Panela/Piloncillo RUM

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Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

After hunting high and low at several local markets I determined the cheapest Im gonna find this stuff is $1.99 a lb. The local Latinos Mercado had 2 styles of Piloncillo from Mexico and a Panela from Columbia. All were 1.99/lb.

I bought 18 pounds to make a 10 gal wash. Should put me somewhere around 1.083 SG, 8.5% PA. Ill run it twice. If I keep half after cuts thats a gallon at 40+%. 5 fifths for $36. About $7 a fifth, double what a Barley or Red Wheat Malt AG costs. But still not terribly terrible. ;)

The panela is darker, softer and not surprisingly more molassessy. The piloncillo is hard, a little lighter, and in my opinion tastier, hard to describe, more flavors than just straight molasses I guess.

Cheers, Jim
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Tater »

should make a very good lite rum . What mine tasted like to me only I just ran once.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Prairiepiss »

I just started a 35 gal with 45 lbs panela. The other day.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Thanks Tater! Ill try it after 1 run. Be great if the hearts from that first run were keeper without running again. Had good luck with apple brandy that way, heaps of good flavor. The AG whiskeys needed 2 runs tho, with only 1 exception where I pulled a tiny bit of all barley middle hearts out that is aging up nice after a few months.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Nice PP, yes your post on that is what gave me the bug. Does 1.99 a lb for panella sound right or did you find it cheaper?

Also, silly question, does rum require any unique yeast?
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Tater »

Prairiepiss wrote:I just started a 35 gal with 45 lbs panela. The other day.
that gonna be a low abv could done 30 gallon or bit less with that ratio. jimdo64 I didnt have much heads with mine and taste was good fairly far into the tails.I used bakers yest with mine.Most commercial bread yeast makers grow their yeast in a molasses medium. Unless Its middle of summer and hot then I use distillers yeast.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Grappa-Gringo »

I'll have to put this on my "to brew" list, as I just found a little mexican market down the way that sells this stuff at a pretty reasonable cost....
What was the bill on this? just pilloncello, water and yeast? any neutrients?

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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Im no expert on this (first rum batch), so if the masters disagree with what I say below please chime in....

Ive read elsewhere on the web that raw sugarcane has heaps of nutrients, so dont need extra yeast nutrients. My plan is to boil 10 gallons water, dissolve 18 lbs of this mixed piloncillo and panela (1.083, 8.5%), cool, aerate and pitch the yeast.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Prairiepiss »

I'm sory I forgot I added some sugar. Here is what I did.

35 gal total volume.
45 lbs Panela.
4 lbs sugar.
1 Tbs yeast Energizer.
1 Tbs yeast nutrient.
Pinch of Epson salt.
4 oz bakers yeast.
2 oz Crosby Bakers DADY yeast.

Melted the panela in about 15 gal of water. Boiled it and added to fermenter. Rehydrated the bakers yeast and 1 oz of the DADY in 1/2 gal of 110 deg f water. The DADY is not active. Haven't been able to get it to ferment anything since I bought it. So more like a nutrient addition. Took test cylinder for SG reading. Added it to the yeast. When it started getting out of hand I pitched it. And pitched 1 oz of DADY dry. Kept it at approx 80 deg f.

Starting SG 1.056
Ending SG 0.992
ABV 8.25%

I was coming up short on my Target SG. My guess on how much panela was off. So I added the 4 lbs of sugar. I expect this one to be light. Want to see how it turns out. Plan to use some of the dunder from the runs for the next batch. To find out how much flavor it adds. I think I will be ok with the lighter flavor of the all panela. I doubt I really needed the nutes. But I have them and I generally add a little just in case. Just try not to over do them.

Around here $1.99 a pound is about the norm. I found a place I can get it for $1.73 a pound local. But I also got turned onto the supplier and getting it cheaper through him.

Tater I have changed the way I do things. My new SG target for all my washes is 1.060. As a way to see if I can stop the off flavors I've been getting with the high ABV washes. Just a little experiment I'm doing. I've got a UJSSM down at 1.058 right now too. We will see what happens. I can always raise the next generations. But for now I want to stay in the 8% ABV range.

My last rum run was blackstrap, panela and sugar. I want to compare it to the all panela.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Thanks P, thats a good point. Shooting for 1.083 is too high, and the alc would be way over the 8.5 my stupid calculator states, without plugging in custom attentuations (it says my yeast will only go to 1.17! crazy, the AG's been going to sub 1.000 with this yeast, US-05. Anyway, I'll go 12 gallons instead of 10. I hope this stuff doesnt foam up much (15.5g keg still). Im looking forward to getting away with a single run like Tater had some luck with. Step 1, boil me up some panela this weekend :)
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Prairiepiss »

Did a little figuring. And from the SG I got from the amounts of sugar I used. I'm figuring the panela contains approx 85% the sugar by weight white table sugar does.

So for a 35 gal ferment I would need 46 lbs of table sugar to get my Target SG of 1.060. I would need 53 lbs of the panela to get the same target SG of 1.060.

I think I will go with 50 lbs of panela in the next batch. See where that lands me. My calculations say an SG of 1.057. And I could live with that.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Richard7 »

This is a little off topic but not much. I just got 5 quarts of sugarcane syrup from a fellow who grows and presses it himself. I want to make a rum with it but I'm afraid it won't go far. If I have to add sugar I plan on using brown sugar to hit the SG I want. Or just add water till I hit the SG I am aiming for which is 1.050. I don't know the SG of the syrup so I don't know which way I will go yet. I'm thinking since it has been boiled down to syrup I should not have to worry about the wild yeast issues I have read about in other topics about sugar cane.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Wow that sounds great. Lucky! If you need to stretch it, why not use this panella/piloncillo stuff since its made from raw cane juice?

