Why use panela/raw sugar for making rum?
The first reason is taste: panela usually makes a “lighter” rum. Not meaning here less flavorful, but with more subtle flavors. Compared to a full molasses rum, my panela rum tends to be more floral and fruity. Because the taste of the panela alone is less strong, it gives you the opportunity to make shine the other ingredients such as the flavors produced by your yeast, or the wood used for aging your rum. This allows you to make more variation in taste between the rums you are making. More on that later.
Second reason is cost: where I’m from, molasses is not particularly cheap. A 30L wash can cost me between 50 and 100 euros (depending if I’m using blackstrap or grade A molasses). In comparison panela cost me about 25 euros for the same volume.
Third reason: it’s really simple to make and is also ready to drink quickly. Contrary to a molasses rum who sometimes need more than a year of aging before being drinkable, my panela rum is quite a honest sipper after only 1 month of aging. So, you can do more experiment and fine tune your perfect recipe without having to wait a huge amount of time.
What is panela?
Depending of the origin of your product and your country, panela can have many names: raw sugar, Rapadura, Piloncillo, Panocha… All are basically the same thing, sugar cane juice cooked to evaporate the water. It’s 100% pure sugar cane juice and unrefined (so we are making a rum, not a sugar wash). Panela is not “brown sugar”, which is usually white sugar with molasses added back for coloring and flavor.
Theres is different types of panela, from very dark to light. Both are good for this recipe, it depends on your personal preferences. The darker the panela, the stronger the flavors of caramel and molasses.
Panela is sold either in solid form or as a powder. Both are the same. I usually use the powdered form because you don’t have to struggle to break it down to dissolve into your wash.
Recipe for a 21L (5.5 gallons) wash
- 5kg (11lbs) of panela
- Yeast (see below)
- Nutrient (pick your favorite)
- Water up to 21L of total wash
Optional:
- Dunder: Up to 2L (0.5 gallon) or 10% of the total wash (see below)
- Feints (heads and tails) from previous runs
Wash and Fermentation:
Pour your panela and warm water together and mix until all the panela is dissolved. Then add the nutrients and the yeast, following the instructions of the brand you choosed.
Use a good yeast with a flavor profile you like. Because this rum is lighter than a traditional molasses rum, you will taste the effect of your yeast, so please don’t use bakers’ yeast. I personally love the kveik yeast, but they are a bit expensive (but worth it in my experience). I can especially recommend the Hornindal strain. Otherwise, pick a yeast with a flavor you like and respect the pitching instructions and the recommended temperature range.
Add your preferred nutrient (Fermaid O for example) and respect the instructions of the brand. Alternatively, you can use Epsom salt and Vitamin B (see SBB recipe for more information: viewtopic.php?t=71293).
The dunder is totally optional and I usually don’t use it, because it brings the recipe closer of a traditional molasses rum which is not what I’m looking for. I don’t recommend going over 10% of dunder. I had some wash failing completely because of that.
The starting gravity of your wash should be around 1.080 and 1.090 (approximately, don’t focus to much on that). Lighter panela tends to ferment dry (1.000 or below) and darker panela finishes a little bit higher (1.015 for the one I use).
Distillation:
Nothing special here. I do stripping runs as hot and fast as possible, obtaining approximately 7-8L of low wines around 30% ABV. I stopped the stripping run at 5% ABV on the hydrometer.
- Optional: add the tails of previous distillations to your wash before the stripping runs
Then I do a spirit run as slowly as possible. I usually end up with 2L of hearts at 70-74% ABV
- Optional: add the heads (not the foreshots!) of your previous distillations to the low wines, before the spirit run
Cuts:
Discard à generous amount of foreshots (200ml for 21L wash is what I’m aiming for).
Obviously keep the hearts. For me on my still, they start at roughly at 80% ABV, and ends around 65% ABV. But it can widely change between different wash, so taste it.
Don’t discard automatically the heads. Some yeast generates really interesting esters in the heads that can add a great amount of flavors to your rum. Especially the early heads. So, taste the heads and you can add part of it to the hearts. Don’t add all of it !
In any case, you can either discard the feints you are not using, or keep the heads and tails separate to add to your next run.
Proofing and aging:
Even at 70% ABV, with a little bit of aging, this is a really smooth rum. So proofing down is not mandatory at all. If you proof it down, do it slowly (don’t add water at more than 5% of the total volume each day). If you add water too quickly, you could destroys the esters created by your yeast, so take your time.
For aging, you do you. As explained before, this rum is a great canvas to experiment with different types of woods. The traditional American oak works wonderfully in any configuration (light, medium, dark toast, with or without charring), but also the French oak or some unusual woods such as maple. In any case, this should be easy to drink in about a month. The longer you aged it, the better obviously, but you will be able to taste your experiment quickly.
