Panela/Piloncillo RUM

[Mashocist]

I am not an expert by any means but doing a stripping run will definitely "condense" your cuts and make the cut points more noticeable. Running the stripping run on the panela I did notice that the transition to tails was a lot more noticeable than the transition from heads to hearts. But the spirit run cleared up the transitions noticeably on both ends. Collecting a lot of small jars, letting them set, then tasting/smelling a day later will give your nose and tongue a much better idea of what you are working with. Just remember to spit out the tested contents, drunken cuts are pretty bad cuts imho.

[sergiolis]

My second generation with some dunder from the previous is almost ready to run it. I will try a stripping run. I trust too it will be easier to make the cuts that way. Thanks for your help Mashocist.
I will post my results soon...

[sergiolis]

Hi guys,
I think panela rum just distilled once in a pot still is too strong flavoured for me. So I decided to do a stripping run in my second generation (with 25% of dunder in the fermenter).
I would like to use my 2" Boka for the spirit run. Firstly because I will try to reduce the strong flavour and secondly because I would like to separate the foreshots and some heads and tails.
My purpose is to get a flavored panela rum but a clear product too.
I've never used my Boka as a pot still or something in between to clean the product but preserving some flavour.
I've read that a bit of reflux at the begining is good to eliminate esters...
I really don't know how to do the run.
Do i need to use all the packing or maybe just packed up to half of the total height?

[Hound Dog]

I had to use my boka to clean up some over strong Panela rum. I left full packing, equalized like usual to take off heads then ran it a bit faster so the head temp rose up to around 180 and held it there. It required a bit of fiddling to balance it at first but it came out good and clean with a lighter flavor.

[sergiolis]

Thanks a lot Hound, I will run it that way.
Did you measure the ABV of your hearts?

[Hound Dog]

It was a while ago but they were quite high. Plenty of flavor still came through.

[sergiolis]

I'm working fine with my Boka at 2700W on hearts, so I will try to stay there and I will increase the take off until the temp rise 180.
Thanks a lot for your advice HD

[Hound Dog]

All I can say is WOW! A while back I made a batch of rum from Sugar daddy's Panela and it came out pretty tailsy. I cleaned it up a bit in my reflux then put some on oak. I took it off the oak but did not care for the dark flavor. Didn't think much of it and just tossed it on the shelf. Well today I was digging around and came across it. Jar had a 2014 date on it in Sharpie. It didn't smell to bad so I cut it back to 85 proof and mixed it with some coke. DAMN! This is some good dark rum! Two years on a shelf worked miricles. I still have a gallon or two that is white. I am going to have to break it back out and see how it turn out. Worst I can do is hit it with some oak too.

[nerdybrewer]

Hound Dog, I put my 2015 rum in an oak barrel and it was great at 6 months.
At one year it was so good it's all gone!

[NZChris]

That's why I do two cuts out of one run, Hound Dog. A wide tailsey cut for long aging and a narrow cut for if I get impatient.

[nerdybrewer]

I took two quarts of hearts on my current run just to have in the house.
So So good...

[Hound Dog]

That's why I do two cuts out of one run, Hound Dog. A wide tailsey cut for long aging and a narrow cut for if I get impatient.

I just didn't know it was that darned good!

[Hound Dog]

Was in Costco and found this on the shelf. Got two barrels filled this afternoon. It mixed up nice and dark. I threw in half a bag of Cheerios on each barrel because I usually like the smooth flavor of oats. We'll see how it turns out.

[iwine]

Does any one know how much fermentable sugars there are in one pound or kilogram of panela?

[LWTCS]

Does any one know how much fermentable sugars there are in one pound or kilogram of panela?

Panela is 80% sugar.
More importantly for some, is that the ash content is something like .09%.
Meaning that panela has all of the same flavor notes that make a good rum,,a good rum.
But it does not have the 14% to 15% ash content found in molasses.

[iwine]

Does any one know how much fermentable sugars there are in one pound or kilogram of panela?

Panela is 80% sugar.
More importantly for some, is that the ash content is something like .09%.
Meaning that panela has all of the same flavor notes that make a good rum,,a good rum.
But it does not have the 14% to 15% ash content found in molasses.

THanx
My panela might have a little more ash my cigar ash fell in while dissolving it up

I did my calcs at 100% my ABV wont be that far off. I used 6 lbs The rest is BS all i can find here is $2 for a 1/2 lb. It tasts damn good off the block.

[LWTCS]

Just figger that 10 lbs of panela is the equivalent of 8 lbs of table sugar in terms of sucrose /fructose content.

[nerdybrewer]

Just figger that 10 lbs of panela is the equivalent of 8 lbs of table sugar in terms of sucrose /fructose content.

So how much Panela would be good per gallon in my next batch?
Since it arrived yesterday I hope to start up a batch this weekend, figure it's going to be 90 gallons.
I've done well using 100Lbs C&H sugar with about 10 gallons feed blackstrap molasses so off the cuff I am assuming 100Lbs Panela will make a batch that's got less ABV but more (better) flavor.
I'll add in dunder from my previous run.

[Jimbo]

So how much Panela would be good per gallon in my next batch?

Really? Why dont you go to the first post in this thread and look at the recipe. Or scroll up a few posts and looks at Prairiepiss's recipe or the piles of others in here. Youre standing in the middle of a lake and asking someone to bring you a pail of water.

[nerdybrewer]

So how much Panela would be good per gallon in my next batch?

Really? Why dont you go to the first post in this thread and look at the recipe. Or scroll up a few posts and looks at Prairiepiss's recipe or the piles of others in here. Youre standing in the middle of a lake and asking someone to bring you a pail of water.

