Home Distiller

So as a gift for a good friend of mine, i am trying to go about making some clairin/kleren style rum for him. my research shows that it is made in a great many small distilleries amongst the cane fields of haiti, and it seems it is made from juice though i have read it is also made from the sugar.

does anyone have any experience working with such a product? any recipes, ideas, taste notes, or other information you may have would be great as its a hard product to source to sample and with the decentralized nature of Haitian distillers; even trying one or two may make it hard to really nail down the style because they may not be representative of what is most common down there.

i know its similar to cachacas and rhum agricole so im going to do some reading around the forum on those because i know ive seen some threads about them.

i do live in louisiana, and knowing how expensive commercial cane juice ive seen at restaurant supply is im thinking i may be able to obtain some actual cane, and juice some and combine that with a dark brown cane sugar for a fermentation. as id imagine a whole shitload of cane would be required to make enough juice to ferment out on its own enough wash for a couple stripping runs. thus just using some to add to a ferment seems like it might be a way to make a similar product without the bulk of cane.

that being said i dont know if they strip and spirit or if they use single pots, thumper, double thumper or what...research to be done.

All I really know about it is that no yeast is added, they allow it to ferment naturally

Read an Article on clairin not long ago, here it is:
https://www.winemag.com/2018/04/12/haiti-clairin-rum/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Some images of the equipment that they use and some explication to the process.
Not sure this will help at all.

New to making rum myself, so not much help in that area.

Best of luck!

I have seen a growing selection of Clairin In the local liquor stores.

Cheers,
Irish.

I would start with some Steen's 100% pure cane syrup, maybe add some cane sugar and bakers yeast.
See what happens.
Not sure you can get much closer without going to the source. Good luck!
Let us know what you come up with.
I'm ordering some of this stuff for some rum.

Cheers,
Irish

Article mentions "unregulated".
That alone gives enough ambiguity that would likely set two makers from the same region into a lively fist fight.

Syrup does not come close. Need fresh press. Need climate. Need indigenous micro flora.

They often don't have the resources to waste heat on syrup when they still have to fire the still.

Not arguing with you LWTCS.

I just figured that was as close as you could get. I don't know anyone that sells cain juice from Haiti in the states.
I'm sure that using the Steens would end up much more like a standard rum, but may be worth a try.

Looking at some images of this stuff fermenting in Haiti and it looks like they toss in anything laying around. Sticks, grass, dog sh*t, looks nasty.
I have yet to try it personally. Binny's has two different brands on hand, I'm sure both taste nothing like whats in Haiti.

If you have any other ideas let us know.
The only "cane juice" that I've seen so far is processed cane sugar with beet sugar added.

Cheers,
Irish

To get close to it, you would have to juice freshly cut cane and ferment it with the wild yeast from the cane. Beyond that, every Clairin is different depending on the cane variety, region, still, skills, etc., so just make it out of what you've got, with whatever still you've got, to the best of your ability, which is what Clairin producers do.

From what I understand, it can taste anywhere between evil and delightful and still be Clairin as long as it's done in Haiti and their set of rules aren't broken.

If you don't have access to a sugar cane juicer you've got your work cut out. Your friend should be invited to help you out with that so that he fully appreciates how much blood sweat and tears went into making it.

NZChris wrote:If you don't have access to a sugar cane juicer you've got your work cut out. Your friend should be invited to help you out with that so that he fully appreciates how much blood sweat and tears went into making it.

+1 NZ

Not sure where you are located.

Based on your "location" I would assume you're located North Of Los Angeles, or North Of Louisiana.

A number of people grow sugar cane in their back yards in both areas. I have no idea how much it would take to make a batch of this stuff, but I would assume it would take quite a bit.

Get your garden going, or make friends with a cane farmer.

Closest I can get is sugar beets in my area, it’s too damn cold here, high of -2 currently.

Personally, I think I’ll take the easy way out and pick up a bottle of this stuff the next time I’m at the liquor store.

Good luck with this one!

Cheers,
Irish

Irish - New Orleans, Louisiana

Well shoot.
That makes sense. Haha

I’m sure if you had a taste of something that your friend likes, you could get close.
Might take a little trial and error, but that’s the name of the game for most of us here.

Good luck on your journey with this one.
Let us know if you come up with anything worthwhile.

Cheers,
Irish

i will keep yall updated. ive only done a few rums before and its been a long time. my specialty is whiskey and brandy and hybrids thereof.

thanks to everyone for the input and thanks in advance to anyone else who come a-postin'

-AMELIH