounds like stillin karma just aint happ'nin on your block brutha.

Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This: (The Shirelles 1961)

[LWTCS]

Damn LWTCS -- sounds like stillin karma just aint happ'nin on your block brutha.

Momma Said There'd Be Days Like This: (The Shirelles 1961)

Recon not. Testing some of the 90% diluted to 50% now as consolation. Still rummy

[LWTCS]

Whaale,
The shortened reflux time left me with a bunch of good alcohol in the Humper. That kinda sucks.

Starting back at square one on the dunder pit. Think I left the lid slightly adjar. After re checking every thing looks good however.

I remember wondering if the pit needed a little air infiltration to allow the mold to bloom.

[LWTCS]

Good or bad?

Found floating a single aray (maybe 5 or 6 beads) of mold in my dunder pit that looks kinda like frog eggs.

Perty sure I heard goose make mention of frog eggs.

All smells are nice and rum dunderie.

[Austin Nichols]

I've got 60 liters of it in a drum that I've saved out of my last few rum runs, took a look at it today and the top is brown and furry kinda like carpet.

I'm really not sure about using it but just wanted to see what happens to it, it doesnt smell bad but I didnt want a nose full of brown fur either

Cheers.

[LWTCS]

Recon most of the dunder pit useres are mostly under informed.

I'm gonna go with my nose. My nose says it is rum dunder.........I recon

[Barney Fife]

I've never done the dunder pit thing, and have only read a little bit on the subject, so take my advice with a bit of caution, but I believe if it smells good, it is good, and if it smells like old garbage, it can't be good

You're going to boil the hell out of it when you distill it, so the distillate should be fine, though I wouldn't use any of it to charge the thumpers. Instead, I'd refrigerate some fresh dunder and use that to charge the thumpers, just in case.

I suppose I need to begin saving good dunder and refrigerating it to charge my upcoming 3" LTC(LW thump column)!

[LWTCS]

Yep seems like we are all winging it with the dunder pit.

Barney the infected dunder gonna cook in the thumpers too

I suspect we will have to try every combination,,,,,that does not smell like the dump that is.

[Barney Fife]

the infected dunder gonna cook in the thumpers too

Sure, but the rolling boil in the boiler would help separate/break any spores or bacteria or whatever, and be sure to kill them. Same reason we bring water to a hard boil and hold it there for a few minutes to disinfect it when we aren't sure of our drinking water. Read up on bacteria; it can hide and protect itself by latching onto solids, for example.

Just trying to be safe....

[kiwistiller]

Started my dunder pit. look forward to joining the club. Also have some Danstil EDV493 yeast - exciting! Only a small sample though, so I'll propigate it and freeze samples first.