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I posted a thread a few months back about some dark glazing honey mix that I have.

I was intending to just use it as a source of sugar for making neutral, and I've now successfully run several stripped gallons of it through my CCVM and made nice clean neutral.

So in that thread lots of guys suggested I try making a rum style drink with it.
I've got another 5 gallons stripped, and I want to pot still it to make a white rum that can be drunk young, then also age some when I have what is needed.

I'll run it through my small gin still not the big pot, as I don't want to make huge volumes.

The strip tastes pretty good, with an almost grain finish, like smooth oat/wheat. But it's a bit hot as it's smeared to hell and back.

I've never really paid much attention to making Rum as it's not something I generally go for, but should I be adding anything to the stripped wash to modify it before I spirit run it, if I'm aiming at a light white rum end goal?

I'm going to run some of the strip as is anyway, to see what I get, but would appreciate any steer from the regular rum guys here, on things I can/should do for rums.

I've read here about Dunder pits and growing all kinds of nasty stuff in them, but that scares me a bit!

There are many rum techniques, not all rely on dunder, muck, or other additives. I've really enjoyed the rums I've made either completely clean or with just dunder, but that was added to the ferment not the low wines.

I'd say just run the low wines you have through the pot and see what you get. Fraction out your spirit run and consider trying more than one blend. If you have some leftover dunder from your strips, save a bit and maybe try that next.

I have done some honey spirits with mixed luck. I find the flavors I like are near or in the heads so the resulting spirit remains hotter or headsier than I prefer. I haven't tried in a while though, so will be following along for any tips and might give it another go now that I have a bit more experience.

TwoSheds wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 4:59 am... Fraction out your spirit run and consider trying more than one blend…

+1. Great advice.

I’m far from a rum expert, but there are so many flavors in rums that it matters not only “what” you use to make it, but also “how” you make it. Still type, cuts, and blending, as well as rate of distillation all affect what you get into your collection jars.

And with honey as the fermentable material, it is much more delicate than heavy or blackstrap molasses. So, flavors will come through at different points in the spirit run and with different perceptions as well.

Collect into as many jars as you can so you can make a variety of blends. This will give you “the world’s knowledge” as you learn the blending technique. It is yet another “form of art” to this hobby.
ss

I use melter honey as the primary source for my small batch honey shine solera. I’ll save a feints cut to recycle into the next spirit run and also recycle some honey dunder into next ferment. I’ll too the ferment up with whatever jars of local honey look interesting but the melter honey is less expensive so that’s my primary source of sugars.

https://www.gardnerbees.buzz/product-pa ... lter-honey

I don’t make a ton but I do keep a four vessel solera going. Ferment a 15”ish gallon batch every so often using one of the mead tosna calcs online as a reference for nutrients. I think for a 15g ferment I use 2g melter, and 2-4 large jars of local Which I think are 4lbs each.

I find it has a nice richness and floral character that I enjoy both white and aged. I’ll usually keep some clean white from the middle and also make a cut for the solera. My small batch still is 10liters so the 15g ferment does one large strip for 5-6g low wines which along with feints leaves me with two+ small batch spirit runs each if which yields slightly over 1/2g of barrel strength after cuts and 1/2-3/4g feints cut so about 1g yield per ferment. I might save some ferment in a carboy next time for too up to stretch a single ferment into three 2.5g spirit runs if It can estimate the ratios correctly.

I’ve not made pure rum but I have done several rumski’s and for me the similarities end with honey and molasses both being a thick and sweet syrup. End result is a unique and exclusive spirit that’s essentially made from 100% flower pollen/nectar (bee vomit). Top of my shelf

If I were making mead i probably wouldn’t use dunder but i’ve got about 5g of honey dunder in a sealed jug that’s several generations deep. I could probably experiment with leaving some dunder exposed or infected as a contributing element. I don’t use a thumper but I can and do sometimes introduce some forced “detuned reflux” on the small batch still.

Cheers!
-j

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 6:00 am honey shine

That's a much better name for it, Rum isn't made from honey.

Thank you for your input gents.

I'll be running a small amount through my gin still, low and slow, one evening this week so I'll report on what I get.

If it's something I think is good enough to keep, I'll make a greater volume, keep some back for sipping white and get setup to age some on wood.

If not, through the column it goes!

I suggest that you run it into at at least 20 theoretical jars, (I combine the blatantly obvious hearts jars during the run), then take your time choosing a blend by adding to a prospective sample of the hearts from the jars at each end.

Sometimes the outer jars, that may taste nasty on their own, do contain flavors that are needed to capture the essence of what you are making.

Saltbush Bill wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:49 am

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 6:00 am honey shine

That's a much better name for it, Rum isn't made from honey.

