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im gonna try pugirum recipe in the tried and true section. ive read most of the thread and one of the concerns with buying molasses is preservatives . i found a local feed store that sells 2.5 gallons for 15 bucks . seems like a good deal . i asked them if it contains and preservatives and she said it contained propionic acid.

should i stay away from this molasses?

thanks.

Have a look -

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Propionic acid seems to be a fairly common preservative for feed grade molasses. I did a little research a while back and the general consensus seemed to be that it was OK. Yeast don't like it, but because it's diluted in the wash, it probably won't effect the ferment that much. Someone had a method of clarifying the molasses by adding some chemical or other and letting the acid settle to the bottom - then racking off the clarified molasses. Other forum members didn't seem to think it was worth the effort. Just do an "HD Google Search" if you want to read about it.

S-C

Edit: As per Blind Drunk - well there you go.

ethyl propionate = pineapples. Would probably smell good in the rum, no?

Tried some feed store molasses with propionic acid in it. Wouldn't ferment. Did an acid clear, corrected the pH and it fermented fine, but the distillate tasted like ass (sulphur flavored derriere, actually). I currently use food grade and bitch about the price.

I did rum out of stock feed molasses (using Hook Rum recipe) a while back and it tasted like crap. Waste of time and money. I ended up running it through the column to strip the ethanol and I wont bother again, but I do intend to do some "rum" from a mixture of Raw, Brown and Dark Brown sugars. I imagine it will be a "Light Rum".

Propionic acid is easy to deactivate. Mix your molasses with water so it stirs easily, I usually mix about 3 to 1 in a big pot and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling add about a teaspoon of non iodized salt per gallon of liquid and after a few minutes of stiring at a light boil, shut it down, let it cool and leave the sediment in the pot behind. This clarifies the molasses and deactivates the propionic acid at the same time. Then mix your additional sugar and water to get your desired starting S.G.

Most modern molasses will have some trace of propanoic (propionic) acid as it's presence is part of the strike process for cane/table sugar production (here in "big sugar").

"Powderized" sugar is added to a "bucket" of propanol to make a slurry that is added to the centrifuge for sugar crystal production.

( Propanol/alcohol on it's own accord will not dissolve sugar)
This slurry is what grows the sugar crystals.
But the heat generated from the pan within the centrifuge oxidizes the propanol and turns / renders / converts the propanol to propanoic acid.

As a result, the more efficient the sucrose extraction,,, the more the propanoic acid will be concentrated on a PPM basis within the remaining by product that is known as molasses.

I can not say that molasses providers add an additional amount of propanoic (propionic) acid to low sugar molasses product.

Sipping on Friday. Hope I said that clearly

CuWhistle wrote:I did rum out of stock feed molasses (using Hook Rum recipe) a while back and it tasted like crap. Waste of time and money. I ended up running it through the column to strip the ethanol and I wont bother again, but I do intend to do some "rum" from a mixture of Raw, Brown and Dark Brown sugars. I imagine it will be a "Light Rum".

Throw in a qt of food grade blackstrap per 5-6 gal and it really adds a lot of flavor.