Dark navy rum

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:52 am

so what good recipes can you guys share for:
A, fermenting a nice full bodied rum, and
B, colouring a nice navy/Jamaican/dark rum?

lawnman · Post by **lawnman** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 4:55 am

ive found that the dark navy rum and jamacan rums have a good colour to em made some last week only let it sit 1 week and bang straight into it.
what i like about the essence rums is i find the flavour and colour are strong enough to drink straight away.
i did try it with some vanilla ess though as talked about in another thread not long ago and mmmm very nice.

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 5:09 am

i have used the essence and not bad, but i have a rum fermenting but wondering what people use to colour em (how dark to make the Carmel etc)

Watershed · Post by **Watershed** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:32 am

To get to the dark Navy rum type I use well toasted oak staves, add a really dark unrefined sugar ( muscavado ) and caramel. Molasses rather than unrefined sugar and a fair bit of tails from a double distilate.

To make the caramel, boil a 3:1 mix of sugar and water until it starts to darken and give off unpleasant fumes. The darker you let it get, the stronger the colouring and the more bitter the flavour. I rarely let it get past reddish. Pour out onto a greased baking sheet and once cool just smack with something a few times.

The best way to add - since it's easy to overdo caramel - is to make a syrup ( 40% caramel in water ) and add it a little at a time with careful tasting.

Both the sugar addition and caramel are traditionaly used as is adding molasses.

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:00 am

I'm very experienced in making Carmel (i don't use any water when i make it, I'm a chef so had lots o practice) but i was wondering what else to add to my rum and how dark to make the Carmel.

So it seems i add Molasses and Carmel?

thanks for your help.

Big J · Post by **Big J** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:29 am

For fermentation, lots of the dark rum producers will use dunder that has sat open to the elements and been allowed to collect a healthy dose of bacteria. Apparently these help create desirable esters when added to future fermenations. That could be something interesting to experiment with.

I know the big distilleries also add a culture of Clostridium
saccharobutyricum to their fermentations to produce butyric acid, and some other acids. Not quite sure where you would come across that though! Good luck.

Cheers,
J

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:32 am

hmmm might give that a go, i love my rum just to much i have 50 ltrs on the brew now and plan to use LOTS of dunder in my next batch.

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:33 am

i might also try making some Carmel with brown sugar, just to see

Big J · Post by **Big J** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 5:41 am

Forgot to say: ferment hot - 25-35C. Its coming to summer time for us here in the Southern Hemisphere, so that's a plus. You can't get as high a level of alcohol at those temps, but the yeast should make some nice flavors. Think about where most rum distilleries are, in the tropics! They must have trouble keeping their fermentations down to 35C.

-J

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:16 am

very good point... thanks for that, i am warming the brews up as we speak

possum · Post by **possum** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:42 am

I have made rums with caramel and some with molassis, I liked the caramel better.
However the molassis darkened rums meeded an extra step to let the molassis solids settle and decanted off...otherwise it is "dusty" or something like that. I thought the carmel rums let the subtle flavors of the dundered rum come across better. The molassis darkened was pretty good for a black spiced rum.

These things are a matter of personal taste.
All of my rums tasted better after a few weeka of "airing out" to get the disolved CO2 out of the spirits.
Good luck absinthe.

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:00 am

running my rum now but what kind of cuts do i use do i take out heads? i have heard some people just start collecting after taking out the methanol. and when (approx) do i stop collecting? (i will be using the good ol` nose and taste, just wondering when i should be really keeping a eye on it)

Uncle Remus · Post by **Uncle Remus** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:27 am

Any pot stilling I do I run twice. First run all I take of is foreshot (anything that comes off below 172 deg F). Then I collect everything running deep into the tails, down to 20% or so.

Second run (if I started with a 50- 60 liter wash) I would take about 750ml for heads off the top. But use your nose, when the solventy, acetone, shoe polish smell is gone switch to hearts. I usually collect till the distillate av% drops to 45-50% here again depends on smell/taste.

Big J · Post by **Big J** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:29 am

I do a stripping run collecting everything down to 20% ABV. Then on the spirit run I collect as hearts from approx 75%-55%ABV. Ultimately determined by taste of course. My tails start to taste faintly like wet cardboard and overcooked artichokes. Good luck.

Cheers,
J

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:42 am

well the run is finished now but i think i started a bit early and finished a bit early, but the product seems good so far (a bit ruff but hell its not very old).

the heads didn't seem to have any solvent,acetone smell but did seem slightly sweeter than the rest so i used it in the mix (all i ended up taking as heads was about 300mls).

i stopped a bit less than 75% (i did go buy the temp on the wiki section of the site that said rum was "produced at less than 190 deg" i did go a bit over that temp but not much

absinthe · Post by **absinthe** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:01 am

sorry posted the last one twice so in editing it so i don't look like more of a fool than i really am