Sorry Jimbo, I hate it when I do something like that.
Was just going on Larry's most recent addition and kind of thinking outloud, never a good idea.
I'm most humbly going to do just as you suggest.

[Bushman]

Nerdybrewer here is a panela rum recipe I found on the site I think I will try first when I get home with the panela I am buying from you. The one change I am going to make is I have a gallon of molasses that I will add to the double batch I will be making.

Panela Rum
My first go at a panela rum (thanks to the collective posts about panela and Sugar Daddy for the panela)

~4.85 gallons of water
7 lbs panela
1/4 tsp citric acid
1/4 tsp gypsum
1/2 Tbls red star bakers yeast

1) Brought 2.5 gal of filtered water to boil.
2) Removed from heat and added the 7 lbs of panela. Stirred vigorously till panela dissolved.
3) Added gypsum and citric acid. Stirred vigorously to aerate.
4) Brought to ~4.85 gallons with cool filtered water (roughly 4.85 with head room for ferment)
5) Took 1/4 cup of wash and placed in 250 mL erlenmeyer flask, cooled and added yeast for a starter. Let sit for several hours.
6) Placed lid with airlock, wrapped fermenter with blanket and let cool over night.
7) Checked temp (90.2°F), took SG (1.060 @ 90.2°F) and snuck a taste of the wash, very good!



Pitched yeast and covered with blanket.

[LWTCS]

Just a side thought:

While at the Miami Renaissance Rum Festival this past year, I spoke at length with one of the old time Cachaca distillers. Old gentleman is also an engineer btw.
His distillery is located at the edge of the cane feild

Anyway, not all Cachaca distillers ferment this way but he dilutes the juice so that it is about 7 brix. Most distillers here in the states seem to shoot for 15-20 brix for rums done with molasses. He starts a 250 liter volume in a 400L (working volume) fermenter and then step feeds the remainder of the juice.
His feed rate is such that the entire 400L fermentation is complete after only 24 hours. His gravity is low enough that the yeast never stresses or struggles to consume all of the sugar within the 24 hour period. And the spirit is pretty damned spectacular imo. They also have some domestic woods in Brazil that we don't have here that really contribute to a superb finish product. And finally,,,,he runs low and slow single runs with a cognac still. Never would think of a single run with rum,, its just too harsh for me. But the Cachaca that this old gentleman made was very very good.

Anyway the point I was trying to make before I started drifting,,, was that,,, listen to the old timers and shoot for a lower starting gravity for a smoother product.
Yield suffers but quality makes up for it.

Shit ,,sorry for the off topic Cachaca drift.

[iwine]

LWTCS drifting is ok in my books. If the thought does not come forward then that is all that it is a thought.... and no one learns.
Thanx for the thought/info

[Jimbo]

Cachaca talk is always welcome in my thread. This is sort of what we're making with panela, but I think it was Larry that pointed out Cachaca uses fresh pressings, not boiled down solid form. Going off memory but I think he said the fresh pressings have a fresher grassier note. Makes sense. The panela giving a more caramelized molasses note. Dunno but I sure love me some panela rum, made 3 big batches so far and have a 50 lb bag here for a 4th batch.

[LWTCS]

Cachaca talk is always welcome in my thread. This is sort of what we're making with panela, but I think it was Larry that pointed out Cachaca uses fresh pressings, not boiled down solid form. Going off memory but I think he said the fresh pressings have a fresher grassier note. Makes sense. The panela giving a more caramelized molasses note. Dunno but I sure love me some panela rum, made 3 big batches so far and have a 50 lb bag here for a 4th batch.

Yes that's correct Jimbo.

My point that was a bit more relevant to this thread was that I was amazed at how smooth the cachaca was when the gravities are kept lower.
I'd really like to experiment with the fermentation style of the old gentleman.

[Jimbo]

Thanks Im going to try exactly that with this batch. Ill make a simple syrup of sorts with this bag. Then start at low OG and feed in the syrup during ferment. Will post results back here on how it goes and observations after the run. Do these guys ferment hot using bakers? Any detail on temp and yeast? Unfortunately I dont have those prime domestic brazillian woods here, maybe a scavenged apple tree trunk....

[LWTCS]

Thanks Im going to try exactly that with this batch. Ill make a simple syrup of sorts with this bag. Then start at low OG and feed in the syrup during ferment. Will post results back here on how it goes and observations after the run. Do these guys ferment hot using bakers? Any detail on temp and yeast? Unfortunately I dont have those prime domestic brazillian woods here, maybe a scavenged apple tree trunk....

Yeah that was the top secret bit Jimbo. He was pretty forthcoming with info but the yeast was a secret. I don't blame him

[raketemensch]

I know some of y'all are out in the sticks, but if you live near a city with an Indian grocery store, many of them stock 5-pound blocks of Jaggery, which is basically panela.

They're usually dome-shaped, solid blocks.

I've got a few more experiments to run (all 5 of my fermenters are full right now) before I get to this one, but I can't wait.

[Hound Dog]

I know some of y'all are out in the sticks, but if you live near a city with an Indian grocery store, many of them stock 5-pound blocks of Jaggery, which is basically panela.

They're usually dome-shaped, solid blocks.

I've got a few more experiments to run (all 5 of my fermenters are full right now) before I get to this one, but I can't wait.

If it costs more than $1.75/lb you are better off ordering some of Sugar Daddy's Panela. I say this because you have to factor in shipping but it is good stuff.

Larry, wasn't it cheaper to ship the blocks in the flat rate boxes than the granular bags advertised now? This is the first I have ordered the bags. I assume it is the same.

[Snackson]

So the PNW guys did a group buy and they are posting all these delicious panela pictures everywhere. Ive talked with Sugar Daddy and wanted to see if there was any interest in a group buy down in the San Diego area. PM me for more info.