Due to moving across the country last year, and almost moving the year before, I haven't been able to make any of my beloved high ester dunder rum. But today I'm running gen 1 I made a ferment of Herdlife molasses and water & bread yeast and doing a slow distill through my trusty pot. I'm keeping the hearts white, the feints and dunder is what I'm really after. I'll be using dunder in the next gen with food grade blackstrap, and doing strips until I have enough for a spirit run that will also have the feints and more dunder. I'm after the heaviest rum I can make, will be going back to Herdlife after gen 2.
My garage smells like bananas and fruits from the heads that are coming out now
Done, and cleaned up I melted 3 gallons of Golden Barrel blackstrap into 4 gallons of dunder and added 5 gallons of water, the other 5-ish gallons of dunder is in a bucket to become a pit I'll be pitching yeast once the wash temp gets down to 95 or so. I might thrown in some clam shells to help with the PH in another day if it's slow.
I collected in a carboy until I thought I was getting close to the hearts, then started collecting in jars until the tails started showing up, then back to the carboy. I'll let the jars air for 48hrs, then make cuts.
My first run I ended up just mixing all together as low wines, the whole thing ended up being smeared from being pushed too fast I think. No worries.
Stripped gen 2 today. I have about 6 gallons of low wines now, so one more strip and I'll have enough for a proper spirit run. My pit is looking good now, bubbles across the top. It has a chopped up dirty potato and and overripe plantain in it. Gen 3 is in the fermentor cooling before I pitch. I used 2 gallons of fancy blackstrap, 1 gallon Herdlife, 3 gallons of hot dunder all poured on top of the trub in the fermentor. I added 6 gallons of cool water after 20 mins. Tomorrow morning I'll check the temp.
Today is Black Friday......my payoff for driving to ladies clothes shops all day was going to the homebrew shop and buying a used Balcones French oak 5 gallon barrel
Beerswimmer wrote:Today is Black Friday......my payoff for driving to ladies clothes shops all day was going to the homebrew shop and buying a used Balcones French oak 5 gallon barrel
I'll be making cuts and filling the barrel on Friday. I was thinking that since this is going into a barrel that I should absolutely go into the tails, and maybe add some late heads?
I'll be making cuts and filling the barrel on Friday. I was thinking that since this is going into a barrel that I should absolutely go into the tails, and maybe add some late heads?
I would definitely say go deep into the tails and taste test the jars. As for heads if you say any I wouldn’t use a lot but late heads would be a good idea if there are flavors in it you prefer.
I personally think you could go higher with the ABV for a once used barrel. I’ve seen some age rum at 70%. I’d just be sure to periodically check it if your worried of over oaking it.
I made a ferment of Herdlife molasses and water & bread yeast and doing a slow distill through my trusty pot. I'm keeping the hearts white, the feints and dunder is what I'm really after. I'll be using dunder in the next gen with food grade blackstrap, and doing strips until I have enough for a spirit run that will also have the feints and more dunder. I'm after the heaviest rum I can make, will be going back to Herdlife after gen 2. 
