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Just got some bags of sugar daddy's panela goodness, thank-you nerdybrewer for the group buy. 25lbs of panela 3 gals of dunder and 12 gals of water puts me at 15 brix with a potential of 8% fg low but might be nice for rum and a easy ferment.

Glad to meet up and pick up my purchase of panela and thanks to Nerdybrewer for organizing the group buy and getting a discount for all of us.

You've got me dreamin of rum now....

Just brought back 3L of Havanna Club 7yo to the states. Not the best rum i've ever had, but the illicitness makes it taste better.

Oldvine, I just went back and read your thread on your first rum run with bananas. This will actually be my first rum run so I was thinking I would save the same amount of dunder as I do backset from a UJ run to add back into my second generation. Looks like you saved everything from your first generation, did you through the fients back into the second generation? I've done a lot of AG runs and fruit runs can't believe I've never done rum yet just seems like I always had something in the fermenter.

nerdybrewer was kind enough to bring some of that panela goodness my way too I started a 2nd gen rum last week from fancy molasses I had on hand but was saving 5 gallons of dunder and a 30 gallon barrel for the panela but made a calculating error with a 50 gallon batch of Unicorn Sweat and had to increase it to 80 gallons and use my 30 gallon drum for that . Now I am very anxious to get a panela batch going but if I do I will once again be using every fermenter I have and fruit season is fast approaching. I knew I should have picked up 2 of those 30 gallon barrels when I went to see the barrel man Anyway, I am kind of hoping the PNWPG (PNW Panella Group) can make this a regular thing and we can all become master rum makers

Thanks to Sugar Daddy for providing this for us, getting it out to us so quickly and at a really great price!

I have to admit I had a couple of moments when I asked myself what the hell I thought I was doing!
Looking at that pallet with 1200 Lbs of Panela just made me think "wow that's a lotta rum right there!".
It was really great to meet you guys, looking forward to Bearriver's BBQ in July!
Keep those pics of ferments coming, OZ your's looks amazing! Will I get to see it when I bring you the rest of your bags?

I like that idea Cranky, I may have a conflict with Proof 2016 but will try and make the BBQ.

Nerdybrewer was great to work with & can not thank him enough for setting things up. Thank you all for giving us a try!

Cheers fellas!

Nerdybrewer, if I like my results and you have extra come the BBQ at Bearrivers I might want to buy another 50#'s. Like you said it sure smells good!

Bushman wrote:Nerdybrewer, if I like my results and you have extra come the BBQ at Bearrivers I might want to buy another 50#'s. Like you said it sure smells good!

Everything should be pretty much claimed and I'll know what (if any) is still available by then for sure.

Bushman wrote:Oldvine, I just went back and read your thread on your first rum run with bananas. This will actually be my first rum run so I was thinking I would save the same amount of dunder as I do backset from a UJ run to add back into my second generation. Looks like you saved everything from your first generation, did you through the fients back into the second generation? I've done a lot of AG runs and fruit runs can't believe I've never done rum yet just seems like I always had something in the fermenter.

Bushman fients went back into gen 2 as well as the dunder. I wasn't too thrilled with what flavors the bananas added so no bananas in my first panela run.
It was a pleasure meeting you yesterday

Picked up my 200 lbs of bagged sweetness, but I won't be able to get anything up and into ferment for a couple of weeks. But at least I now have it in hand.

Nerdybrewer,
Your poor car looked like it was really straining with all those bags in it. Glad to help relieve part of your load and also meet a few other NW members at the pick up site. Sorry I didn't get to meet up with the rest from the south-end, but maybe I'll see you all at Proof. It still took me 1 1/2 hours just to get from Auburn through Tacoma on the way home. Traffic and weather could not have been worse, but I made it home OK. Thanks for making the trip south for the hookup. I know it was out of your way, but I really appreciate it.

I've made several batches of Rum, but this will be my first using panela. Looking forward to some excellent Rum in my future.

Also looking for advice on specifics from anyone who has done a panela Rum with a flute still, (I have a 4" Flute and a 3" Pot Still w/a Thumper.) How many plates did you use for optimal performance? Was it better to do in a Pot Still? Did you have to do a stripping run first or was it good to go on the first distillation? Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'm curious as to what you all have found to have worked well.

And yes, I've already read the 9 pages of the Panela/Piloncillo RUM thread.

Euphoria wrote: Also looking for advice on specifics from anyone who has done a panela Rum with a flute still, (I have a 4" Flute and a 3" Pot Still w/a Thumper.) How many plates did you use for optimal performance? Was it better to do in a Pot Still? Did you have to do a stripping run first or was it good to go on the first distillation? Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'm curious as to what you all have found to have worked well.