English is not my main language so don't hesitate to correct any errors you can find, or ask me to explain unclear instructions. Looking for your feedbacks and ways to improve this recipe in the future,
Dalein
The first reason is taste: panela usually makes a “lighter” rum. Not meaning here less flavorful, but with more subtle flavors. Compared to a full molasses rum, my panela rum tends to be more floral and fruity. Because the taste of the panela alone is less strong, it gives you the opportunity to make shine the other ingredients such as the flavors produced by your yeast, or the wood used for aging your rum. This allows you to make more variation in taste between the rums you are making. More on that later.
Second reason is cost: where I’m from, molasses is not particularly cheap. A 30L wash can cost me between 50 and 100 euros (depending if I’m using blackstrap or grade A molasses). In comparison panela cost me about 25 euros for the same volume.
Third reason: it’s really simple to make and is also ready to drink quickly. Contrary to a molasses rum who sometimes need more than a year of aging before being drinkable, my panela rum is quite a honest sipper after only 1 month of aging. So, you can do more experiment and fine tune your perfect recipe without having to wait a huge amount of time.
What is panela?
Depending of the origin of your product and your country, panela can have many names: raw sugar, Rapadura, Piloncillo, Panocha… All are basically the same thing, sugar cane juice cooked to evaporate the water. It’s 100% pure sugar cane juice and unrefined (so we are making a rum, not a sugar wash). Panela is not “brown sugar”, which is usually white sugar with molasses added back for coloring and flavor.
Theres is different types of panela, from very dark to light. Both are good for this recipe, it depends on your personal preferences. The darker the panela, the stronger the flavors of caramel and molasses.
Panela is sold either in solid form or as a powder. Both are the same. I usually use the powdered form because you don’t have to struggle to break it down to dissolve into your wash.
Recipe for a 21L (5.5 gallons) wash
- 5kg (11lbs) of panela
- Yeast (see below)
- Nutrient (pick your favorite)
- Water up to 21L of total wash
Optional:
- Dunder: Up to 2L (0.5 gallon) or 10% of the total wash (see below)
- Feints (heads and tails) from previous runs
Wash and Fermentation:
Pour your panela and warm water together and mix until all the panela is dissolved. Then add the nutrients and the yeast, following the instructions of the brand you choosed.
Use a good yeast with a flavor profile you like. Because this rum is lighter than a traditional molasses rum, you will taste the effect of your yeast, so please don’t use bakers’ yeast. I personally love the kveik yeast, but they are a bit expensive (but worth it in my experience). I can especially recommend the Hornindal strain. Otherwise, pick a yeast with a flavor you like and respect the pitching instructions and the recommended temperature range.
Add your preferred nutrient (Fermaid O for example) and respect the instructions of the brand. Alternatively, you can use Epsom salt and Vitamin B (see SBB recipe for more information: viewtopic.php?t=71293).
The dunder is totally optional and I usually don’t use it, because it brings the recipe closer of a traditional molasses rum which is not what I’m looking for. I don’t recommend going over 10% of dunder. I had some wash failing completely because of that.
The starting gravity of your wash should be around 1.080 and 1.090 (approximately, don’t focus to much on that). Lighter panela tends to ferment dry (1.000 or below) and darker panela finishes a little bit higher (1.015 for the one I use).
Distillation:
Nothing special here. I do stripping runs as hot and fast as possible, obtaining approximately 7-8L of low wines around 30% ABV. I stopped the stripping run at 5% ABV on the hydrometer.
- Optional: add the tails of previous distillations to your wash before the stripping runs
Then I do a spirit run as slowly as possible. I usually end up with 2L of hearts at 70-74% ABV
- Optional: add the heads (not the foreshots!) of your previous distillations to the low wines, before the spirit run
Cuts:
Discard à generous amount of foreshots (200ml for 21L wash is what I’m aiming for).
Obviously keep the hearts. For me on my still, they start at roughly at 80% ABV, and ends around 65% ABV. But it can widely change between different wash, so taste it.
Don’t discard automatically the heads. Some yeast generates really interesting esters in the heads that can add a great amount of flavors to your rum. Especially the early heads. So, taste the heads and you can add part of it to the hearts. Don’t add all of it !
In any case, you can either discard the feints you are not using, or keep the heads and tails separate to add to your next run.
Proofing and aging:
Even at 70% ABV, with a little bit of aging, this is a really smooth rum. So proofing down is not mandatory at all. If you proof it down, do it slowly (don’t add water at more than 5% of the total volume each day). If you add water too quickly, you could destroys the esters created by your yeast, so take your time.
For aging, you do you. As explained before, this rum is a great canvas to experiment with different types of woods. The traditional American oak works wonderfully in any configuration (light, medium, dark toast, with or without charring), but also the French oak or some unusual woods such as maple. In any case, this should be easy to drink in about a month. The longer you aged it, the better obviously, but you will be able to taste your experiment quickly.
English is not my main language so don't hesitate to correct any errors you can find, or ask me to explain unclear instructions. Looking for your feedbacks and ways to improve this recipe in the future,
Dalein