I’ll third that .
It ain’t Rum . …. But it might be Yummy

NZChris wrote: ↑Mon Jul 10, 2023 12:24 am I suggest that you run it into at at least 20 theoretical jars, (I combine the blatantly obvious hearts jars during the run), then take your time choosing a blend by adding to a prospective sample of the hearts from the jars at each end.

Sometimes the outer jars, that may taste nasty on their own, do contain flavors that are needed to capture the essence of what you are making.

I'll do exactly that thanks Chris.
I have all the low wines in 1gal glass demijohn's so I'll choose 2 that I know represent both the start and end of a strip, mix them and run 2L through my little pot in really small cut jars as you suggest.

Yummyrum wrote: ↑Mon Jul 10, 2023 3:43 am

Saltbush Bill wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 8:49 am

jonnys_spirit wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2023 6:00 am honey shine

That's a much better name for it, Rum isn't made from honey.

I’ll third that .
It ain’t Rum . …. But it might be Yummy

Haha nicely done!

Well, I decided to run a gallon and see what good stuff comes!

Ran another 4l of the stripped honey glaze today, to try improving on what I made with the last gallon, which was basically kind of bland and boring. I added raw honey to it which makes it more interesting but it's still not something I go looking for.

Heads are so strong smelling that I can't even think about adding them, even late heads going into hearts.
But as per last time, once heads are done, it just becomes a fairly bland, slight honey tasting nothing.
Tails get a bit more flavour, almost grain like but not, and don't add enough flavour to the hearts that they become something I'd choose to drink.

I will keep some of this and the previous spirit run back for the time when I might want to blend it with a real rum, but the majority of the remaining honey and what's already stripped is going to be refluxed now, at least I tried to make something interesting with it, but now it's just saving me money on sugar.

I tried a honey shine a few years ago after scoring a bucket from work. Did pot strip & spirit but from reading up on the "delicate flavor" of the honey I ran the spirit run a lil harder than I normally would to make it a little grungier. The new make was interesting but not particularly palatable. I avoided my usual airing out 24-36hrs and jumped right into blending before the aromas disappeared. It was more a best-guess scenario. Split the blend in 2. 4L on med toast no char oak after 6+mo at 55% was good enough to bottle for friends [ok maybe not close friends]. The vanilla prob took over some but complemented it well. 2L aged white in a jar [with a slab of wood just resting on top to breathe] after 3mo made a decent if not pleasant sipper on ice. I wouldn't say it tasted of honey specifically, but a familiar almost grainy breakfast cereal character. I think if I was ever to score like that again tho, I'd use it for a mega batch of mead instead.

IAmPistolPete wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2023 8:57 pm I tried a honey shine a few years ago after scoring a bucket from work. Did pot strip & spirit but from reading up on the "delicate flavor" of the honey I ran the spirit run a lil harder than I normally would to make it a little grungier. The new make was interesting but not particularly palatable. I avoided my usual airing out 24-36hrs and jumped right into blending before the aromas disappeared. It was more a best-guess scenario. Split the blend in 2. 4L on med toast no char oak after 6+mo at 55% was good enough to bottle for friends [ok maybe not close friends]. The vanilla prob took over some but complemented it well. 2L aged white in a jar [with a slab of wood just resting on top to breathe] after 3mo made a decent if not pleasant sipper on ice. I wouldn't say it tasted of honey specifically, but a familiar almost grainy breakfast cereal character. I think if I was ever to score like that again tho, I'd use it for a mega batch of mead instead.

Thanks for sharing your own experience Pete, seems like a similar outcome.

Very interesting to note that you also got a "Sort of" grain character too.

It was more prevalent in the tails for me, but it's almost like the smell of a pack of corn flakes or rice puffs, that have been left open and gone soft?

Not sure what y’all are doing but my honey shine solera is probably kicking out 18mo likker that has spent time on toasted peach, plum, used oak, and fresh charred used oak. Just tested a dram a few nights ago and it has no grain flavor - it does have a nice mildly sweet floral tone that I’m guessing is from the flowers the honey was made from. Time on the wood has allowed this spirit to blossom and bloom. I try to let it be what it is and not get in the way

Cheers,
j

I'm sure it's similar to mead in that the type of honey makes a big difference in the final product too. Mine was from a food distributor and I'm guessing was probably a generic clover honey. Quality honey around me is stupid expensive nowadays even thru the beekeeper clubs.

I use a mix of whatever local bee vomit is at the mom and pop plus ordering the melter for the bulk which is most likely fairly generic... Definitely not one particular brand or sourced from any particular field but probably mostly wildflower sourced. Orange blossom special may be something I try to source for the next few batches to see how that might affect the product..

Cheers,
jonny

Well, the stuff I have is only 70% honey in any case, and that would just be whatever generic cheap honey they could source at the time.

It's really no loss to me as I said, I didn't pay for it and I've only done 2 small spirit runs, so everything I've made from that stuff will just go through the column now and become gin stock.

Win-win!