Let us know how that turns out.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Richard7 »

I'll have to see if I can find some. Probably $5.00 a pound here with my luck! I bought kerosene at my local Mexican grosser and they tried to charge me $12.00 per gallon!
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

I passed an Indian Vishnu market on the way home from work, so I popped in to see if I could find some 'Jaggery', the indian version of this panela stuff. They had all kinds of it. I bought a pound for 2.29. Its hard but softer than Piloncillo or Panela. Flavor wise its delicious and has a complexity thats different than the others. Checking the ingredients they add salt, 72mg per ounce serving. Not much, but dont think I want a load of that in my rum wash, cant imagine it'd make the yeast too happy.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

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Sugar Daddy has it for $1.10 per pound
Can PM me if you need his contact info
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Hey guys, here's my mix for this rum. 9 lbs panela and 9 lbs mixed piloncillo (2 kinds). That panela looks really dark, is the stuff you used that dark?
panela-piloncillo.JPG
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Prairiepiss »

Yes it was. The stuff Sugardaddy sells is nice and dark. And I think it has much more flavor then the lighter stuff like you have. I had 10 lbs of the lighter hard cone stuff already. And the other 35 lbs was his stuff. And the taste difference was a lot. And I don't think I will ever buy the hard cone stuff again. If I don't have to.
Here is the 20 lbs I got straight from sugardady.
IMAG1831-picsay.jpg
Here is the 35 lbs ready to melt.
IMAG1835-picsay.jpg
And here is what it looked like after I got it melted.
IMAG1836-picsay.jpg
Thanks Larry for adding Sugardaddy info. I wasn't sure if I should post it or not.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Thanks P, looks good. I contacted sugardaddy. He's bringing me 60 lbs next time he rolls through town :-D

... waiting for my 12 gallons of water to boil LOL

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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Prairiepiss »

Cool. He's a good guy. And so far his stuff is the best I have found. You will be happy with it. LWTCS is the panela rum man. He's been using it for a long time. And that's mostly all he makes.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Excellent, thanks again P!

Rum man LWTCS, :) anything special I should know/do while running this? I crushed up 18 lbs to mix in 12 gallons boiling water. After it cools Ill aerate and pitch the yeast. Tater mentioned getting some good tasting spirit out of a single run, and with pretty wide cuts. Is that how you do it too?

Thanks
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Thanks again! :)

Water boiled, I stirred in the 18 lbs, crushed up first, into 12 gallons water and hit 15.8 brix, 1.063. Nice number for happy yeasties. Ill cool it with the wort chiller, whip it up and pitch the yeast today :) Cant wait to run this. One of the links in the link you posted mention they even let the rhum blanc age for 1-6 months. Guess that makes sense. Damn, Im thirsty. haha.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

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jimdo64 wrote:Excellent, thanks again P!

Rum man LWTCS, :) anything special I should know/do while running this? I crushed up 18 lbs to mix in 12 gallons boiling water. After it cools Ill aerate and pitch the yeast. Tater mentioned getting some good tasting spirit out of a single run, and with pretty wide cuts. Is that how you do it too?

Thanks
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

I hit up the local alcohol dreamland (Binnys) to do some rum research. They had dozens of rums, and a guy who was very rum savvy. I tasted a couple they had opened, a 21 year old something, forgot the name :wtf: and a '10 Cane'. Both were really good, the 21 year old was more like a bourbon tho, lots of oak that overtook the rum flavor. He said his favorite rum, bar none, was this one below. $29 a bottle, 12 yo. He didnt have one for me to taste but I picked up a bottle. WOW. Never ever had a rum like this. Its like toffee candy. If you see a bottle of this around I highly recommend it! Zaya 12year from Trinidad.

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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Prairiepiss wrote:
LWTCS wrote:
Dunderhead guesstimated bout 10lbs of panela might be 8lbs of table sugar. I'm not so sure it is that much.
With 18 lbs in 12 gallons water I got 1.063, I think that math works out to 42 PPG if I did it right. Sugar is 46 PPG. So I got 91.3% sugar content, BUT, I did have 9 lbs of Piloncillo in there which was harder and lighter than the Panela (so maybe higher sugar content)? Ill check again next time I run an all Panela from sugardaddy. I think P said he calculated about 85%.

LWTCS wrote: I use 25% (aged) dunder
dunder is the backset from running this rum? I read how you aged it, no fuzzies growing? Ive had whiskey backset sit for a while and WHEW did it get funky after a bit. I now freeze it, half gallon per ziplock. I dont think I have room to freeze gallons to hit 25% tho LOL, guess Ill just have to do another run right away LOL Do you use the backset purely for flavor or does it serve some other purpose (like lowering the ph in whiskey mashes)? Thanks.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by LWTCS »

I tried the Zaya,,,,Real good for topping yer strawberry short cake.

I find the un masked quality of plain white to reveal an honesty that the syrup rums can't do.
I like it sweet on my nose but not on the tongue.
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

Do you think they add sugar to the dark rums? Why do you call them syrup rums? I thought it was just dark from the barrel aging, and sweeter by virtue of the oak vanilla flavors etc?
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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by LWTCS »

jimdo64 wrote:Do you think they add sugar to the dark rums? Why do you call them syrup rums? I thought it was just dark from the barrel aging, and sweeter by virtue of the oak vanilla flavors etc?
Might be just me being an internet likker geek. But for me I felt it was too sweet on my tongue.
I do think syrups are added for smoothing in many rums.
Try the 23 year old Ron Zacappa and then see whuts whut with oak.....IMO

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Re: Panela/Piloncillo RUM

Post by Jimbo »

I had nuther taste. Definitely sweet. Nice for a wee finger or 2, but it'd be gagging by the 3rd finger like I pour da bourbon :P oops did I jus say that outloud. lol
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