question about rum recipe

[eternalfrost]

up to this point ive only made neutrals but want to try rum...

would it be ok to use 100% dark brown sugar? i can get it at about 45 cents per pound so its not that much more then the white sugar i use for my neutrals.

the tried and true rums all use molasses mixed with extra sugar, so wouldnt using brown sugar be the same thing. the thing im worried bout is that there wont be enough "dark" in it. that the molasses+sugar has a higer molasses ratio the the dark brown sugar.

anyways, im going to give it a try either way since its proving to be a royal bitch to find molasses in anything bulkier then little 12oz jars and the dark brown sugar is cheap and plentiful. just want to hear your thoughts or suggestions from you guys with more experience in this stuff

[HookLine]

Worst case scenario is that the taste is too strong, and to fix that you just cut it with some neutral.

[Barney Fife]

It will be lighter in flavor than a molasses wash, but that may be what you want. I find fancy molasses as the restaurant supply stores by the gallon, very well priced. One gallon fancy, 5 lbs white sugar a dash of DAP and yeast in 5 gallons and off she goes. When I run this, I leave roughly 3/4 gallon in the fermenter, and add 2 gallons water to keep the yeast going. after the run, I take 2 gallons dunder(backset), add 5 lbs white sugar, dissolve it(which happens immediately in the hot dunder), and add a large block of ice(2lb margarine tub filled with water and frozen). This cools in about an hour, and I add it to the fermenter. Next day, she's working like a champ again. I can get 5 solid generations like this without adding molasses or yeast, and they all have a lot of good, dark rum flavor. I blend all my rums together while aging, so the flavors are very uniform. Age with heavily toasted oak, add caramel to your taste at bottling. After the 5th generation, save the same 3/4 gallon in the fermenter, but add a fresh gallon of fancy, 5lbs sugar, another dash of DAP, and top of with hot tap water. Don;t add new yeast unless she refuses to start on her own; the yeast get better(natural selection?) on their own.

[eternalfrost]

sounds good barney! i plan on starting 5 gallons of rum and 5 of ujsm and just keep both going like you described

well i got an all dark brown sugar wash started tonight so we shall see how it goes

[RumBull]

I agree with Barney.
I keep a continuous fermentation of rum going except that I use half dark brown sugar and half molasses. I invert my sugar in the dunder and start the fermentation with it. I then feed it on the second day with the molasses. I distill every weekend and some times again in the middle of the week.
Alot of people have trouble with stuck or slow fermentations of brown sugar washes so don't skimp on the nutrients (yeast bomb). You will find that your yeast get better at eating the wash in future generations and you can back it down later. I have a yeast blend, not sure which one is the champ, that will now knock down 5% pot. alc. in 24 hrs. I then refeed it and will get a solid 12+% in 36 hours.
All brown sugar will be lighter but still more flavor than Bacardi. Keep adding back dunder and it will get stronger. I recommend staying with the brown sugar rather than white sugar, but that is just my taste.