And yes, I've already read the 9 pages of the Panela/Piloncillo RUM thread.

I've only done two batches of molasses rum both with my flute and running all 5 plates, one run and still plenty of flavor. This first batch of panela rum will be run the same way, trying to change only one variable at a time. The next batch I may cut down to only three plates if I'm not happy with the results of the first.

Good luck and let us know how yours turns out - should be a lot of good rum made in the PNW this summer

Sugar Daddy wrote:Nerdybrewer was great to work with & can not thank him enough for setting things up. Thank you all for giving us a try!

Cheers fellas!

Thanks SD for providing a quality product for us to use, I hope that my stilling skills will do it justice.

OVZ

Oldvine Zin wrote: - should be a lot of good rum made in the PNW this summer

Youn guys and your bragging! We need to get a big group buy done here in the SoCal area, although I did recently find piloncillo locally for $1.50/pound.

Well I didn't get it started, instead I made 2 batches of lemoncello and 1 batch of spiced walnut. Tomorrow I will be heading to our fractional ownership at Hood Canal for the week so I am a good week out from starting this.

The wife will be gone all weekend so I know what's going to be happening in the shed!!!

nerdybrewer wrote:The wife will be gone all weekend so I know what's going to be happening in the shed!!!

I just checked my 15 gal ferment Only two days into it - down to tiny bubbles and SG is at 1.001, at this rate I will be running it this weekend

Oldvine Zin wrote:

nerdybrewer wrote:The wife will be gone all weekend so I know what's going to be happening in the shed!!!

I just checked my 15 gal ferment

panela2.JPG

Only two days into it - down to tiny bubbles and SG is at 1.001, at this rate I will be running it this weekend

That looks awesome, I'm officially excited to be trying this stuff.
Instead of making a monster 90 gallon ferment right off I'm going to go small(ish) with the first one to start building my dunder up with Panela.
Also going to try what I've been reading over in Jimbo's Panela rum thread, start it light in terms of OG and add more Panela to it as it goes.
Just want to make the best rum I possibly can.

This was the quickest ferment ever for me, two days and done!! Going to let it settle overnight and prob run it tomorrow

Wow, can't believe it worked that fast? Let us know how much you get out of your run.

nerdybrewer wrote:

Oldvine Zin wrote:

nerdybrewer wrote: Instead of making a monster 90 gallon ferment right off I'm going to go small(ish) with the first one to start building my dunder up with Panela.

+1 Nerdy, dunder will make a difference. I like it with and without dunder, but nice to have choices, eh?
This stuff is delicious white, but put some on oak and forget about it for at least a year. You will be glad you did.

That's my plan, got 8 gallons rum from feed molly and dunder aging in a black swan barrel, got to buy a 15 gallon barrel to hold my Panela rum. Hard part will be leaving it be... I have a couple gallons white to tide me over. Might need to start working with corn soon, especially after having a taste of what Olivine Zin made!

Got my Panela Rum ferment going.
About 15 gallons of my 6th gen dunder and 100 Lbs Panela for about 65 gallons total.
Yeah it's a small(ish) one but I wanted to start out with the baby steps.
I have my Sous Vide machine in there and the 300Watt titanium heater connected so now I just need to wait...

Only 65 gal? Makes my 15 gal test batch seem puny running it right now. Divided it into two runs, first run gave me about two liters at 90ish, kept the middle liter and dumped the rest into the second run. Planning on doing the same with the second.

Glad you enjoyed the corn!

I'm thinking in terms of the number of bags to open, 1 bag = 30 gallons and 2 bags = 60 gallons.
Added 5 gallons water just to make sure I wouldn't stress my yeast!
Gotta love that red star bread yeast, been using one 32 Oz bag for the past year.
Oh - btw I discovered a partial jar of last years rum while out in the shed today, it's so good!!

Just started batch two - back set from today's run added water to 30 gal and added a little less than a bag of panela goodness (saving a couple of pounds to add to a rub for a slow smoked pork butt) - love the 2 pound bags of redstar

Hey Nerdy did you feed Panela during ferment? Let us know how the run goes. Cheers.

Jimbo wrote:Hey Nerdy did you feed Panela during ferment? Let us know how the run goes. Cheers.

I didn't go with the feeding plan this time, I was a little pressed for time so it all went in.
Next time I'll go with the feeding plan.
It's very active this morning. Holding right on 85F and the effervescence is really awesome, bubbles breaking to the surface and spraying up into the air above.

Activity has slowed to almost zero, I turned the set temperature down to 75F.
I'll check the SG today after work, if it indicates done then I'll let her settle until the weekend and run.
How's it going with everyone else who is running Panela rum?